Etymology

kaizo

K5A1I1Z10O1

Today it means: A philosophy of game design distinguished by very high difficulty levels and hidden traps that can only be solved by repeated deaths and trial and error, especially associated with romhacks of Super Mario games. Full definition →

Japanese 改造
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The story

  1. Japanese · borrowed from改造“revamp, remodel, modify”
  2. English todaykaizo

From Kaizo Mario World, the name of an early set of fan-created levels in this style first released in 2007, where kaizo is from Japanese 改造 (kaizō, “revamp, remodel, modify”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.