Picture spending years building a Super Mario Maker 2 level, fine-tuning every jump, every enemy placement, every hidden secret. Then one day it's just gone. No warning, no appeal, and no way to get it back.
That's the situation hundreds of players are facing right now, and the community thinks it knows exactly who's responsible.
How over 1,000 levels disappeared in days
Nintendo has been pulling Super Mario Maker 2 levels from its servers over the past week, citing "advertising content" as the reason for removal. When Japanese outlet Automaton first reported on the deletions, the count sat around 300. Within days, the community estimates that number has climbed past 1,000.
The levels being targeted share a specific trait: they contain hashtags referencing "TeamShell" or variations like "#TS" in their descriptions. Team Shell is a well-known Super Mario Maker Discord server where members share custom level codes. Tagging a level with the server name is purely a community tradition, with no financial motive attached. Nintendo, apparently, sees it differently and has been flagging the tags as advertising.
Some of the deleted levels were uploaded over seven years ago. Super Mario Maker 2 itself hasn't received a content update since February 2024, which makes the sudden enforcement sweep all the more baffling to the community.
The cheater connection
Here's the thing: the timing of these removals didn't feel random to players, and they started digging.
A user named LMT posted in a Super Mario Maker Discord server earlier this week claiming credit for reporting the levels. The YouTube account linked to LMT's Discord profile connects to someone known as MT94, a player who was once ranked second in the world on Super Mario Maker's leaderboards.
The ranking was fake. MT94 had used three separate Nintendo Switch consoles to repeatedly challenge their own accounts in co-op battles, artificially inflating their position. Once the community exposed the scheme and reported it, Nintendo banned MT94's accounts.
LMT's Discord post states they have "5 Switches reporting shxt," which lines up directly with MT94's known multi-console method. The implication is that a banned cheater, apparently still sitting on a pile of Switch consoles, decided to weaponize Nintendo's reporting system against the community that got them banned.
danger
Deleted Super Mario Maker 2 levels cannot be reuploaded once banned, even if the description is changed. For affected creators, those levels are permanently gone.
Accounts suspended, not just levels
The damage goes beyond lost levels. Players are reporting that their Nintendo Switch accounts are being suspended as well. Nintendo's system appears to automatically suspend accounts once they accumulate a certain number of reports, meaning the mass-reporting campaign is catching innocent creators in the crossfire.
Content creator and kaizo ROM hack designer PangaeaPanga documented the deletion pattern in a YouTube video, helping the community connect the dots between the TeamShell hashtags and Nintendo's enforcement action. Their breakdown confirmed what many had already suspected: Nintendo's automated moderation flagged the tags and started pulling levels at scale, with no apparent human review.
What happens next for the community
Whether Nintendo will reverse the suspensions remains an open question. The deleted levels, though, appear to be gone for good under the current system. The Super Mario Maker community has built something remarkable over the years despite the game's online services for the original Wii U version shutting down in April 2024, and losing over a thousand levels to what amounts to a revenge campaign from a banned cheater is a real blow.
If this situation gets enough attention, Nintendo may revisit its automated reporting thresholds. For now, affected creators and the broader community are watching to see if Nintendo responds. Keep an eye on the latest gaming news for any official statement from Nintendo on the suspensions and whether any restoration process is planned.
