Super Mario Maker is an excellent game/creation tool that will only get better with time.
That’s a weird way to start a review, but you have to understand the kind of “thing” Super Mario Maker is. Yes, it’s a tool that lets you take apart and create your dream levels from the Super Mario series. Yes, it’s a game all on its own that lets non-creative types just play an ever-expanding number of user-created levels. But most of all it’s an incredible amount of unadulterated fun.
The premise of Super Mario Maker is simple: give the player an empty canvas where they can create levels in any way they see fit. I’ve had the pleasure this summer to play Super Mario Maker a few times at various events, but finally getting my hands on the creation elements I can now say that the game is almost everything I wanted. Almost.
Look, Super Mario Maker is the kind of game that doesn’t require a really in-depth review. It is clearly targeted at Mario fans and lives heavily on the nostalgia that many of us grew up on -I myself can say that Super Mario Bros. was my first video game experience. If you have a Wii U, then odds are you are going to already have, or will be getting Super Mario Maker. It’s an amazing exclusive that is sure to be around with an active community until the end of the Wii U. The original Super Mario –and really any other side-scrolling Mario– still holds up today, even thirty-years later, and Super Mario Maker has a very good chance of doing the same for the Wii U.
But why is Super Mario Maker “almost” the game I wanted? The core idea and tools at the players disposal are fantastic. You can easily drag-and-drop almost any piece from a number of Super Mario games into the grid layout –much like the same way Miyamoto did on graph paper– via the Wii U Gamepad. Super Mario Maker is the sort of game that needed to happen at the Wii U launch, because it’s the first time that the Wii U Gamepad really shines and gives us a play-style that just can’t be done on other consoles.
But there is a catch to all this fun; the game’s tools themselves. The great thing about Super Mario Maker, and other games like it (i.e. Minecraft), is that you have everything at your disposable to create your ultimate dream world. The problem with Super Mario Maker is that it still want’s to be a game in the classic sense. This means that everything won’t be open to you when you first start playing the game. In fact, you only get a single row of tool blocks to play with upon your first few times with the game.
For a game about building your dream Mario level, Super Mario Maker drops the ball by keeping nearly all its tools locked behind an arbitrary wait limit. If you want to access these new tools you are going to have to spend a certain amount of time building with the limited tools you have. This of course has the benefit of letting you practice with what you have, but it’s also incredibly infuriating when you can see and play these epic levels from other player, but you are sitting there suck with three block types, a Goomba, some Koopa Troopas, and some item tweaks. It’s a shame that you have to work to open up tools you really want to use right away. I had a lot of fun, even with the basic tools, but Super Mario Maker can feel like a really slow burn at times when all you want to do is go nuts.
But once you spend enough time within the game and open up the tools, things really begin to flow. The creativity that Super Mario Maker breeds is on a scale I’ve never before seen. Yes, Minecraft has done the building thing to great effect, but Super Mario Maker connects with me more with its ability to actually be a game. Super Mario Maker is already a game that you can easily sink hours into in a single sitting, but even if you only dabble in it a little bit every day or so, you are going to be really pleased. You see, Nintendo seems to be rolling out –unlocking– new content for the game as time goes on. At the time of this writing I’m awaiting the under water tools to open up tomorrow morning.
Super Mario Maker also has a few quirks that come along for the ride. Some of these are pretty cool, like having the game boot right into the creation mode with no endless logos, videos, or even menu screen. Then again, other areas of the game will take a little adjusting to understand. Menu layout within the game isn’t very intuitive when you first jump in. The creation aspects are really easy and fantastic, but the menus to save/load can feel buried. The same goes for the creator world where you can download and play others levels.
None of these things really hurt the game, as the core mechanics are near perfection. Using the stylus to drag-and-drop items, blocks, enemies, and more is so easy that it will easily sell an outsider on the Wii U platform; too bad it just might be a bit late to really save it. Still, Super Mario Maker will no doubt go down as one of the defining games on the platform, if not of the generation. Love the idea of creating you own Mario levels? Spent long nights playing hours of those brutal Mario rom hacks on the internet? Love playing Super Mario stages from what could possibly be an endless amount user submissions? If you said yes to any of those things, Super Mario Maker is a must own title. It’s so good that it may very well push console sales with those that have avoided the Wii U, and bring in those non-gamers that grew up with Mario and want to give it a go once again.
If you own a Wii U Super Mario Maker will no doubt find its way into your library. If you don’t, I’d suggest you find someone that does have it and see it in action for yourself, because there’s a good chance you’ll head home with a new Wii U under your arm. Plus, it’s a good excuse to go out and buy all the amiibo!
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