Written By:
Patrick Orquia
TITLE: Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS
DEVELOPER: Nintendo EAD
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
GENRE: level editor, platformer
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1
RELEASE DATE: 01 December 2017 (JP)/02 December 2017
(NA/EU)/03 December 2017 (AUS)
PLATFORM: 3DS system
PRICE: $39.99
Any Mario
games fan probably, at one point, dreamed of making their own courses. I know I
did. There are some Mario levels that I wish I could change a bit. Maybe add a
platform over here or remove a Goomba over there, just to make it more fun. Or
maybe easier, as some Mario levels are devilishly hard. However it is, making
their own courses would be really fun for sure. And sure enough, Super Mario Maker
got released to the Wii U to raving reviews. Now, the dream of player-created
courses has come to fruition, and players have had a field day with the game.
Over 7 million courses have been created and uploaded by Wii U players of the
game. That is almost an eternity worth of Mario courses, ranging from simple
ones to Rube Goldberg machine types to the insanely difficult ones. The sky is
almost the limit, and players of the game really made the most of what the game
offers.
A year
later, the game got ported to the Nintendo 3DS system. Super Mario Maker for
Nintendo 3DS is pretty much a straight port, with almost all the features of
the original carried over, except for some glaring omissions that many feel
sort of miss the point of the game. But for me, the game suits the 3DS better,
because I could now make courses and play courses made by other people on the
go.
One glaring and the biggest omission in the 3DS version of
the game is the inability of the courses to be uploaded to the internet. In
this version, the player can still make courses with almost of all the game elements
from the Wii U version, but the created courses can only be shared via StreetPass
or local wireless transfer. I don’t know anyone personally who owns a 3DS who
lives near me, so the chance of my courses getting played by others is close to
none. Luckily, I’m not the course maker type, I’m more of a player, and courses
created on the Wii U version can still be accessed on this version. Not all
though. Those courses that use Mystery Mushrooms that grant special characters costumes
for Mario is off the list, because they are exclusive to the Wii U version.
Also, the Wii U courses that can be played on this version cannot be
specifically chosen, meaning the player won’t be able to search for course ID
or creator or other specific categories. Players also won’t be able to give
feedbacks to courses, but can still be downloaded for offline play or editing.
There are two ways to access the Wii U-created courses: via
the 100 Mario Challenge or through recommended courses. Levels are chosen by
the game at random for the 100 Mario Challenge, based on the difficulty level.
If the course is not what you like to play or, more often, gets too hard to
finish, that course can be skipped. For the Recommended Courses option, the
courses are listed based on recommendations or ranking set by other players,
also categorized by difficulty (or can be set to all types of difficulty).
Again, these courses can be downloaded for offline play or editing, so if the
players gets to play a particularly good course, they can save it. The game
allows for 30 worlds with 4 levels each for downloaded and own-created courses,
for a total of 120 courses. That is quite a lot of courses, and as long as
Nintendo keeps the servers up, there will be an endless supply of new courses
to try.
Now, if these recommended and 100 Mario Challenge courses
are still not enough, there are 100 built-in, ready-made courses in this
version of the game that can be played via the Super Mario Challenge. These
courses are Nintendo-created, meaning, these are of top quality comparable to
other levels found in the past 2D side-scroller Mario games, so no insanely
difficult or do-not-move-or-you-die courses. Again, these are 100 courses, much
more that those that can be found in the past games. In comparison, Super Mario
World only has 72 unique levels. Another good thing about these
Nintendo-created courses is the achievement medals. Each of these courses has 2
achievement medals that can be won by completing the course while meeting a
specific requirement, like reaching the goal with 270 seconds left in the clock
or getting all 100 coins or passing through a warp pipe, etc. These achievement
medals can either be an easy requirement or a hard one, and winning both allows
the player to edit that course. 88 of these courses are divided into 18 worlds,
with each world having at 4 to 8 courses. Upon completion of these 18 worlds,
the last 12 courses get unlocked in the Coursebot, where all completed Super
Mario Challenge courses get saved for future replay (ideal for those who are
having problems winning the medals, because a good number of those have very
difficult requirements. You never knew how as trivial as reaching the goal
without pressing the back button could be very hard to do). Also, upon
completion of a world, new game elements get added to the Course Maker, like
the one-way walls or key doors or the clown car. Completing all 100 courses
unlocks all game elements for course creation.
Course creation in this version of the game is still as good
and fun as the one in the Wii U original. The player build the course using
available game elements on the touchscreen. Game elements can be used in a
variety of ways, like stacking enemies on top of another, use shells as
helmets, and make cannons shoot out super mushrooms or fire flowers instead on
the usual Bullet Bills. The courses can still be any of these four Mario game
design: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, or New Super
Mario Bros. U. There are more game elements readily available to the player in
this version of the game than in the original, and more can be unlocked by
completing courses from the Super Mario Challenge (players need to spend time
creating courses over a span of nine days in the original). Some game elements
and gameplay mechanics are exclusive to one type of Mario design, like the wall
jump which is only available to NSMBU while in SMB, Mario cannot carry shells.
But some game elements can be used in games where they did not appear
originally, like Boos appearing in SMB. This is why Super Mario Maker is the
ultimate Mario 2D platformer, because the number of combination of game styles
and elements is almost endless. Also, there are available tutorial sessions
that the player can watch to get more idea on how to create courses, courtesy
of the course creation guru pigeon Yamamura and his trusted human apprentice
Mary O. The two also do some short skits at the end of completed worlds in the
Super Mario Challenge, explaining what the newly unlocked game elements do.
This makes creating courses on this version of the game easier, despite not
being able to use the Wii U-exclusive Mystery Mushroom for the SMB course
design that feature 150 costumes for Mario.
But again, the inability to share courses online is one big
bummer. Nintendo could have implemented it, but at this point in time, Super
Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is now just an afterthought, since the Switch is
already out. It would have been better if the 3DS version got released along
with the Wii U version concurrently, like how it was done with Super Smash
Boss. 4. At this point in time, Nintendo has yet to confirm if there would be a
Switch version or sequel of the game that will be released, but it will not be
surprising if that happens.
Overall, Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is a great game,
despite lacking some features from the original. I personally love it, and
since I’m not much of a course creator myself (although I did create one and I
think it is pretty good), I don’t really mind much the StreetPass- or local
wireless-only sharing of created courses. The 100 Nintendo-made course somehow
makes up for that. These pre-made courses are not a walk in the park,
especially those in the latter worlds, and they become even harder to beat if
you are a completionist and you want to win all the achievement medals, the
last course being almost too impossible for me to beat and I had to give up
after about almost 2 hours of trying it (I did beat it a couple of days later,
but no achievement medals). As far as I know, you don’t win or unlock anything
extra with the achievement medals, maybe except from bragging rights. Whether
you are a completionist or just a plain fan of the Mario series, this game is
highly recommended to you. You can create your own courses or play those that
other players created, and whatever you choose, you are sure to have endless
fun.
*Originally posted on Cowntsikin
REPLAY VALUE: extremely high
PROS:
- Almost all the game elements used to create courses in the Wii U original is present in this version of the game
- The dual screen set-up of the 3DS makes it as easy and fun to create courses as in the original
- The 100 Mario Challenge is also present in this version of the game
- 100 built-in, Nintendo-made courses available to be played on the get go via the Super Mario Challenge
- Each of these built-in courses has 2 achievement medals to collect, making completing the courses more challenging
- Recommended courses made by players of the Wii U version of the game can be played on this one via the Course World
- Download and save up to 120 courses, either built by you or from the Recommended Courses via the Coursebot
- Created courses can be shared via StreetPass or via local wireless
- Unfinished courses can be shared to another player to finish via local wireless transfer
CONS:
- Created courses cannot be uploaded online, unlike in the Wii U version
- Recommended courses that can be played from the Course World cannot be specifically searched by course name, course ID, or course creator. You also can’t leave feedbacks or give star ratings
- Putting game elements in the courses are a bit harder on the smaller touchscreen of the 3DS
RATING: 4.5/5 Super Mario Stars
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