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Super Mario Maker revolutionizes the way we play Mario

<p>...it’s that blending of nostalgia and innovation that puts <em>Mario Maker</em> leagues above other sandbox creation games.</p>

...it’s that blending of nostalgia and innovation that puts Mario Maker leagues above other sandbox creation games.

@clingtoascheme @ncdowell

When you first boot up Super Mario Maker you are greeted with what may be one of the most ingenious tutorials ever. Having the player start on the all too familiar World 1-1 is enough already to get the nostalgia going, but halfway through the level, the player comes to an open pit with no way to go back.

The only choice from here is to jump, and no matter how far you go, Mario will fall. But just before he hits the bottom of the screen a message appears asking you to finish this level. And while the game does provide some details on where to go from there, something kind of magical happens once you veer off of the route planned for you.

Suddenly the familiar becomes anything but. Piranha plants fly and shoot fire while stacks of Goombas charge towards Mario. World 1-1 stops being this nostalgic relic, and instead becomes the player’s updated vision of that space. And it’s that blending of nostalgia and innovation that puts Mario Maker leagues above other sandbox creation games.

Creation


At the forefront of Mario Maker is the creation tool, which is extensive but completely user friendly. From the start, players can pick from several different Mario designs, ranging from the classic Super Mario Bros to the New Super Mario Bros U. These varying styles offer up a pretty interesting history lesson in not just the look of each, but also how Mario’s gameplay has changed over the years. This translates nicely to the creation tools, which change upon art style to better suit that particular Mario’s abilities.

While it is nice to have so many choices, the older Mario styles fare better in comparison to New Super Mario Bros U which, ironically, feels stale compared to its older counterparts. Where those games get the bonus of having all of the newer games’ design elements, New Super Mario Bros U is still the same game it was three years ago.

Once you pick a style, the creation tool starts to show its strength. Players have multiple menus of items and backgrounds they can use for their stage creations. Mario Maker does a good job at keeping these dense menus easy to sift through, as well as providing a way to custom map the items to your screen for easy placement.

Unfortunately, most of the items have to be unlocked using an archaic progression system. New items, art styles and even the ability to use custom SFX sounds have to be unlocked by playing the game daily. This means that players will have to play Mario Maker over the course of nine days to fully unlock all that the creation tool can offer. There are ways around it, but having to exploit the game to get items that should of just come out of the box is, at best, silly and, at worst, a major frustration when you first start creating.

Once you do get past that inconvenience though, the ability to create Mario levels to your liking becomes fully enjoyable. Being the less-than-creative person that I am, I was worried at first at how I would fare in the creation process. Thankfully, Mario Maker provides a host of sample courses that teach and inspire player creation. It was thrilling when I finished my first level, and it was even more exciting as I saw a friend test it out for the first time. The balance between a hard and fun level is pretty thin, and often former wins out, but when you strike that perfect middle there is nothing else like it.

Community


Super Mario Maker’s other selling point is the ability to go online and play levels created by other players. Just having this functionality is further proof that Nintendo has figured out how to build an online community of gamers without utilizing basic communication tools used in other consoles. While you play, there are Miiverse comments encouraging you on and giving you tips for some of the trickier levels. On top of that, players are able to follow certain creators they especially like, creating a sense of fandom among the community. There’s an additional sense of camaraderie where, when you die, a bunch of little red X’s appear showing where other players have died as well. All of these tools work together to make you feel like you’re actually playing online with other people without ever seeing them.

Aside from the community, Super Mario Maker’s fun comes from all the levels available to play. If you’re not into creating levels, you still get so much out of playing because so long as people continue playing, you will never run out of fresh content to play. Maps are constantly being released and the game’s filtering system allows you to find the good ones that have just recently been uploaded. There isn’t any additional DLC to buy. It’s all available for you to play from day one.

There are three modes to play custom levels: Course mode, Maker mode, and the 100 Mario Challenge. In Course mode, you select levels from an extensive list that can also be filtered by location, time of posting, most rated, featured, and so on. In Makers mode, you choose levels by Maker (aka level creator). Both of these features are nice and allow you to search for certain types of levels, but the best way to play is in the 100 Mario Challenge.

The 100 Mario Challenge gives you 100 lives to beat a set of levels. In the Easy mode there are eight levels to beat, and in the Normal and Expert modes, there are 16. Playing through the challenge feels a lot like Super Mario 3 or Super Mario World, where you navigate a map to get to the castle level. You aren’t able to backtrack, but that really isn’t a problem since all the levels you played can be played again from the main menu of the Challenge after you beat them.

The Challenge is difficult, especially on Expert mode, but Nintendo included what I like to call the Tinder feature into the game. If you find a level too difficult, or you just don’t like it, you can skip it by swiping on the tablet and you’ll be put on another stage without losing any lives.

This feature is really important to the game because it allows you to skip some levels that are basically impossible to beat. The game is supposed to require you to be able to beat a level on your own before you upload it, but somehow those impossible levels slip through the cracks. There was a level that spawned me directly beneath a spinning pillar of flame that, no matter how quickly I tried to move right, always killed me. While levels like these are few and far between, they seriously interrupt your flow when you’re playing.

Despite the occasional rage level, Super Mario Maker’s online features are extremely fun. It allows for players to never run out of content, which is becoming rare as we transition to a world of microtransactions and DLC.

Oh and there is the possibility that you’ll get a skinny mushroom and turn into this weird skinny Mario. He’s able to jump better but he’s a literal nightmare to look at so try your best to avoid him.

TL;DR


Nintendo has pushed the players out of the nest. While the company used to tell players where to go and how to get there, now they’re given the ability to figure everything out on their own. They get the chance to experiment and make the world their oyster. There are certainly frustrations involved with that, but that’s just a part of life.

Also that means they get the chance to eat those weird mushrooms and somehow become the nightmare that is Skinny Mario.

 

+ Detailed, but simple, creation menu

+ Endless number of levels to play

+ Limitless possibilities for creation

+ Beautiful sense of community

- Some impossible levels get online

- Frustrating to get all creation content

- Skinny Mario

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