Nintendo Removes Free Mario Content From Switch Following Cheating Scandal

Nintendo is allegedly removing a bunch of free Mario content from Nintendo Switch gamers.

As reported by multiple creators who have published levels in Super Mario Maker 2, it appears that Nintendo is removing some of these levels for allegedly containing “advertised content”.

The move has prompted some creators to speak out, accusing Nintendo of “killing Super Mario Maker 2” and “alienating its biggest fans” as a result.

In a video titled “Nintendo Is Deleting THOUSANDS Of Levels For No Good Reason” (via IGN), YouTuber PangaeaPanga stated, “I recently found out via email that I think one of my courses got deleted or removed. It didn't say which one though.”

PangaeaPanga shares the email they received from Nintendo, which states: “Content you shared either in a game or through an online service has been deleted or hidden from other players because it violates the Nintendo account user agreement, including the community guidelines.”

The reason given is then shown to be “advertising” but doesn’t go into further detail beyond that, leaving PangaeaPanga to only speculate on which level was removed by Nintendo, and also why it was removed for advertising.

Several reports from X (formerly Twitter) users like Silverplanes and Psycrow have shown that more levels have also been removed by Nintendo for the same reason.

Why Is Nintendo Banning A Load Of Custom Super Mario Maker 2 Levels?

But why has Nintendo suddenly decided to crack down on this? Especially since many of these levels are now almost a decade old. Well, the reason may be due to the actions of one person.

As PangaeaPanga points out in their video, it seems like Nintendo is actually removing levels which feature hashtags or some kind of variation on the name “TeamShell”, which is a Super Mario Maker Discord server.

It seems like the Discord has a rule that levels shared on there must be tagged with “#TS” or “#TeamShell” to qualify for being featured on the server, as it probably helps users to search for them.

Therefore, this would be seen as advertising the server in custom Super Mario Maker 2 levels, something which would violate Nintendo's terms of service.

However, some have theorised that a user by the name of MT94, who was at one point the second-highest-rated Super Mario Maker player in the world, is the one responsible.

According to users on the Discord (via Kotaku), MT94 allegedly cheated their way to the top ranking, achieving this status by using three separate Nintendo Switch consoles and accounts.

This allowed them to keep challenging their own accounts to co-op battles in the game, over and over again, permitting them to continuously climb the ranks. MT94’s various accounts were banned following this revelation.

As a result, it seems MT94 was a little salty about this, and has decided to use their multiple Switch consoles to report these levels for “advertising”. To make matters worse, users are also allegedly being banned at an account level following these reports.

Nintendo has not commented further on these reports, but considering the revelations made here, it may only be a matter of time before it decides to walk back on some of the bans and suspensions which have plagued users for the past week.