The Super Mario Bros. video game franchise served as my introduction to the video game industry many years ago, when I as a very young child acquired my first black and white screen GameBoy and a copy of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Although the video game industry has grown more technologically advanced and every year we continue to see video games push the boundaries even further into terms of creativity and capacity, Super Mario Bros. has held a place as not only as a memorable retro classic, but as something that can still be considered fresh and entertaining to audiences of all ages in its 30th year.
Look online, look on Youtube videos, and you will likely find many hobbyist developed Super Mario Bros. games scattered around. Finally meeting the evident demand from fans, Nintendo have passed on an official development tool, allowing anyone to create their own side-scrolling platform levels reminiscent of key instalments in the franchise without having to start development from scratch. Super Mario Maker delivers an easy-to-use set of development tools and a simple way to share one’s creations, delivering experiences that can be both incredibly authentic and very outlandish depending on the developers whim. Although I am left wondering what the future of Nintendo’s side-scrolling platformer Super Mario video games will now hold, it is great to finally see the community able to use their creative juices in developing their dream level – without having to worry about programming or artistic skills.
Creating a Decent Level is Easy…. But
As someone who hasn’t really followed the Super Mario Bros. development community, I am still left in awe with some of the incredibly creative stages that people have conceptualised and put together – let alone able to comprehend how they have able to create or even complete some of them in the tools provided by Super Mario Maker. That being said, the creative tools provided to all players are accessible and simple to use, allowing anyone to create a simple level from Day 1.
Unfortunately, creating a more complex level does take more time and effort. Rather than grant players access to all tools immediately, a combination of time and playthroughs of other levels is required to unlock all features of the Create Mode. Therefore, you could have been following this game since its announcement, already planned out a top-tier level and find that you are unable to immediately throw yourself into the creation tools. In my opinion, Super Mario Maker should have adopted a system similar to LittleBigPlanet – where all creation tools are available from the start and more aesthetic content can be unlocked through playing other levels (Both the sample ones provided in-game and online). Alternatively, a simple “UNLOCK ALL” button wouldn’t have gone astray.
Apart from locking users out from some of the Create Mode content initially, the system is very versatile. Players can create levels with warp pipes, climbing vines and boxes; populate the stage with enemies from a variety of Super Mario Bros. titles and even do some nifty things like make enemies bigger, give them wings or tower them upon one another. Just this alone and a bit (or a lot) of creativity can result in some creative levels. This versatility is complemented by the Create Mode offering themes for four different Mario titles (Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U). Each of these are not simple aesthetic changes, but offer a range of different features depending on which style you choose. Each style comes with its own unique power-ups, gameplay mechanics and more, meaning there are may be trade-offs when developing with one style compared to another. This is in addition to some Super Mario Maker exclusive tweaks for each style and all four in general.
An even better experience may await those just looking to play levels…
For those who don’t have the time to craft their own level or just don’t know where to start, it is possible to completely skip the Create Mode and head into the Play Mode. Before heading online, it is possible to try your hand at the offline “10 Mario Challenge”. This grants players 10 “Marios” (or lives) to complete a set of eight sample courses, which when completed are added to the sample courses list to serve as a foundation for your next level. These levels are often quite simple, but highlight something unique which could be used as inspiration for your future level design.
Those looking to head online can choose to take part in either the “100 Mario Challenge” or choose an individual level to traverse through. With three difficulty settings on offer (Easy, Normal and Expert), the “100 Mario Challenge” has players travel through 8-16 levels with 100 Mario’s/Lives to complete them in. The levels used in this mode are selected from those created by other users, and the system was surprisingly accurate in matching courses with the appropriate difficulty setting. I would argue that 100 lives is far to many for the number of levels present in the Easy and Normal difficulty setting, complemented by the fact that it is possible to replenish a few lives through each level. But for the Expert difficulty, the life count matched up pretty well, as completing some of the more sadistic user-created stages can take 20-30 lives of trial-and-error. It is possible to be randomly assigned a new course should one prove impossible however, also limiting the need for 100 lives.
Finally, there is the option to play an individual level. This is possible by either searching for a maker or the level itself. The user interface used when searching for a level is adequate, and even provides a nifty preview of the entire course to give you an idea of what to expect from it. Unfortunately however, the filtering options aren’t fantastic. While you are given the option of viewing levels sorted by factors including being featured and the number of star ratings given by users, filtered down further by options such as time period and difficulty, it is not possible to search for an individual stage by keyword. To search for a specific level, you require an alphanumeric code corresponding to that level. Therefore, lets say you wanted to search for a stage designed around the Pikachu Amiibo, you cannot just type “Pikachu” in a search box.
It looks like a Super Mario game…
It sounds like a Super Mario game…
The levels you create do ultimately end up looking and sounding like a normal Super Mario Bros. game. While they have been designed to look much better on a high definition TV and some level designs can come across as more challenging and chaotic compared to the original titles, each of the game and course style choices do come across as being authentic to its respective game. Each style choice comes with a different Mario design, enemy designs to suit the art style, music from the respective title and more. However, Nintendo have thrown in a few extra features such as Mystery Mushrooms, which transform Mario into the character reflected by a chosen Amiibo (completed with sound effects and musical jingles where appropriate). Unfortunately the Mystery Mushrooms are only possible in the Super Mario Bros. style, instead of being universal across all four styles.
Overall…
While your mileage may vary depending on how interested you are in a) developing your own levels and b) trying out the next creative idea from fans around the world, Super Mario Maker proves to be a strong instalment in this iconic video game series. Being able to easily create your own side-scrolling platformer levels and then share them with other players through simple online tools can potentially provide several hundreds hours of playtime, and it is quite easy to wile away an afternoon by randomly playing user-generated content. This was a strong way to mark the franchise’s 30th Anniversary, but with official creation tools now in public hands, I am left wondering what is in store for future Super Mario games.
Final Thought
Given that each of the four styles present on-disc offer some visual and gameplay differences, it would be great to see some new ones eventually released as DLC. Being able to take advantage of the styles of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins or Super Mario Bros. 2 would be my personal choices.
Super Mario Maker is now available for purchase on the Wii U gaming platform.
