Rob Dolen Columnist
Capitalizing on the decades of nostalgia that Nintendo has created since the dawn of arcade and video games, “Super Mario Maker” is the game every Mario fan has only dreamed of.
“Super Mario Maker” is the first Nintendo game that allows players to create their own Super Mario levels.
The game utilizes a smart and intuitive drag-and-drop system that’s very easy to pick up on and doesn’t have a steep learning curve. Players can use the blocks, pipes, springs, mushrooms, Goombas and coins from past games in the series.
Players can create multifaceted levels (including underground and underwater ones) with several different stages to make their created levels unique and fun. They can combine different powerups, enemies, blocks and more to add to the complexity of their levels.
“Super Mario Maker” allows players to push the envelope past the original Mario games. So much so, in fact, Nintendo has implemented a nine-day unlock program so that the player is not overwhelmed with all the new features that the game provides for creating stages.
After you have created your own masterpiece, head to the Course World section of “Mario Maker,” where you can check out other people’s stages from a vibrant community of creators.
Stages in the Course World can be anything from simple to complex to completely outrageous. There, players can follow their favorite creators and save their stages to use as inspiration for your own designing. Or, if you’re looking to browse around and see what other Mario fans are doing, you can use the 100 Mario Challenge to complete user-created stages from around the community.
Just don’t expect a standard campaign from typical “Super Mario” games involving rescuing Princess Peach and facing Bowser in a boss battle. “Super Mario Maker” is all about reaching the end of the game.
The only important thing missing from the level editor are the checkpoints, meaning that if you fail a level, you will have to restart from the beginning.
Despite the annoyance of failure after plenty of tries, experiencing the crazy creations of others and creating your own masterpieces makes “Super Mario Maker” a unique experience every time. “Super Mario Maker” is the perfect game for fans of the classic Mario platforming.
