TL;DR
Super Mario Maker lets you create and play custom Mario levels using familiar SMB, SMB3, SMW, and NSMBU styles and physics. It's incredibly user-friendly, letting you drag and drop elements to design challenges, though some limitations exist like no slopes. With over a million user-created levels available, the creativity is endless, ranging from simple fun to brutally difficult. It’s a fantastic blend of a game and a powerful, accessible creation tool that captures the magic of Mario, offering countless hours of play and design. Dive in and discover the ultimate Mario sandbox!
It’s unlikely that many gamers are unfamiliar with Super Mario and his brother Luigi. As one of the gaming world’s most enduring figures, Mario has maintained his appeal across generations, captivating both younger and older players. While other iconic characters from the 80s and 90s, such as Sonic, Mega Man, or Simon Belmont, are often discussed nostalgically, Mario has consistently delivered high-quality experiences for the past three decades, with only minor fluctuations. Recent titles like Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8 received significant acclaim, exceeding expectations for Wii U releases.
Now, Super Mario Maker empowers players worldwide to contribute to the Mario legacy through their own creations. Functioning as both a game and a comprehensive level design tool, it offers a highly engaging experience in both aspects.
Mario can still reliably traverse a single-block gap.
The concept of creating custom Mario levels is not entirely new; unofficial level editors have existed for years, allowing users to design and share content based on Super Mario World’s physics, graphics, and mechanics. Nintendo’s official tool streamlines this process, providing a more accessible and legitimate means of creating, sharing, and playing levels. The Wii U gamepad’s touchscreen interface offers an intuitive method for level editing. Switching between edit and play modes allows for real-time testing and iterative refinement of level design. Adjusting difficulty is straightforward: adding a fire-spitting Piranha Plant or increasing the distance between platforms can quickly transform a simple level into a challenging one. The core level structure relies on blocks. While this allows for diverse arrangements, it also means that sloped planes, common in Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World, are unavailable. Another limitation is the inability to directly script level endings based on boss defeats. However, creative level design can often circumvent this limitation, for example by placing a boss in a location that makes the encounter unavoidable.
The toolbox in Super Mario Maker offers a wide array of options, and objects can be manipulated by shaking them or combining them with other elements like wings.
Level scrolling and pipe connections function as expected. Experimentation within the editing mode reveals further possibilities, such as attaching wings to characters to alter their behavior. A winged Piranha Plant emerging unexpectedly from a pipe provides just one example of the intuitive design. Similarly, dragging objects onto a Stone Block or ?-Block allows for customization, and Bullet Bill cannons can be modified to fire different types of projectiles.
Enemies can also be enlarged by dragging a Super Mushroom onto them.
Super Mario Maker’s ease of use is a significant strength, enabling players of all skill levels to create and share their levels. However, crafting truly exceptional levels requires creativity and ingenuity. Many user-generated levels are adequate but lack the polish and refinement of Nintendo’s own creations. Fortunately, Nintendo curates noteworthy levels, and players can rate and sort levels based on community feedback. Anyone can play user-created levels. At the time of writing, over a million levels have been uploaded, each requiring completion by its creator before being shared. Some levels reach extreme levels of difficulty, such as Pit of Panga, a course notorious for its complexity, reportedly requiring five hours to create and nine hours to complete.
Levels can be themed, offering choices beyond the base game style. The “underground” theme is shown here, and other options include classic overworld, castle, and high-altitude themes. Some themes, such as desert and ice world, are absent, potentially as future DLC.
Beyond its utility as a creation tool, Super Mario Maker offers substantial entertainment as a standalone game. It incorporates four visual styles based on Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros U. Physics also vary depending on the chosen style. “New” allows wall jumps for vertical traversal. Both “New” and Super Mario Bros 3 exhibit slightly more deliberate physics compared to the original Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World. Item behavior also differs across styles, such as the varying flight capabilities of the Super Leaf in Super Mario Bros 3 and the Cape Feather in Super Mario World. The latter also introduces the rounder Goombas and upright Koopa Troopas who separate from their shells when hit.
This level appears overly complex. Flowers can be dragged into pipes to modify their properties, but precise timing control over their emergence is not possible.
Super Mario Maker’s success as a platformer stems from the enduring quality of Nintendo’s titles and their refined control schemes. The included items contribute to the fun. As previously mentioned, some elements are missing; for example, the absence of the sun from Super Mario Bros. 3’s desert levels has been noted. Including the upgraded graphics from Super Mario All-Stars in future DLC would be a welcome addition.
The available content is already substantial and compelling. Coupled with precise controls, Super Mario Maker proves to be a remarkable achievement. While games like Projekt Spark or Little Big Planet 3 offer greater creative freedom in terms of visual styles and three-dimensional world creation, they lack the perfected game mechanics and depth that define the Mario experience.
The beanstalks from the original Super Mario Bros, leading to bonus areas, are also available.
Nostalgia enhances the experience, as many players possess ingrained knowledge of the classic titles. Familiarity with Mario’s movement, gap distances, and the placement of elements like trampolines and Bullet Bills streamlines the design process.
Players can immediately realize their level design aspirations, creating either whimsical worlds filled with coin cannons and 1-Up Mushrooms or challenging, fire-filled fortresses accessible only to skilled players.
The latter may involve near-death experiences.
And that is how it should be.
Super Mario Maker’s cross-generational appeal and ease of use contribute to its enduring success. The desire to improve on previous attempts fuels continued engagement.
Time can easily slip away while playing. This is a testament to the magical power contained within this small disc.
In essence, it’s a Super Magic Maker.
