Mario Maker Looks Amazing

I'll admit that when I first heard about Super Mario Maker, I wasn't incredibly enthusiastic. But I think that's just because I hadn't really thought about it, and the way that Nintendo polishes things.

I've never been terribly good at game customization. I always have these lofty ideas, but execution is a much different story. I've certainly drawn maps and imagined characters and bosses for games in the past, but I've never really had the resolve to actually get games made.

But unlike the level editors that come with a lot of games, Super Mario Maker looks like the game is the level editor. I've watched a ton of videos online showing how it works, and it really seems as if Nintendo has put all their efforts toward making the level designing as intuitive as possible.

I'm really excited about this.

Mario Maker strips things down to the basics, for the most part, but one of the main reasons the series has been such a huge part of video game history (arguably, it sits at the very center of video game history) is that the simple components that make up a Mario level can be composed in so many different ways that wield so many different results that the games are still exciting to play thirty years after the first came out.

The level maker is obviously the star of the show - there's an online system for playing levels others have created, as well as some designer-made ones that are there to demonstrate some of the crazy ideas you can incorporate into your levels.

The maker essentially lays out your level over a big grid - apparently back in the early days, Mario levels were drawn on graph paper, so this is not too far off from the real way it's done. You can stretch out the level to an appropriate length and drop in items and enemies simply by dragging them from a menu, with everything snapping to the grid.

You can choose between the NES Mario Bros. or Mario Bros. 3 styles, as well as the SNES Mario World style and the modern, Wii U Mario Bros. U style. You can change these themes in the middle of editing a level, but to be clear, these changes do actually have some mechanical ramifications. For example, I don't think you can pick up Koopa shells in the original Mario Bros., and also, the "flight" item will be a Raccoon Leaf in 3, a Cape Feather in World, and a Propeller Hat in U (I think it reverts to a Super Mushroom in 1.) That said, some items and enemies that came in later games (e.g. Wigglers, Boos) will get retro-ized, becoming 8-bit style sprites if you put them in an older-style level.

You can also choose between different terrains, like underground, airship, castle, or ghost house (and obviously the standard above ground,) which will change the background and the platforms upon which you can hop.

The Maker apparently unlocks items over time (straight up how many days since you started playing with it.) While some will resent not being able to, say, put in warp pipes on the first day you start playing, I think that it will be a nice way to prevent oneself from getting overwhelmed. By the time everything's unlocked, you'll even be able to put in specific sound queues when Mario runs through particular areas.

While editing, you can quickly press to go to "play mode, which will drop Mario right wherever you have the cursor pointing. You can then play through what you've got, and if you die or just hit the "Make" button, you'll pop right back into editing mode. It also shows the path that Mario took during this section, which should be an invaluable tool for fine-tuning those difficult jumps.

There are also kind of fun little techniques to get more out of the level assets. If you drag a Koopa out of the menu to put on the level, but kind of shake it with the stylus, it'll turn into a red-shelled Koopa (the ones who don't jump off ledges.) You can also drag a Super Mushroom onto an enemy to make them larger.

Anyway, it looks really, really cool. Possibly a must-buy for Wii U owners.