Zelda Producer Explains Why A Mario Maker Style Game Probably Won’t Work

We’ve heard Nintendo dismiss the idea of a Mario Maker style Zelda game in the past and even though it’s been a while since the last update, it seems the Japanese video game company still isn’t keen on the idea.

Speaking to Polygon recently, series producer Eiji Aonuma explained how Nintendo doesn’t necessarily want to “force” players to be creative in Zelda, and notes how games like Tears of the Kingdom don’t make “creativity a requirement” but instead encourage players to be creative.

Here’s exactly what he had to say when asked “directly” about a Mario Maker-style game for Zelda:

Eiji Aonuma: “There are people who want the ability to create from scratch, but that’s not everyone. I think everyone delights in the discovery of finding your own way through a game, and that is something we tried to make sure was included in Tears of the Kingdom; there isn’t one right way to play. If you are a creative person, you have the ability to go down that path. But that’s not what you have to do; you’re also able to proceed through the game in many other different ways. And so I don’t think that it would be a good fit for The Legend of Zelda to necessarily require people to build things from scratch and force them to be creative.”

Back in 2015, Mario Maker producer Takashi Tezuka mentioned how a “Zelda Maker” game would be a “difficult task”.

Although there doesn’t appear to be a Zelda Maker game on the horizon, during the development of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Switch, Shigeru Miyamoto put in the request for “Mario Maker-like gameplay” and that’s how the Chamber Dungeon was added.

There has also been some indie efforts attempting to recreate the magic of Mario Maker in a Zelda-like setting. One that’s received quite a bit of attention is Super Dungeon Maker, which arrived earlier this year on the Switch.