Super Mario Maker Review

[Zera]

Greetings, folks. Today I'm here to review Super Mario Maker, a Wii U game released on September 10-12, 2015. This is a "level editor game" that let's you create levels for the Super Mario series, one of the longest running video game franchises in existence.

Super Mario Maker is technically four level editors in one - you can make courses for Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U. Although each style retains its original mechanics, some elements have been carried over to styles that didn't have them to make them all compatible with the same editor. If you make a level for one style and change it to another you won't lose anything.

The Course Maker is controlled almost entirely with the gamepad's touchscreen and allows easy placement of blocks, enemies, and objects. When you start playing, only the "bare bones" are available, but more items become available as you build levels with them (or copy and paste hundreds of blocks). Nearly every object has an alternate form you can get by "shaking" the object (thankfully, you don't have to do this every time), and nearly every enemy can be combined with the Super Mushroom - and Wings - and stacked on top of each other - for unique obstacles and great variety.

Despite being a "level editor game", there are not many level themes to choose from. Only the basics are covered - Ground, Underground, Underwater, Castle, Airship, and Ghost House. As for Desert, Beach, Ice, Jungle, Mountain, Sky, and Volcano... you don't get those. To be fair, there are ice blocks and you can use the airship theme as a sky theme. But an ice level isn't the same without the snowy background and jingly music, and a sky level doesn't feel quite right with ominous airship music. This brings me to my second issue with Super Mario Maker - you can't set the music for your level. Now, you can make music with music blocks -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ZLI4SYRBo

- but unless your stage is autoscrolling, there is no guarantee that it will sound right. The music blocks have their own limitations as well - they take up space in your course, setting them up is complex and time consuming, and the music won't sound as good as the real thing anyway. Considering the heavy influence of Mario Paint on Super Mario Maker, I wonder why they didn't just include the music maker from that game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjwhX0WqxXQ

(Do you want this music from Super Mario World in your Super Mario World level? Well, tough luck!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihfoHozxOSo

(You'll have to settle for this crappy music block version.)

You can play up to 68 sample courses in 10 Mario Challenge. These courses are creative and fun, but most of them really short. If you're skilled, you can clear all of them in about an hour.

Course World lets you share and play levels online, and is the main reason to buy Super Mario Maker.

100 Mario Challenge is a set of random user-made courses with 100 lives to start. You can choose a set of 8 Easy courses, 16 Normal courses, or 16 Expert courses. If you're worried about bad levels, you can skip a course whenever you want (but you won't get back any lives that you lost).

One great aspect of 100 Mario challenge is that every time you beat it, you unlock a new Mystery Mushroom. Mystery Mushrooms can only be used in the Super Mario Bros. style, and transform Mario into one of over 100 retro sprites of other Nintendo characters. Some players have used the Samus costume in underground recreations of Metroid areas. I myself used the Mario Kart costume in a recreation of Mushroom Gorge from Mario Kart 7. In other words, the costumes can be used to add some fun role-playing to your 8-bit courses. Oh, and you can unlock some of them early if you have a corresponding Amiibo.

The variety of ideas in Course World is great, but so too is the variety of quality. You cannot upload a course until you clear it, but that is the ONLY restriction. If you've ever played a 2D Mario game, you might notice that every level -

-can be cleared as small or large Mario.

-can be cleared without power-ups.

-can be cleared without taking damage.

You might also notice that -

-the top of the goal is reachable for a 1-up.

-there are no enemies right next to the start point.

-thwomps are visible before they fall.

-warp pipes don't dump you into bottomless pits.

-random elements are kept to a minimum.

-you cannot be "trapped" by invisible blocks or level geometry.

Invisible rules like these act as a balancing factor in level design, ensuring that every course is fun and fair. In Super Mario Maker, "fun" and "fair" are optional.

Another reason the level quality is inconsistent is the lack of a useful rating system. You can choose to give a course a star - and that's literally it. And to make matters worse, if you comment on a course outside the creator's course list, it will automatically be given a star. It's like Nintendo refuses to believe bad courses exist. That's like refusing to believe bread contains carbohydrates.

For some strange reason you can't search for specific levels at all. All you can do is select them with sixteen digit friend codes. Thankfully, once you find a creator you like you can add them to your "Following" list and play their levels freely.

Super Mario Maker can be a mixed bag at times. Many of its features are great, but others are either lacking or nonexistent. I can't help but wonder if basic features like checkpoints and slopes would exist if the game spent one more year in development. Even so, the fact that there is now an infinite supply of Mario levels means there is much fun to be had, as long as you make a conscious effort to find the good courses.

The biggest issue with Super Mario Maker, in my opinion, is the fact that the only console game I've played that fills a similar niche - Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury - has a much greater challenge, four times as much pre-made content, a stronger level editor, and a sixth the price. In fact, if Missile Fury had level sharing on par with Mario Maker, it would be superior in nearly every way. As of now, Course World is the only thing that makes Super Mario Maker remotely worth its $60 asking price, and even it isn't perfect. Your enjoyment of this game will hinge heavily on how much you like Mario games in general, and whether you're willing to exchange guaranteed high quality for infinite content.

7/10 (Good!)

[Rxmonste]

Excellent review as always, Zera.

This game and Portal 2 are one of many fine examples of how creative the very user base is. With simple, easy to use level editors, the players have creative restraints that allow them to do really cool stuff. Sure, it's not as extensive or as capable as the tools Nintendo use, but it's the limitation and constraints that your tools have that help the designers get some much needed focus. Which is why engines and development tools aren't as popular for players, too complex for at least a good chunk of them.

My biggest complaint with this game is the same as my problem with the Portal 2 Editor, there's no way to set up checkpoints, which shouldn't be too hard to do as a feature, it could be a placable trigger or a flag like in some other Mario games.

I do agree with the lack of background and music customization, I was disappointed when I unlocked everything and this wasn't a part of it. I'd also say that I'm not a huge fan of Luigi being playable via the mystery shroom as apposed to a full fledged playable character.

Overall, my opinion on Super Mario Maker is that I thought it was pretty good. It's not perfect, but if I wasn't a game designer already this would've been one of my career choice inspirations.

[Zera]

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