Super Mario Maker is set to launch on the Wii U on September the 11th. The thing is, most people don’t know that Nintendo’s newest Mario makes game design fun.
We’ve all played Bob the Builder in a Warcraft or Starcraft map editor, and while we had plenty of tools at our disposal – see Dota and TD – they weren’t that approachable to newcomers.
You see, Super Mario Maker is highly addictive mainly because it’s so easy to design a level. You have familiar tools that won’t overwhelm users, the gamepad fits the medium perfectly and you can immediately play your creation.
If you’re a gamer then you most likely played Mario once in your lifetime. If you own a Wii U, now’s your chance to relive those childhood stress-free glory days. Remember those pipes, blocks and power-ups from the original Super Mario Bros.? Welp, they are part of your library of tools in Mario Maker.
Because these tools are so familiar, Nintendo doesn’t explain what the ? blocks do, or what a mushroom consists off – no Timmy, a bad trip isn’t the correct answer.
Tools are highly intuitive, they are evergreen. Even if you didn’t lay a finger on Mario ever, you’ll know what to do without help from a tutorial.
Too many tools, too much functionality may be overwhelming at first. If it’s too hard on the first try, gamers might not launch the title a second time. Super Mario Maker locks the majority of tools at the beginning. It may be a little bit annoying to some that the game forces you to play through in order to unlock tools, but that’s the gamification element.
If you want to unlock boo ghosts or warp pipes, you are required to play at least five minutes a day, each day, for an entire week.
These limitations keep the game from overwhelming users. You master the basics as you play, and you unlock new possibilities when Nintendo thinks you are comfortable enough.
Game design is incredibly hard and sometimes downright boring. I’ve wasted my fair share of time developing my very own Warcraft 3 campaign, only to not even play it because I was so exhausted by the whole design process.
The whole design process has been streamlined so it doesn’t feel like such a chore. The Wii U gamepad is seriously the best input for Super Mario Maker. It frees your mind and hands. It’s easy and fun to just draw crazy things and then unleash them onto the virtual world.
That’s the thing. You create and then you can immediately play your creation. You don’t even have to finish the level. The Play button can be found in the left corner of the screen. Tapping it unleashes your creation, regardless if it’s complete or not. This is mainly used for testing things out.
The bottom line is, Super Mario Maker is just, simply put, fun.
You build a level from scratch, then you can play it. If you want to undo something, then just use the cute dog button. I’m just dying to play it again!
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