Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker is a game where you make Super Mario. Well, more specifically levels from Super Mario games. You can create levels using the graphics and abilities from Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros U.

Pros:

Level creation is extremely easy. You just place blocks where you want them to be. You choose what block you want to place from a drop-down menu, and you tap the stylus where you want the block to appear.

Every block maintains its physics from the game it’s from, for example standard blocks from Super Mario World, this one, will flip when you hit it from below, but as super Mario, spin jumping on the block will break it.

Also, enemies can be placed in blocks the same way powerups can be, though I don’t recommend you go too crazy with this feature in your own levels, as it does feel a little bit cheap to die to something you have no way of predicting.

Level creation is practically the name of the game, so you would hope it would be intuitive, but what about after the level is made? Well, the next logical step to to upload it. And uploading your level could hardly be easier.

You just give it a name, playtest your level, and it’s uploaded, for everyone else to play. If someone plays your level, you’ll get a notification stating that someone has played your level. You can turn off these notifications if you would like.

If you’re not the creative type, there’s still plenty of stuff to do. You can hop into any level you want online, but you can also do 10 or 100 Mario Challenges. The 100 Mario Challenge is where you play through either 8 or 16 stages, but you only have 100 lives to do it. I say ‘only’ because expert mode seriously brought me down to about 6 lives remaining.

The 10 Mario Challenge is where you play on levels that are included on the disc. Completing all of them will provide you with the levels from the 2015 Nintendo World Championship. It’s awesome to me that they would include the levels that sold so many people on the game.

There is a different costume for most, if not all Amiibo. There are also several costumes that can’t be unlocked with Amiibo. You don’t need to own any Amiibo to unlock a costume though, all costumes can be unlocked in the 100 Mario Challenge.

Cons:

The menus outside of building stages, are incredibly confusing. When you open the menu while in the level creator, you see the option to do a 10 Mario Challenge, and you have the option to go to course world, which lets you browse levels, creators, or play a 100 Mario Challenge. The option to do a 10 Mario Challenge isn’t even on this menu at all, you have to press plus to open the menu with that option.

The menu isn’t the only place with issues. Build mode has a few of its own. The tutorial doesn’t even mention things like copying segments of your level, or selecting multiple tiles at once. Nor does the tutorial mention changing the hand on the screen by clicking in your control sticks. I spent several minutes looking for the hand option in the menu, but gave up looking and just found the answer online!

Speaking of online, the online in Super Mario Maker is a bit lacking. If you want to find, say, a rolloer coaster level, you can’t searching “Roller Coaster”. You can only go to specific levels using a code that’s generated by the game once the level is uploaded.

Now, let’s jump into a level. This is my test level, where I tested the physics of the different styles. The physics of every theme match the original games where it matters most, but there’s a serious change with how spin jumping works in the Super Mario World theme and the New Super Mario Bros theme. Spin jumping in the New Super Mario Bros theme gives you the same invulnerability that you get in the Super Mario World theme. But the invulnerability you get in the Super Mario World theme was changed from the original game. Jumping on most enemies is the exact same, but you can’t spin jump on boos any more

To make sure I’m not going crazy, I tested spin jumping on an enemy in New Super Mario Bros U, and I got hurt. Then I spin jumped on a boo in Super Mario World, and it also worked just fine. This is the most bizarre physics change in Super Mario Maker, but it sure did confuse me when I was told to spin jump  on piranha plants in New Super Mario Bros U.

There are several missing tiles from the original games. There’s no wall-trampoline from Super Mario World, and there are no slopes.

Overall Opinion:

I think that Super Mario Maker has an incredibly bright future ahead of it, but don’t jump in right now unless you want to build levels yourself. Most of the levels I’ve played of other people’s aren’t good. Give it some time, maybe wait for a price drop.