I want to tell you a story about Super Mario Maker. It’s going to ramble, it’s going to be slightly roundabout, but it’s the only way to convey just what this game means to me.
In 2018, I had a minor mental breakdown. Stress from moving, from planning a wedding, from a family medical emergency, from realizing I was queer. It was a lot to deal with all at once, and readers, I did not deal with it well.
I was watching Extra Credits, one of my favorite game design youtube channels, and they reference off-hand something being done by the Game Grumps. I’d never heard of these people. I looked them up, found a video of them playing Sonic Adventure, and dove in. I ended up watching them for hours, and laughed harder than I had in months. And no series brought me more joy than Mario Maker.
It’s the Sunshine Bird! In Mario 3! I mean come on!
Arin and Dan embody so many of the great videogame emotions. The screams of rage, the childlike laughter, the tired resolution as they restart the level yet again, and the triumph at finally conquering a level that’s defeated them seventy-four times. And boy, are there a lot of those occasions.
The genius of Mario Maker is that it takes something as quintessentially fun and recognizable as Mario and lets it loose on the public with something for every kind of player imaginable. It’s got courses for casual players and speedrunners and puzzle solvers. It’s got boss rush levels and music levels. Mario Maker has a stupefying amount of content for any level of Mario player and you can always find something fun on it.
Umm…yes…fun…
So here I was, going through one of the roughest stretches of my life, unable to shake the weary feeling of being beaten down by one thing after another. Depression sucks. And not having a coping mechanism for it makes it even harder. But here were a bunch of really sincere, really funny YouTubers, bashing their heads against freakishly difficult Mario levels, and I could laugh again.
I needed my own copy of the game.
Problem was, I didn’t own a Wii U. Luckily, my friends got just as hooked as I had become watching Arin and Dan slowly lose their minds over a series of Mario levels designed by their terrible friends.
We got together, loaded the same levels we had seen so many times, and bashed our heads against them. Again. And again.
When Mario Maker 2 was released for the Nintendo Switch, I pre-ordered a copy. I made my first levels. My friends and I played them and a hundred others. And when the Game Grumps started playing the sequel as well, we tuned in for every new episode to share in their laughter and frustration all over again.
There are a lot of games I love and replay. But when I’m down, or I don’t have time, or I don’t feel like investing in a story, or I just need distraction while I listen to a podcast, Mario Maker is my go-to game. No matter the mood I can always fall into a new level or seven of them. And a few have even stuck with me. Let me tell you about them. (I will be cheating and also giving some Mario Maker 2 codes) As a small heads up, here’s a language warning for the videos. They get…emotional. Definitely NSFW wordage happening.
Things get bad for our heroes before the end.
Mario Maker 1
Easy : C9A9-0000-002C-E1C8
Game Grumps Episode 2: Piece of Cake
Easy is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to this level. Most of Ross O’Donovan’s levels are trollish and difficult and cause great amounts of anxiety and stress. Which…was weirdly perfect for me? Stress in real life seems huge and terrible and makes you feel useless. Stress in Mario? That just means I have to try the level again and work harder to beat it. Mario gives you agency. And you will absolutely throw your hands up in exhaustion at this level, followed by throwing them up in victory when you conquer Ross and his stupid but excellent levels.
They play bunches of levels designed by Ross, and each one is just a little more sadistic than the last. My friends and I have played through most of them, and can’t beat more than a handful. It’s not something I’m always ready to subject myself to, but watching the Grumps play? It’s always fun to do.
Bowser never would have approved this.
Mario Maker 1
Bowser’s Construction Issues: 9F8B-0000-0027-04FB
Game Grumps Episode 15: Mariomentum
This one is proof that levels don’t have to be elegant to be fun. Bowser’s Construction Issues starts with some giant spinning fire swords, followed by three Bowser’s stacked atop one another, a thwomp, some spikes, and a family of Hammer Brothers. It’s a short level, and like Easy is kind of frustrating. But it’s clever and weird and the episode that accompanies it makes me laugh even though I’ve watched it more than a dozen times. Episodes I should say. It takes them three episodes to beat this level, and man is it fun.
This is actually way easier than it looks, and super duper fun.
Mario Maker 2
In the Den of Thwomps: C0Y-NY6-23G
This is not my first created level, but it’s the first one I’m really proud of. You traverse an anthill of thwomps in tight corners that requires some light puzzle solving, fast reflexes, and a bit of nerve. Probably a little bit of memorization too. It’s my warmup course when I need to get back into the swing of Mario, which probably comes from playing it a hundred and six times to refine it. I learned a lot from making my first three levels, and each was a little better than the last. What I didn’t intend was to make levels that all have a completion percentage under ten right now, and some under two. Oops.
The Mushroom Kingdom is freakishly volcanically active.
Mario Maker 2
Shelly Castle: S2G-BMQ-MGF
Have you met the wonderful Matt at Normal Happenings? I met him online contributing to a few of his collaborations. I’m not really sure how this next part happened, but we ended up in a bit of a world record brawl over this random course we had found. For three days we traded the record back and forth, eventually only besting each other by hundredths of a second. It was a RIDE, man. By the time we got to runs of the level under 13 seconds I’d be willing to be we’re close to pixel perfect, which is something I’ve never approached on any other level or game.
It’s sitting there should anyone want to come take it away.
So let me get back to the point of the story.
Videogames saved me.
When you play Mario 3, or Mario 64, or Mario Galaxy, there’s a wild variety of stages. Through it all it remains undeniably a MARIO game. Mario Maker gives players the tools to create something strange and new and weird and fun. Sure, there’s a lot of dross along the way. But every lackluster level is a learning experience. And eventually you learn to create something better.
That’s what videogames, and Mario helped me to do.
I get help now for my depression. I have a therapist. I’m on medication. But Mario Maker brought me back some normalcy during one of the worst times in my life when I couldn’t figure out what else to do. It let me laugh. It brought me closer to my friends. Mario Maker introduced me to the Game Grumps, which, while kind of stupid sounding in comparison, has given me something I can always turn to for a quick laugh on days when I desperately need one.
Never let anyone tell you that a game you love is “just a videogame.” For me, Mario Maker will always be something more.
Andrew Turnwall, aka The Ink-Stained Mage, can most often be found on twitter at the handle @AndrewTurnwall. He tweets about books and games and his dog and two cats. Occasionally, he writes microfictions about tiny monsters that do your dishes for you.
Wahoo! You are a Super Reader! But the adventure doesn’t stop here… There’s more of this project in another castle! This article is just one level in an entire Super Mario Multiverse, a galactic collaboration between writers around the world sharing a bit of our hearts and memories about our favorite Mario games. Visit the Center of the Multiverse to see more:
