Super Mario is a franchise with decades of history. With numerous games under its belt, it’s difficult to point out a single game as the most beloved. What is undeniable is that few have caused as much sensation as Super Mario Maker. A game that allows us to create our own levels of the franchise and that, due to its attention to detail and care, has allowed us to recreate all the fantasies of the 2D Mario games that we can imagine.
That’s why, among Nintendo fans, there has always been a desire for them to do this with other franchises. In particular, with The Legend of Zelda. But if there’s one thing they have recently made clear, it’s that The Legend of Zelda Maker is not something that is on the table for the developers of the franchise.
In an interview with Polygon, journalist Mike Mahardy asked Eiji Aonuma, producer of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, about the possibility of a game in the franchise similar to Super Mario Maker. Unfortunately, his response left little room for hope in that regard. “When we create games like Tears of the Kingdom, I think it’s important that we don’t make creativity a requirement.” He also added, “I don’t think it fits well with The Legend of Zelda for people to necessarily require building things from scratch and forcing them to be creative.”
Although their arguments are reasonable, reality says otherwise. In the Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, they introduced Dampé’s Shack, a place where we could design our own dungeons and then share them with other people through the franchise’s amiibos.
Despite everything, in the end it’s a decision of Nintendo. If they don’t see it feasible to make a Zelda Maker, it’s difficult for us to see it in the future. That doesn’t mean that other developers haven’t seen the opportunity and the possibilities that it opens up, creating games as remarkable as Super Dungeon Maker. Essentially a dungeon creation game in the style of Zelda. So, if Nintendo doesn’t want to do it, at least the community can work on similar projects to fill that gap they don’t want to fill.
