You've seen what famous people do with Spore. Now check out what they do with Bangai-O Spirits. Unfortunately, the average celebrity won't be able to wrap his or her pretty head around Treasure's latest puzzle shooter. So you'll have to settle for famous-ish game designers.

Bangai-O publisher D3 corralled up a handful of game designers to make levels for the game. The publisher also ponied up a $10,000 tuition award for the Guildhall program at Southern Methodist University, to be named after the creator of the winning level. IGN hosted these levels, and voters (i.e. IGN readers; make of that what you will…) selected "Pinball Wizard", by Shane Hensley. Hensley's claim to fame is the Deadlands Western/horror RPG. He worked at Cryptic Studios on City of Heroes, but he's since gone indie and is now working on something unannounced. Here are Shane's designer notes about his Bangai-O level:

I really liked the simplicity of the game and its unabashed approach to fun and gameplay over story (and I'm a writer!) I also really liked the Bounce missiles and Bangai-O's big, freakin' bat! My level is a combination of my love for the Bouncing missiles and one of my favorite Spider-Man Team-Up stories--where he and Captain Britain are caught in a giant Pinball machine by a villain called Arcade. In this level, Bangai-O is stuck in a giant pinball machine as well. He'll have to use his Bouncing missiles wisely to take out the target. The giant pinball (the soccer ball) is a big help if you can figure out the trick...

Sounds great! I can't wait to try it out, along with the other levels from Harvey Smith, Steve Fawkner, Tom Mustaine, and others.

Unfortunately, Bangai-O Spirits uses a modem transfer protocol that involves playing sound files into the DS' microphone. It's, um, kind of picky about when and how it works. So until Nintendo builds into the DS some sort of wireless connectivity, I'll be closed up in the bathroom with my laptop, my Nintendo DS, and a set of headphones wrapped in foam. Along with the squaking modem noises, you'll be able to hear me shouting things like 'Work, damn you, work!'.