A popular speedrunner who’s had his Super Mario Maker levels deleted before has once again had a run in with Nintendo. David “GrandPOOBear” Hunt has reported that the company deleted one of his Super Mario Maker 2 levels without explanation.
Nintendo has targeted Hunt’s levels for deletion before. Back in 2016, the company deleted every single level he had made for the original Super Mario Maker. This time however, Nintendo has only deleted one single level.
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Hunt announced that the level had been deleted on a Twitter thread. At first glance, it seems that the levels name – “A Pile of Poo: Kai-Zero G” – caused Nintendo to delete it. Nintendo did send Hunt a message that it was deleted for “inappropriate and/or harmful” content. However, Hunt stated that Nintendo has told him previously that his use of the word Poo isn’t the cause for his levels being deleted.
Nintendo just deleted my Kai-Zero G course, one of the most played Super Expert courses in Mario Maker 2. It contained no inappropriate words, pictures ect. It contained no glitches.
I am at a loss for words and extremely sad about this. I feel Nintendo just doesn’t want me 1/?
— GrandPOObear (@GrandPOOBear) July 16, 2019
The name Poo itself actually comes from a character in Earthbound after all. However, the way it was used in this specific level’s title may have caused it to be flagged.
The level itself belongs to a tradition known as “kaizo.” These levels first originated from ROM hacks of the original Mario games, and feature extreme difficulty, often by ignoring the rules for official Mario levels. Kaizo levels have since become a staple of the Super Mario Maker community.
Hunts particular level took advantage of Super Mario Maker 2’s new low gravity setting. It forced players to adapt to this while also throwing them a gauntlet of precise jumps and platforming challenges. The level became quite popular when Hunt released it, and videos of other players playing it garnered significant views.
The level’s popularity may have caused it to be targeted by other players. A person on Twitter suggested that some other folks may have reported it to get it deleted.
However, with what’s happened to him in the past, Hunt seems to find it hard to shake the feeling that Nintendo may be singling him out. He recently sent an appeal to Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, asking that they stop deleting his levels. However, Bowser, or any Nintendo representative for that matter, has yet to reply. The company has historically remained silent on matters such as this in the past, and it’ll likely continue to remain silent here.
