October Magazine

them in other objects, or give some
elements items themselves.
Take for instance a red Koopa-
Troopa. Shake it to turn it from the
platform falling green Koopa to the
platform patrolling red Koopa. Move
it and put it in a pipe to make that
pipe pump out red Koopas. Then,
give the Koopa a mushroom, and
you make the Koopa big. Item
placement makes sense, none of
the controls are too weird. The thing
about shaking elements is that
every shakeable item isn’t really
detailed anywhere, not in the game
at least. Even after everything’s unlocked,
there’s still some secrets to
be found, which lends an extra layer
of exploration.
As an aside, when tapping with the
GamePad, the music of the currently
theme partially plays out. It’s
nothing amazing, but I found myself
at times tapping out the rhythm, and
the music playing was one of those
neat little touches that felt right in
place.
Super Mario Maker also has a lot to
offer amiibo-wise. Every released
amiibo up to this point so far unlocks
a Costume Mario through the
Mystery Mushroom item, an eight
bit pixel version of that character
that turns Mario into that character,
exclusively to the Super Mario Bros.
palette. This opens up the possibility
for theme levels starring Donkey
Kong, Link, even Pikachu is available.
Previously, Pokémon amiibo
were unavailable to be an amiibo
skin in Yoshi’s Woolly World, which
felt strange considering how dominant
Pokémon is as a Nintendo
franchise.
Even with all the tools given, there’s
still room for improvement. Being
able to add a checkpoint to a level
would really help out for longer levels,
or adding slopes to the landscape
are prominent in Super Mario
games from Super Mario World
onward and Super Mario Bros. 3
onward respectively would add a little
bit extra to an already fantastic
game. The addition of these could
be made possible with downloadable
content, which thus far is confirmed
for the Japanese version of
the game with a downloadable costume
of the Famitsu mascot Necky
the Fox, so the potential is there for
more content to be delivered.
Even if you don’t have the flair for
making, there’s a near-unlimited
amount of levels out there for players
to choose from. On-disk, there’s
the 10 Mario Challenges, where Super
Mario Maker presents eight premade
stages for you to play through
with ten lives to make it. On completion,
these levels are saved for you
to later edit and to be inspired by.
Even with what Super Mario Maker
brings to the table, it’s like Nintendo
made a Super Mario game’s worth
of content. Some levels may be a
little on the short side. But for what
they lack in length, they provide fun
in spades.
Then after spending countless
hours perfecting your masterpiece,
it’s time to take it online. When
choosing to upload a stage, you
have to perform the clear test, to
prove that the level itself is winnable.
At first, ten levels can be uploaded.
This can be expanded by
receiving stars from people who
play your level think it’s decent
enough. Notifications are received
in-game in real time when someone
plays or stars your levels, which is
pretty cool. Statistics are also given
for stages for amount of total attempts
compared to the amount
of number of level completions, as
well as this number as a percentage
for the clear rate, the amount of
stars a level has received, and the
amount of unique users who have
chosen that level. At this point however,
levels can only be searched
for with a twelve digit code, and
can’t be searched for their name,
graphic option, or clear rate. Nintendo
had been changing hard to
take on a modern approach to online
play with the Wii U; this twelve
digit code feels similar to the friend
codes of yore, and with that taking
a step back.
Like the offline 10 Mario Challenge,
the amount of playability online is
off the charts. Despite limited ways
to search for levels, you can view an
assortment of popular, or newly uploaded
levels to try out. There’s also
the 100 Mario Challenge, where
instead of having ten lives playing
premade levels, the 100 Mario
Challenge selects 8 or 16 levels on
the easy or normal and expert difficulties,
where other user’s uploaded
levels are randomly selected for
you to play through. A handy feature
is the option to be given a different
level by holding down the minus
button. While I can appreciate really
difficult levels, you’re not always
in the mood for them. On completion
of the 100 Mario Challenge, a
Costume Mario skin is unlocked at
random – even if it can be unlocked
with an amiibo. Granted, some costumes
cannot be unlocked with amiibo,
so it’s worth playing through the
100 Mario Challenge a whole lot of
times no matter what.
Super Mario Maker gives every one
of us a little bit of Nintendo magic to
play with, and to share with others
around the world. There’s a little bit
of charm and wonder hiding behind
every corner, even if the corner can
be a little immersion-killing at times.
Definitely a must have for any Wii U
owners out there.