Super Mario Maker

[GaijinPunch]

I've not bought an NTSC-U system in... fuck me... 20 years. Last one was the Sega Saturn.

I can imagine that particular instance scarred you pretty badly.

Not in the least. Bought a converter for imports. Played Rayearth soon after my purchase and was in love.

[BryanM]

I doubt "no one would by new Mario games if they can just make their own" is a real concern.

Then you're not familiar with corporate culture!

There's reasons why this didn't come out ten years ago. Even Wrecking Crew let you make levels, sheesh.

I mean, some of the Mario games can be pretty vanilla, but they nonetheless still introduce some new power-ups, enemies, and level-themes each game.

They've been really conservative on adding new cosplay suits. SMB3 was my favorite because it just has so much variety. SMW was actually a pretty mild let down for me. I wanted a game that was more mario than Mario, 3 on crack basically, and they pulled sharply back instead. Less and less instead of more and more.

It was a conscious decision to cater to low skill players and save money at the same time. If you had to make 14 new suits every game, it'd be really tough making each one distinct and notable, and by extension, making the games feel different from one another. The diminishing returns on trying to appeal to the hardcore.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Do the Goomba's react like the SMW Goombas (now officially Galoombas) in SMW mode? Telling from videos, the Koopa Troopas come out of their shells in SMW mode.

Yup, in SMW mode they work exactly as you'd expect. Obviously you can't throw Giant Galoombas, though.
Koopas also work as usual, including getting back into their shell. However, they won't kick shells at you, nor is there an option to place empty shells or shell-less koopas.


e: The most random DLC I've ever seen

[BrianC]

I noticed Necky was also in a collab for Puzzle and Dragons.

I also like 3 better than World, but I do feel some of issues with World are overstated. It's true you can fly over some areas, but a good chunk of areas are in caves and some areas aren't so easy to fly over due to obstacles. I like it quite a bit myself and feel it's one of the better early SNES games. It was also the first Mario game with ghost houses, which I feel are one of the best additions to the series (though SMB3 had some similar levels).

It looks like the game should be arriving tomorrow. I can't wait to make some Mario levels!

[cave hermit]

Got my copy earlier today, and spent a hour or so with it.

Still haven't unlocked any new course elements, but right now I'm working on a level revolving around trick shots with koopa shells to take out enemies blocking choke points and grab out-of-reach coin stashes.

When I finish, I'll be sure to share it here, and when I get some free time I'll try any levels that pop up here!

[city41]

I'm a little disappointed that the Mario Maker engine doesn't support the "bounce on koopa repeatedly for infinite lives". After the first bounce you fall through the shell and it looks very deliberate. Like they purposely decided to cut this off.

I played one level which had about 100 fire piranha plants all stacked in a small space. There were so many fireballs it slowed the game way down, felt like a shmup


Here's one of my levels if anyone is inclined: 4DE6-0000-0030-EFCD

[city41]

Mario Maker is really awesome, but my two biggest complaints are:

1. No check points


2. discovery: like most online communities where tons of content gets created, it's difficult for good stuff to get discovered. For example this is one of my favorite levels I have found: D24D-0000-001D-E173 yet it only has one star and only 8 people have played it. I'd argue it's much better than the vast majority of the top starred levels.

[BryanM]

2. discovery: like most online communities where tons of content gets created, it's difficult for good stuff to get discovered. For example this is one of my favorite levels I have found: D24D-0000-001D-E173 yet it only has one star and only 8 people have played it. I'd argue it's much better than the vast majority of the top starred levels.

My netflix profile idea is the best, be sure to pass it along to Nintendo.

[city41]

My netflix profile idea is the best, be sure to pass it along to Nintendo.

Part of why Netflix's algorithm works is there's only about 10,000 titles to contend with. There's probably already hundreds of thousands of courses, and headed into the millions any day now.

[cave hermit]

I hope that over time players learn to be a little more subdued with level elements instead of just filling every empty space with coins and spawning in stacks of giant bowsers for no apparent reason; the thing is that creativity comes from making clever use of the tools you're limited to, and when you're handed virtually every tool possible it becomes a little tempting to go for the style over substance route.

I would think that it's a good idea to make levels heavily focused around a small set of unique elements, and then limit yourself to just those elements while designing the level: a lot of fun little setpieces and challenges can arise just by throwing a handful of elements together in different ways and seeing how they interact!

Regarding coins, I don't think they should be used as a reward in themselves, I think that they should be used to prompt players to try things you want them to do, or to highlight alternative challenge paths.

[ryu]

I craved and got a copy of this. I'm only getting started, but here's one of my stages so far: AD1B 0000 0038 7DC7

They should have let us start with more enemies to choose from. Kinda hard to make a proper stage with just a hand full of enemy types.

[Ebbo]

I would think that it's a good idea to make levels heavily focused around a small set of unique elements, and then limit yourself to just those elements while designing the level: a lot of fun little setpieces and challenges can arise just by throwing a handful of elements together in different ways and seeing how they interact!

Agreed. For now I've purposefully limited myself using only elements that have appeared in the original SMB and gradually work myself up to different themes and parts once I've become familiar enough with quirks of the editor.

Anyway, here is another stage with a time trial goal and couple of secrets as well: F3D8-0000-0030-DFD3

[mamboFoxtrot]

Hahaha, getting my sister to try out stages is always an... interesting experience. She's older than me, but sometimes plays like a toddler experiencing video games for the first time.

Anyways, a couple courses:
ECC3-0000-003A-2EBD
39FB-0000-003A-320A

[EllertMichael]

I'm a little disappointed that the Mario Maker engine doesn't support the "bounce on koopa repeatedly for infinite lives". After the first bounce you fall through the shell and it looks very deliberate. Like they purposely decided to cut this off.

That's not true, I nailed the infinite lives trick the other night.
Not that it really matters because basically you get infinite lives anyway...

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I messed around with demo for this at best buy earlier today. Now I have to get this as soon as possible. And I was pretty much dead set on not buying a WiiU before also.

[cave hermit]

Spent another hour and half with this last night; I'm just about done with my first level, but I'd like to see if there are any last minute additions I can make before uploading, like maybe more coins or power ups.

I'm probably going to hide a mystery mushroom somewhere in it...

[broken harbour]

My preorder finally arrived last night (3 days late) and after a few hours I nearly completed one level.

-The interface is very intuitive, bravo nintendo...

-Unlocks are slow, and once you unlock new tools, you want to mess with your level again and make it better, would have been nice to have a 'unlock everything now' button or something.

-Nice printed booklet came with the game, very high quality, surprising since nintendo has been so cheapskate lately with manuals and such.

-Speaking of manuals, the digital manual featured in-game is excellent so far.

-Also, funny anecdote my wife noticed... there's a 8 page booklet in the case where the manual would normally be showing you how to find the manual in game, printed in 8 languages.... couldn't they have printed a small manual for the same price as that insert? Weird...

-Hard to curate levels, I tried some, some were great and really creative, others were... pretty lame, there's of course a huge amount of near-impossible deathtrap levels out there, people need to back it off a notch and make sure the levels are fun, not just difficult.

-Speaking of which, I didn't realize how easy it is to make super hard levels, even the one I'm designing now I've had to go back and ease up a bit. No wonder old games used to be so hard, they drew them on graph paper, they didn't have tools like Mario Maker back then where you can playtest/design on the fly.

-For the first time since I bought the Wii U, I actually killed the battery in the controller... I think I might have to buy the high capacity battery after all... *shakes fist*

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Fuck you, Nintendo.

[broken harbour]

Jeebus you'd think Nintendo would get it by now.

"Hey fans really want a Mario level builder, look at all these rom hacks online..."

"Yeah, let's make them one, and the punch them in the teeth at the same time."

It's not like the existence of fan created level building tools will have even the slightest effect on Mario Maker sales....

[Obiwanshinobi]

The loyalists having forgiven 3DS region lock (or has it been cracked by now?), I think Nintendo's counting on the faithful, hoping the latter will bring up the next generation of buyers.

[cave hermit]

I'm just going to say that I have been a Nintendo fanboy for a very long time. Nintendo was essentially my childhood.

In recent years however I have been becoming increasingly cynical about Nintendo, and for a long period of time I completely stopped giving a shit about them.

Starting from about a year or two ago however I suddenly became interested in all the new games Nintendo had been putting out, what with the new Animal Crossing, Splatoon, new Smash bros, etc.

However between Amiibo bullshit, region locking, and Nintendo's horrible treatment of Youtubers, my patience is starting to wear a bit thin.

Ignoring that however, I would still like to appreciate the games Nintendo makes, and keep the corporate side of things a nonfactor in my enjoyment of their games.

[cave hermit]

Well I tried all the stages posted here, and I thought they were all pretty interesting to play!

Some general feedback though:

-Try to maintain a sense of focus throughout your level: keep terrain consistent, try to build theming with a specific enemy or multiple variations on a specific type of challenge, etc.
This helps keep the player focused and helps make your stage stand out as a memorable experience.

-Unless you're making a speed run stage or a deliberately difficult stage, try and be forgiving to the player. Add some more mushrooms between challenge points, try not to make bottomless pits too wide, etc. Remember that most players will give up after 4 or so tries!

[cave hermit]

Also, after a good few hours of work over the past 2 days I finally uploaded my first level!

"Shell Shock!"
5245-0000-003F-B7DB

Give it a shot, and let me know what you think of it! I put a lot of love into this one!

By the way, there's a secret mystery mushroom block hidden in the stage: I'll give you a hint, be on the lookout for any coins that seem out of the way

[mamboFoxtrot]

It was an okay stage, though too short/easy for my taste. You kinda went way overboard with the coins though.

-Try to maintain a sense of focus throughout your level: keep terrain consistent, try to build theming with a specific enemy or multiple variations on a specific type of challenge, etc.
This helps keep the player focused and helps make your stage stand out as a memorable experience.

Yanno, I see a lot of people saying this, but the majority of regular Mario stages (and really most platformers) aren't like this. Or, at least not to the extremes that a lot of people take this point. It makes me feel like if actual Mario levels were put up, and people didn't recognize them, that they wouldn't think much of them. But, then again, those levels aren't really meant to be played by themselves.


Anyways, I popped Mario All-Stars in yesterday for a bit, and holy shit how did I not notice earlier that the SMB1 physics are way off in this game. The acceleration and gravity are a lot less than the original. It's basically just SMB3 with different sprites and no item grabbing. I mean, I'm glad they added enemy bouncing, backtracking, and Starman speed-boost to SMB1 for this, but... I want my flea jumps, dammit! They're the main reason I keep coming back to SMB1/Lost Levels instead of the other Mario games.
I wouldn't be surprised if the other game-modes were off a bit as well, in order to homogenize them.

[broken harbour]

I was able to finish up a level today... With only a small set of tools available, only the first two rows of components unlocked:

A7F0-0000-003F-F642

[BryanM]

I wouldn't be surprised if the other game-modes were off a bit as well, in order to homogenize them.

The physics are identical (roughly New Super Marioish) across the modes sayeth the internet. I guess you haven't played SMB1 in years eh? : D

I know, it's counter-intuitive.

[mamboFoxtrot]

It probably has been a year or more since I last really played SMB1. If it's supposed to be NSMB-ish, then I guess it's the Wii U one (I haven't played it), as the regular Wii NSMB's controls drove me nuts.

I was able to finish up a level today... With only a small set of tools available, only the first two rows of components unlocked:

A7F0-0000-003F-F642

Bruh, just set your Wii U's calendar to the next day every time they tell you more parts are on the way. Don't worry, setting it back to normal once you've got everything won't mess anything up.
Also, why is there a dead end at the top-left of your course? It's otherwise okay, though the path fork near the end feels a bit strange. There's also a few spots where it seems not killing the Piranha Plants with the Koopa Shell kinda screws you over.

[ancestral-knowledge]

Hello everybody.

Just to say it from the start. Super Mario Maker is not perfectly accurate Mario. I will only talk about the classic Mario (Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 2 for the FDS).

I played A LOT of Super Mario 1 and 2 on the NES, Famicom Disk System, on the Virtual Console etc. and it's a little bit off in SMM. Mario moves and jumps quite differently. There are jumps that do not work in the classic ones but work in SMM and vice versa.

I was very confused playing SMM last night.

A classic example is when Mario is beneath a block with a mushroom. In classic Mario it is a very hard jump to get the mushroom and land on the block at the same time because in midair the powerup animation "drains" the jump away. In SMM this jump is no problem. Another problem is falling and pressing right against a wall to get into an opening. It simply does not work on SMM but it does in classic. It just feels off. The acceleration of Mario, the jump arcs, just everything. As someone who has put about 250 hours into the first classic games I just can feel that it is off. When you try to run over 1-block gaps for instance you need a lot more space to speed up than in the classic original ones.
The 1 up trick with a koopa is impossible in SMM.

The mechanics are off to. There is no boost that you get in Mario Bros 1 when you jump off an enemy and hold the run button. In SMM there is. The weird bounce mechanic from SMB 2 is nowhere to be found. I SMB1 you don't get lives by killing enemies with a star. You just get 100 points for every kill. Why is this included in SMM for a classic course?

I wanted a perfect version of Mario 1 and Mario 2 mechanics like the virtual console versions had.

I noticed another thing in the level creator of the classic titles which is HUUUGE for me. The powerups are not dependent on Marios state. This is a horrible design flaw. There should be a flower when you are big Mario and if you are small Mario there should only be a mushroom. This is very bad because it influences level design highly. There is a reason that there is only ONE powerup in every castle in classic Mario. It is because getting flawlessly to bowser with a fire flower is rewarded by being able to kill him easily.

I have very mixed feelings about this. :/

[cave hermit]

It was an okay stage, though too short/easy for my taste. You kinda went way overboard with the coins though.

I suppose maybe I did use coins a bit too much; I intended for the coins to guide the player, but I might have overdone it to the point where the coins were hand holding the player.

I probably could have made the level longer, but I liked how the last two challenges kind of had a climax and epilogue feel, so I ran with it and ended the stage there. It's a bit short, but I think it's about on par with early SMB 1 levels.

Regarding difficulty I was trying to go for a typical SMB1 level of difficulty that's somewhat easy, with a tough part or two. Although I could probably up the difficulty a little bit, maybe swap out one of the bonus setpieces for another challenge instead.

In any case I'll try and keep your feedback in mind for next time!

[BrianC]

I noticed another thing in the level creator of the classic titles which is HUUUGE for me. The powerups are not dependent on Marios state. This is a horrible design flaw. There should be a flower when you are big Mario and if you are small Mario there should only be a mushroom. This is very bad because it influences level design highly. There is a reason that there is only ONE powerup in every castle in classic Mario. It is because getting flawlessly to bowser with a fire flower is rewarded by being able to kill him easily.

It's not quite the same, but at least you can create a level where you start off as fire Mario (by placing the fire flower at the start point) with no power ups throughout the rest of the level. You can still do a single fire power up in the level too, though I still would have liked the ability to have blocks put out a mushroom when small and a different power up when big (they should have done something similar for mystery mushoorms too with the special characters gaining a special ability when a mystery mushroom is grabbed as the special character). What I like about Bangai-O DS's level editor is that it kept things simple while still having items for stuff like walls that open when enemies are defeated. However, while I'm disappointed by some things left out (and SMB just being post SMB3 Mario with less power ups), I still like Mario Maker quite a bit for what you can do with it.