Nintendo is incredibly protective of its intellectual property, but in 2015, the company surprised us by giving gamers the ability to create and share their own 2D courses in Super Mario Maker. Four years later, a sequel for Switch introduced all-new features, assets, and themes, but Super Mario Maker 2 courses were still stuck in two dimensions. We’re unsure if Super Mario Maker 3 will ever see the light of day, but in the meantime, a brilliant new mod for Super Mario 64 allows players to build, play, and share their own 3D levels.
Mario Builder 64 is a mod from developers Arthurtilly and Rovertronic that gives players access to all the tools they will need to build their own Super Mario 64 levels. The mod features objects, enemies, platforms, power-ups, and more from the original game.
As you can see in the video below, the level editor within looks genuinely intuitive, especially for a Nintendo 64 game. You can change the theme of a level for a fresh look, edit the skybox and the music, and share your levels online for others to download.
The developers have released Mario Builder 64 on Romhacking.com and GameBanana, but it’s not as simple as downloading and playing. Start off by reading the setup guide right here. You’ll need an emulator or a flash cart, a Super Mario 64 ROM, and the Mario Builder 64 BPS file to get it up and running. It’s not too complicated, but it does require a few steps.
That said, it’s totally worth the hassle. There are a number of inventive, worthwhile Super Mario 64 mods out there, but this is one of the most impressive to date. Even if you don’t want to build your own, you can already find dozens of Mario Builder 64 levels to play on Level Share Square. There are even difficulty ratings and user scores on the site, so you can find all of the best user-generated levels without having to try them all yourself first.
Now we just have to hope Nintendo doesn’t find a reason to take it down.
