Nintendo removes popular Mario Maker 2 level for no apparent reason

Nintendo has removed Kai-Zero G, a popular level for Mario Maker 2, for no apparent reason. It is not the first time that the company has taken creations offline. Developers get frustrated and question the rules Nintendo applies.

David Hunt, the developer of the Mario Maker 2 level in question and also a well-known Mario speedrunner, is puzzled as to why Nintendo removed his creation ‘Pile of Poo: Kai-Zero G’ from the server. Since the allegedly grueling level was uploaded on July 5, it has received over 1,200 hearts from over 10,500 players; enough to advance to the first page of the Super Expert levels in the game.

For Hunt, aka GrandPOObear, it is also not the first time that Nintendo has taken its work offline. The same thing happened to him three years ago, back then for several levels he had developed for Super Mario Maker. Even then, he said he was not told a clear reason from Nintendo.

Nintendo’s rules of conduct for building Mario Maker 2 levels lists several reasons why a level may be deleted. For example, the levels may not abuse bugs and contain inappropriate content or advertisements. Hunt is said to have been guilty of ‘inappropriate and/or harmful content’, but is not aware of any harm. According to Ars Technica, Nintendo may be falling over the word “Poo” in the title of the game, which can be translated as “poo.” Hunt argues, however, that this is simply a reference to the eponymous character from Nintendo’s own game EarthBound. In addition, all of his Mario Maker 1 levels that also include the name Poo are still online after several years, Hunt said in a statement. a tweet.

Just hours before the removal of ‘Pile of Poo: Kai-Zero G’, Nintendo had already taken another level offline, Storm Area 51 from creator zach2thefuture. He too was only told that his creation contained “inappropriate or harmful content” and was referred by the company to Nintendo’s Code of Conduct. David Hunt suspects he has fallen victim to players who abuse Nintendo’s reporting system for fun. “Being a well-known streamer, I probably get quite a few unjustified complaints about my levels,” Hunt tells Ars Technica. It is unclear to what extent these types of complaints are handled automatically or by humans; meanwhile, there are millions of levels to check.

According to Hunt, Nintendo should never just remove someone’s work without stating a clear reason, unless it is obvious that the code of conduct is being broken. “If they just told me what exactly is wrong with Kai-Zero G, I’d be happy to come up with a solution,” he concludes.

The level Kai-Zero G removed by Nintendo, explained by developer GrandPOObear himself