My heart broke after reading a letter from a seven year old fan named Daniel, who was hoping I’d play his Mario Maker stage. The problem? He feared Nintendo would delete it before I had a chance to check it out.
I play new Mario Maker stages every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Twitch and YouTube. My selection is typically random, but if people send a drawing with a code to a certain P.O. box, I’ll make sure to play theirs.
Here’s the letter I received from Daniel and his father:
“My 7-year-old son Daniel and I are huge fans of Mario Maker Mornings. Attached is a picture from Daniel along with a code from his first created level. He would be thrilled if you’d take a shot at it, hopefully before Nintendo decides to delete it (we just had three of his other levels wiped out today). I had no hand in this, so please blame him for any frustrations!!! Thanks again for taking the time to play his level.”
User-created stages disappear from Mario Maker all the time, though it’s never been clear why. The notoriously quiet Nintendo has given loose explanations why it feels the need to delete levels created by the community, but at this point, it’s unlikely they’ll ever really own up to it.
Nintendo says “low popularity” levels are pruned from the online servers, in addition to stages with inappropriate content or exploits. If a level is removed from the servers, however, there’s no way for other people to play it, unless they’re sitting in front of that Wii U. It’s not a good system.
Daniel’s fear is well-founded. I’ve had people reach out in the past, hoping I would play their levels on my show specifically because it might save it from being deleted. If it’s featured on my show, other people might play it, which means it could avoid Nintendo’s sweep.
Fortunately, I was able to load up Daniel’s stage, Piranhas On The Loose.
There’s no guarantee it’ll save his level, of course, but at least there’s video proof it exists. I’d happily play another one of your levels, Daniel!
Oh, and here’s the drawing Daniel sent along.
Not bad.