Super Mario Maker Review

by Brandon Sultana & Harry Sheridan

September 16, 2015

Nintendo Wii U

 

Super Mario Maker is finally here and has seen a tremendous overhaul since its first showing at E3 2014. We were both excited by the prospect of making levels when the game was first announced, but over a year later our hype went through the roof as we learned about all the features that the game was bringing to the table.

 

Making

by Bran

 

-Variety-

I’ve never really thought of myself as the most creative person out there, but making stages is really fun. This is thanks to the huge amount of items available in the game. Not only do you have many options, but they can be combined in ways that you’ve probably only dreamed of. For example you can stick just about anything into a Bullet Bill Blaster to make it shoot that thing. The possibilities are truly endless, and although there are a few major missing elements (Slopes, Checkpoints, etc... Chargin’ Chuck pls) you have a ton of tools at your disposal. They even went back and retconned certain elements and themes into older games. Want to put Wigglers and Thwomps in Mario 1? Or see what a Mario World Airship or Mario 3 Ghost House looked like? Now you can, and they all look like they were created for the original games. The game’s item limit is also incredibly generous, allowing you to place tons of enemies, items, and platforms. The only limit I frequently ran into was the block limit, so if you want to place lots of Ground, Walls, and Blocks, be prepared to run into a limit eventually.

 

-Interface-

One thing the game really nails is how simple it is to use. Many level creation tools are bogged down with too many menus, while Super Mario Maker’s UI is incredibly clean and easy to use. An idea in this game that I thought was simply genius is the idea of shaking assets to get alternate versions. For example shaking a Green Koopa gives a Red Koopa. Similarly, dragging a Mushroom onto an enemy makes them big, rather than opening a menu to do that. It really removes a lot of clutter from the menu, and is also just fun to do. All of this makes the process of making levels not only easy and intuitive, but also fun. Spending hours tweaking and modifying your level is a legitimately fun process. Mario Maker manages to make the creation of levels, which is usually just a side project in most games, into the full experience and it’s quite masterful.

 

-Testing-

A big part of creating stages is testing them to make sure things work well. This is also done very well, as jumping in and out of the editor is incredibly seamless. The game even shows you a trail of Marios from your last test run which can help you gauge certain jumps. The game is also heavily integrated with online, showing you little notifications every time someone stars or plays your course, which is very intuitive.

 

-Unlocking-

If there is one major flaw here, it’s how you unlock everything. Originally, there was a method in place in which you unlock parts every day for 9 days. This was supposedly replaced with a better system through a Day 1 patch, but from both of our experiences the patch had no effect, so I ended up just going into my system settings and changing the date to unlock stuff in a reasonable manner. The game is in all honesty quite boring until you get the more interesting mechanics, so using this method is highly recommended.

 

Playing

by Harry

 

-Pre-Built Stages-

Before you even go online, there are a plethora of pre-built levels that you can enjoy. While they aren’t on par with actual Mario levels in terms of quality, as would be expected, they fulfill their purpose by providing the player with fun and inspiration to create their own levels. Something I found especially exciting is the inclusion of the levels played at the Nintendo World Championships, which can be unlocked as the last “World” in 10-Mario Challenge mode.

-Course World-

-100-Mario Challenge-

When it comes to community-made levels, the online play can be a bit of a mixed bag, especially when it comes to 100-Mario Challenge. In my experience with the mode, the randomly selected levels can be very hit or miss (although, they’re more often than not a “miss”). A lot of the time, I end up having to play through poorly made levels full of randomly-placed blocks and coins, instead of the well-crafted and genuinely fun levels that I know are out there. I think that a good fix for this would be to include some sort of new level-selecting system in a future update, where new/low star levels are played for the first few levels and as you progress through the levels, you start getting more and more popular/high star levels. This way, new levels are provided with the exposure they desperately need and players don’t have to suffer through an entire game of terrible levels.

-Courses & Makers-

For the most part, I really like the setup of the “Courses” and “Makers” portion of the online Course World. Being able to see top levels and creators, as well as currently trending levels, is a great setup for the online that makes it easy to jump right into levels deemed good by the community. However, something I disliked about the online is how difficult it was to search for levels. The only way to search for levels is by typing in a 16-digit ID. Can’t search by name or by creator, just by these stupid IDs. Despite the fact that Nintendo has finally moved away from the use of “Friend Codes” in recent years, it’s sad to see them return to a similar system in one of their biggest releases this year.

 

-Gameplay-

Something I was very impressed by with this game was how they managed to perfectly capture the gameplay of each of the four Super Mario games used as level themes. Each theme is unique in that it incorporates the different mechanics, abilities, and (some) objects from their respective game. For example, the Super Mario Bros 3 theme includes the Power Meter and Raccoon suit, while the Super Mario World theme includes Spin Jumps and the Cape. This allows for a wide variety in stages and types of gameplay online, as some levels simply wouldn't work without the specific mechanics of a certain theme. In short, I really appreciate all the work that went into making these different themes feel and play just like the originals.

 

Miscellaneous

-Charm-

Bran: This game is BURSTING with tons of little details that will be sure to put a smile on your face. My personal favorite is the fact that the game will actually sing the names of the items that you place to the music. I found myself pretty regularly just opening a blank stage and placing tons of blocks to hear the game sing. There also tons of other little things like this, such as the interactable main menu, the different cat paw cursors, the extra long death sounds that occur by random chance and the animations that play whenever you boot up the game which change based on the day of the week.

 

-Costumes-

Bran: Might I just say that the idea of adding costumes for various Nintendo characters in the original Mario theme was a genius move? There are 99 different costumes that can be unlocked through regular gameplay, as well as by tapping amiibo. The characters all have 8-bit sprites that act as a costume for Mario. They don’t change gameplay at all, except for some visual sounds like jumping, dying and clearing a course, but they are an excellent reward for beating 100 Mario Challenge, as the thought of unlocking more kept me coming back. PLUS YOU CAN GET A WALUIGI COSTUME, “WAH”-T’S NOT TO LOVE. (wah)

 

-E-Manual-

Harry: Mary. O. ‘Nuff said.

 

 

Overall

When Super Mario Maker was first announced (as just “Mario Maker”) we thought it looked cool, but weren’t completely convinced. Then they showed off more, and more, and more to the point where it hardly resembled the fairly bare-bones game they originally showed off at E3 2014. Nintendo really put their best effort into making this game, as a celebration of Super Mario Bros’ 30th Anniversary, and it really, really shows. This is one of those few level-builders that really manages to do it right with its simple, easy interface, tons of usable game elements, and classic Mario gameplay.

 

Rating: Excellent/10

+ Intuitive and Easy Level Creation

+ Endless Amounts of Content

+ Tons of Charm

+ Faithful Gameplay Recreation

+Thin Mario

- Online Could Use Improvement