My Wii U’s been on for over 24 hours, and that won’t change anytime soon. While probably bad for my Wii U (and electricity bill), I have a good reason: I’m in the middle of a hard Super Mario Maker stage, don’t want to lose any progress, and the game doesn’t save checkpoints.


When Nintendo gave checkpoints to Super Mario Maker in October, it was a welcomed addition for level creation, letting designers string absurd challenges together without players having to pull off every single one with a single life. Thing is, the game doesn’t remember your checkpoint progress. If you leave a level, you have to play it all over again. For most stages, this is no big deal, but for stages where you’d be happy to never play a certain section again, it sucks.

Doubleheader—E41C-0000-0117-BA72—is one of those stages. This level monstrosity was created by my former boss, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann, and I’ve spent the last few mornings making my way through its gauntlet.


The first few areas aren’t so bad, requiring more head scratching than finger dexterity, and I appreciated feeling clever when I figured out this Yoshi trick.

These moments, stretching and twisting Mario mechanics, make me smile.

This, however, does not.


Yes, that’s a bridge of chain chomps to be navigated via several spin jumps. It gets worse, too, with a conveyer belt on the other side, forcing the player to pull off a very tricky jump. Mario must oh-to-briefly hang in the air, before gaining a little momentum and falling on the other side. Typing that out made me upset.


Still pretty impressed with myself for pulling that off! Nice job, Patrick.

There are a few challenges ahead, but it’s mostly a clear path to the checkpoint from here. When I reached the checkpoint, I couldn’t help myself from cheering.


When my stream was over, however, there was a moment of panic; I didn’t want to navigate those chomps again! Huh. I decided to keep the Wii U running all day and all night, simply because I wanted to pick up where I’d left off.


There was another problem, though, and a very Nintendo one. The Wii U, by default, turns off after an hour. This is reasonable; if you forget to turn off the machine, Nintendo will turn it off for you. But it’s impossible to change those settings without exiting Super Mario Maker entirely. No more checkpoint! I couldn’t remember if I’d changed those settings. Would I get lucky? I left the Wii U running, turned off the GamePad’s display to avoid burn-in, and waited.

Hours later, I found this:


The Wii U was still running! Success!

It’s still bullshit, though. Why can’t Super Mario Maker remember my progress?!

But my “trick” worked, allowing me to move forward in Doubleheader and inch towards the goal line. Right now, I’m dealing with this set of nonsense:


You’re looking at that section correctly, by the way. Players have to toss a P switch from a specific location and use it as a stepping stone to enter the door.

Even when you do that, this pile of garbage is waiting for you:


And since I wasn’t able to finish the level—though I suspect I’m close—my Wii U remains powered on...again. I’m hoping to turn the poor device off tonight.

Why do I keep doing this to myself? I’m not sure. There are no good answers, but if you’d like to watch me keep banging my head against this level, have at it.


P.S. Please add checkpoint saving to Super Mario Maker, Nintendo.