Minimum Mario

Minimum Mario refers to a group of Low% categories in which the goal is to complete certain objectives, such as beating the game, while collecting as few Power Moons as possible that are not obtained while within a capture. In this category, moons collected as captures are referred to as capture moons, and those collected while not in a capture, which the challenge aims to minimize, are referred to as Mario moons.

Explanation

More rigorously, whether a moon is a capture moon or a Mario moon is determined by whether Mario is within a capture the frame before the game's internal moon counter increments. This is not the same as the visual moon tick that appears after the moon collection animation; this occurs immediately at the onset of the moon animation. This metric is chosen so that story moons and Multi Moons contacted while in a capture are still regarded as capture moons despite forcing Mario out of the capture.

Categories

So far, Minimum Mario has two main categories: Minimum Mario Any%, which involves completing the game while minimizing Mario moons, and Minimum Mario Max Moons, which involves getting as many capture moons as possible on top of a Minimum Mario Any% run.