I have found so many creators and youtubers and twitch-streamers that are putting out content just for me. For idiots like me who are drooling over the ability to make your own levels, to play level others have made, homages to old games of the past, new crazy stupid levels like Panga's Pit. Watch that video if you want to see the most dangerous and ridiculous level of Mario ever made.
I cannot wait to have this game. Really, I can't. I'm becoming increasingly annoying about it with my wife, which is really stupid of me, considering all the other things we have to buy and get ready for a big move to our first home in just over a month. But I cannot help it. Every single element of this game was made perfectly and specifically for me, and millions of other people are playing MY GAME before I get the chance. I am scouring the internet to absorb as much as I can on youtube and twitch. GameXplains, GhostRobo Jr, so many other guys that aren't good enough to mention by name, they all have me chomping at the "chain" as it were to own this game.
The joy I am getting from Super Mario Maker, just as a viewer and a dreamer, is out-shined by my love of Ptken. Who is Ptken? He is utter magic, and you need to watch him. You need to sit in your living room with this man from across the globe and enjoy his tirades and laugh and wonderfully off-key and ridiculous greetings. "HUH-llo!" Honestly, of all the guys that I have watched since needing to cram my head full of this game I just do not have the money to own, Ptken is the absolute best.
I have watched him spend 40 lives on one lives on one level, and loved every second. Yes, the level is crazy, but even better is Ptken's amazing commentary. "I can do it-uh!" *dies* "...maybe." I do not speak a lick of Mandarin, but I am promised that "[I] can speak English here." And Ptken knows just enough curse words and phrases to make watching amazing. As I watched, more and more people started to follow him, and he always answered with a wonderful "Sank you follow!" to every single one. Watching him finally overcome that amazing level was glorious. I didn't need to understand a lick of his language, and together we all enjoyed life and watched him succeed so he could finally stuff his face with food, as he was apparently starving himself until he beat that level.
Next is a level with a school theme, and a section has him listening to a made-in-game song. He shushes everyone around, and we all listen to this awful song that a wandering goomba plays. And once it finishes, there is a moment of silence, before a, "HUH?!?" And then he dies. And we have to do it again. It is so amazingly enjoyable. The level is utter insanity, and not because it is made by some Japanese fella and he is from Taiwan. It is just insane, and all Ptken can say is what I say, "HUH?!"
A later level has everyone pissed and confused for Ptken that are watching as he is beset by troll-ish trap after troll-ish trap. A helpful English speaker points that out to Ptken, who takes a moment and responds, in English, "I know ... but ... I finish it anyway." And he finds a way to succeed through one stupid trap, only to be stuck with another one. But he doesn't give up. Just a string of "this is $#!+" and he continues. And he does it. And it is glorious. I know it isn't anything any other streamer hasn't done, but something about Ptken makes it magical. I feel his pain. His genuine pain and genuine outrage. But then he succeeds, with a resounding "Fah Que!"
The amazing commentary continues in later levels. Throwing a shell into a chain chomp with a "hay-shotted!" had me cheering and laughing! His "fah queues" and "sank you, Follows" and "lemme try" and "here we go" and "okay, dis wah E-Z" and singing and mroe "fah queues" ... He isn't an amazing player by any means ... ok I lied, he is. That level I linked to above? He's one of the like ... people who has beaten it. Yeah. He spends his time and beats his levels and enjoys the game. He is an amazing streamer. And man. If I had to wager a guess.
Hours I am spending watching him play. It is the absolutely best. Great moments of joy. Great pits of despair. "Woo-hoo"-ing along with an Ashley skinned Mario in one level. Squatting and dicking around to the music as he waits for stupid bloopers to go away. Plenty of "Whuh duh HAIL?!"s and "Sank you, Follow!"s. Everyone in the chat, cheering him on and spamming "EZ!" when he beats a level, no matter how long it takes. We have to demoralize the level as a sacrifice to Ptken! And to a game that I cry at night because I do not own.
Yet.
