Like all animals, hamsters need a bit of environmental enrichment to keep their minds happy and healthy. But some hamsters get a lot of enrichment, like Marshmallow, a cute little rodent that regularly navigates real-life Super Mario courses.
Marshmallow is the star of The Secret Life of My Hamster, a YouTube channel with nearly five million subscribers. Her job is simple—escape from an incredibly detailed maze to win some sweet treats. And yeah, I’d say that Marshmallow could make a career of this.
In a video titled Super Mario Hamster Bros, Marshmallow crawls her way through a hand-made Mario maze, avoiding goombas along the way. She even crawls through some pipes, although she tends to climb over walls instead of jumping over them.
At the end of the video, Marshmallow defeats Bowser and earns a treat. I’ve never been awarded a treat for playing video games, but Marshmallow is a good hamster, and I think she deserves all the treats in the world.
Anyway, the courses featured in The Secret Life of My Hamster have only grown more elaborate since the channel debuted four years ago. In an updated Super Mario challenge, Marshmallow is forced to avoid dangerous enemies, wrecking balls, and falling spike ceilings! (These obstacles are made of paper and are clearly being controlled by humans, the hamster’s fine.)
Marshmallow the hamster has navigated several video game-inspired mazes, including one based on Minecraft. Check out The Secret Life of My Hamster on YouTube for more!
