The Drama
If you’ve been following the music sector’s Macklemore–Ed Sheeran situation, you’ll be familiar with this game’s concept. If you haven’t been following the situation, however, let me regale you with the events that led up to where we are and why we’re here specifically.
To read into it, I highly recommend Forbes’ “The Macklemore And Ed Sheeran Situation Explained” article. Macklemore, as one of the opening acts for Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour, expressed his support for Palestine during his two sets in early September. In response, Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft let Ed Sheeran know that he did not want anti-Israeli rhetoric performed at his stadium and that other stadium owners agreed with him. Macklemore was subsequently dropped from the tour, but not before the rest of the opening acts (plus Ed’s own touring band) left in response to Ed Sheeran publicly proclaiming that his music was meant to be non-political.
The Creator
Enter Super Macklemore 64, a self-published browser game by Jonathan Mann. For those who don’t know Jonathan, Jonathan holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for Most Consecutive Days Writing a Song, which is his Song A Day project started in 2009. Many of his more popular songs from that project are satirical responses to political events and pop culture. Examples include ‘The Hillary [Clinton] Shimmy Song’ and ‘Baby Yoda’. He’s also written an opera about Super Mario.
How does this relate to games? In 2025, he coded his first game and became interested in making games the same way he did songs: finishing one in a day. His friends told him it wasn’t possible. In January of 2026, however, he started trying to make a game a day. He’d figured out a way to do this using AI through a development process called ‘vibe coding,’ which means using large language models (LLMs) to help him design games; he uses AI to make iterations of his games while tweaking them to “make them good enough.” By that he means altering the LLM’s “middle-of-the-road responses” to make it into something with an idea and a “feel like it was made by someone with point of view.”
The Game
The game itself is set in a satirical, pixelated 3D world map inspired by the map of Super Mario 64, the same title this game is referencing. The realistic yet vaguely medieval map contains a castle, trees, river, wooden bridges, huts, carts and a stone circle. The player controls Macklemore, who needs to run away from a gigantic Ed Sheeran and avoid being trampled by his stomping feet. All while jumping on small Robert Krafts (think of Mario jumping on Goombas) and collecting five pro-Palestine bands hiding around the map.
Once you’ve gathered your allies, you lure giant Ed Sheeran to the stone circle to begin ‘the Ritual,’ which is a chant of “Free, free Palestine” together with the bands. This outburst of political activity throws off the giant, literally taking him down, and lets you finish the game. The player’s score is calculated from the time it takes to complete the run, the number of Kraft figures jumped on, and the number of hits you took in return. You can find out how well you did compared to other players by seeing your placement on the high-score list.
What I enjoyed about this game was the satirical attitude it has towards an otherwise serious topic. Although I am not a fan of using AI in game design, its eclectic results somewhat work in the game’s favor because the game itself is a parody. Running around as a squished Macklemore was one of my favourite parts of the game. But arguably, the best thing about this game is that it was launched in the midst of events still ongoing. Jonathan Mann’s website allows players to leave comments on his games and the first comments on Super Macklemore 64 were posted on 17th September 2026, just two days after Ed’s public responses and the departure of his supporting acts from the tour.
That said, while the game takes a pro-Palestine stance, it doesn’t really have a call to action. There is a button in the menu that takes the player to a Gaza Soup Kitchen where you can make a donation, but it isn’t specifically promoted. Giving a tip to Jonathan himself, however, is. In addition, the references to the original game are slim and boil down to a medieval-adjacent setting with a castle, bridges, river, and some trees… which could be a reference to any number of games. The map layout also doesn’t correspond with the original Mario game and the stark contrast of Jonathan’s realistic aesthetics makes you forget about the Italian plumber completely. Though both games have low-poly graphics, the similarities are left to a minimum. A more Mario-esque visual world would have strengthened the game. After all, why reference another game if there’s a distinct lack of similarities between the two?
The game mechanics also eluded me due to easy-to-miss instructions on the title screen. It took me around three playthroughs before I found out you could get rid of the tiny Krafts by doing “Kraft stomps.” If you’re unfamiliar with the terminology, the phrase references “Goomba stomps,” which are a core gameplay mechanic of Super Mario: the jumping on top of Goombas to eliminate them. Instead of jumping on the tiny Kraft figures, I avoided them in my gameplay, which resulted in me missing out on an entire gameplay mechanic, not to mention a worse score. Again, a more direct visual link of the Kraft figures to Goombas (other than in size) would have helped cement the link between the two games. Knowing the mechanic exists also works towards creating a more effective satire as the player then knows they can get rid of the small, annoying billionaires.
While the game inherently has a point to make, which is of supporting Palestine, it doesn’t do the best job of making it. Because this was made with AI and in a short timeframe, it overlooks the visual language needed to create a strong connection between this game and its namesake. This makes the game’s satire less effective because the gameplay, visuals, and choices seem random instead of intentional. Although the game has a point-of-view, which Mann was worried about losing through using vibe-coding, the point-of-view is not the problem. The problem is the lack of attention to other details that would make this game ‘great’ instead of just ‘okay.’
The overall gameplay and experience of playing Super Macklemore 64 feels like the designer’s next attempt at going viral, which shows. It was also promoted on Jonathan’s social media, which is where I originally came across it. Once you’ve played his game a couple times to try and get a better score, there’s no inherent replayability value. Adding more objectives or maps to the game wouldn’t add replayability because the original visual links are lacking. Once the Sheeran-Macklemore incident gets forgotten, so will this game. That said, if you are pro-Palestine and enjoyed following the Ed Sheeran and Macklemore drama, you can give this game a try. Just don’t waste too much of your time on it because there are better satires to play.
Basic information:
Publisher: Jonathan Mann (Self-published)
Developer: Jonathan Mann, AI
Platforms: Internet Browser https://mann.cool/mack/
Release Date: 17 Sept 2026
Genres: Political/Satire
PEGI: N/A
