Super Mario Maker will finally see its anticipated release for the 3DS this Friday, December 2nd. And level creators should be shaking with anticipation — because it’s a new outlet for what they do best.
Players have always enjoyed creating courses for the game, reveling in the nostalgia and fun of Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World. The very success of the game is owed to the fact that courses can be created, played, and shared with others.
So how will this work for the 3DS? What does it mean for Wii U level creators?
Firstly, the Wii U is now pretty much an obsolete console, so the numbers of users has really dropped. That means there are less people to play and share the game with. But Super Mario Maker for the 3DS brings with it nearly everything from the original game – and makes it portable!
It is exactly the same game that we know and love from last year. Players can play and create side-scrolling Mario levels, built from a toolkit of familiar elements collected from a few entries in the decades old series. These range from simple remixes of familiar tropes to more elaborate creations that truly push the boundaries of how the items were originally used — such as the bullet hell dodging exercises.
Super Mario Maker is a natural fit for the 3DS due to the short nature of its levels and free-form design mode lend themselves perfectly to playing in short bursts, dropping in and out of the game on the go. For the 100 Mario challenges, where players try to complete a set of user created challenges with 100 lives, those games can be downloaded from the Wii U, to the 3DS port. The recommended courses for the game allow players to browse the most popular courses from the Wii U’s library too.
The very fact that there is no noticeable drop in quality reported for the game, due to the change in platform is great to hear and the retro style of the game works perfectly for a device with a much lower resolution. The touch sensitive lower screen, with a stylus works perfectly for building levels with the game’s editor and the full feature set will be available for course building — so even though the Wii U base is slowly declining, this port can totally revitalize the game and allow level creators to keep doing what they love to do.
Levels created on the 3DS can be shared with other 3DS players via local wireless. Friends can collaborate on levels by passing them back and forth via Local Play. This is a great feature and superior to the Wii U’s global creator community, as it creates a stronger social networking effect. This is a perfect feature for a handheld device, for a fun and competitive gaming experience.
For a fun, portable and replayable Mario experience, this game is going to be great. The 3DS version will launch with 100 exclusive levels and access to the vast majority of user-created online content. In addition, for the most established Mario level makers, the game can also work as a supplement for playing with ideas on the go too.
