The Spirit of Super Mario Galaxy
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We did it fam. The Spirit of Super Mario Galaxy is out.
Pushing a video live is never less nerve-racking, no matter how many times you do it. I've been uploading to YouTube for nearly 18 years now.1 🫠
Look at my Things project for this essay, I only have two tasks left—one is to my a YouTube post about the essay on my old/main channel.2 The other is to write the regularly scheduled Behind the Scenes article. I start that process tomorrow.
Since finishing the essay last week, I have reclaimed my time spent on the essay with going back to Tears of the Kingdom. I sort of just stopped playing after my essay about how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's Best Mechanic. I think it was a mix of hyperfocusing on the game through that essay and just taking a breather that lasted 6-7 months. You know how it goes.
After some brief controller reacclimation and I am back in the swing of exploring Hyrule and getting distracted and delighted every step of the way. There is a special sauce to that game and its systems. I am looking forward to diving deeper.
My gears are already turning on my next essay, which I sort of teased a few letters ago. I wanna talk about credits sequences, the fourth wall, and games that break said wall. I already have a list of examples and ideas to capture. That process will pick up, I think, after the BtS post is out in the world.
And this newsletter will continue on! The whole idea behind Memory Card was to capture my creative process to making there essays. That doesn't stop with The Spirit of Super Mario Galaxy. We march on, hopefully getting better along the way.
Until next time...
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And YouTube just turned 20-years-old. 🫠🫠🫠 ↩
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Still figuring out how to refer to that one. ↩
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at max@maxfrequency.net.
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency. cultivate and curate curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made.
It's all powered by Max Frequency and patrons.
Wanna see The Thing™? Check it out on YouTube. Read it on The Blog.