Levels I Never Got to Build
Every weekend as a kid I’d sit in front of my Super Nintendo working through Super Mario World, and somewhere between the Forest of Illusion and the Valley of Bowser I’d start redesigning levels in my head. A ghost house packed entirely with red Yoshis. An underwater stage spiked with Koopas and missiles coming from every direction. A forest full of doors that all led to puzzle rooms built specifically to destroy my friends. I’d laugh to myself, certain that someday I’d actually build these things. Someday.
That someday turned out to be 2015, when Super Mario Maker arrived on the Wii U—and it was everything I’d been waiting for. Multiple visual styles, from the classic 8-bit to the lush look of Super Mario World, each letting you construct levels and release them into the wild. The internet immediately filled with elaborate torture chambers that existed purely to humiliate people. I cleared some of them. Not all of them.
Super Mario Maker 2 was just announced for Switch, due in June 2019, with enough new tools and features to make the whole enterprise feel fresh again. I don’t need much convincing. There’s something specific about building a Mario level that requires you to think like a designer—to understand rhythm, difficulty, the precise pleasure of a well-placed obstacle. You’re not just playing. You’re constructing a small argument about what playing should feel like.
My nostalgic, sincerely embarrassing heart is already on board. June cannot arrive fast enough.