Quick Look: Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS

GOTY

is Mario going to win GOTY again

Super Mario Offline Makerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So, you can't search for levels.

You can't favorite levels.

You can't upload 3DS levels.

Can't star levels.

Levels don't have records or stats.

. . . I'm going to imagine that the backstory of this game is that Wario has taken over Nintendo and is putting out crap games to besmirch Mario's good name.

I'm glad that Nintendo finally bought the Box Maker license off from those Chinese devs. However they left out a few vital features which makes me believe that this is nothing but a cheap rebrand off the famous Box Maker franchise.

Have to give those chinese compeditors a bit of a chance there I think, how nice of them.

Seriously though Nintendo fucked it up with this game.

So quite literally just a funnel to play near infinite Mario levels, might be ok with that

Awww man...

The problem's the name, if it was called "Super Mario Player", I'd be ok with it.

Looks like there is a mystery here for Patrick Klepeck to uncover.

To be honest, the reason why they stripped out a bunch of stuff is probably technical limitations. 3ds is a very old system and they picked what they thought was best.

The game may seem very basic (it's just a NES game!) but really having the ability to swap in and out of gameplay means most of the ram is going towards the editor.

As for they lack of search and online features...I'd imagine those batches of levels being surfaced to the 3ds are going through a conversion process on some server somewhere and are not living in the sample place as the wii u ones. The 3ds level format is probably way more optimized and in reality it's hitting a different backend to the wii u.

Purely guessing but I'd say that's it.

At least you could... remake the levels you make in the Wii U version later?

ug best game of the year - no. ANY rpg released last year is better than this platforming crap sigh. I never even understood the love people had for the original Mario. Sonic was much better (graphically and fun wise) but any of that platforming stuff paled beside good RPGs like phantasy star or super hylide.

i don't understand why you would make this game and strip out all the features that make it good

Pokemon has TONS of online features and it's 3DS exclusive, this game has no excuses.

The best thing to come out of this version of the game is the name "Coo-igi"

@mechanized: It really does and it's an awesome game! but it has nothing in the way of content creation which is a different beast altogether

Not like this....

Weird. I think this game stole it's theme music from one of my favorite YouTubers. He would sing it and everything.

What a joke.

This is the biggest disappointment of 2016, a handheld version of the Wii U game would be amazing.

This version of the game has a lot missing from it, but even the Wii U version limited you to 3 Bowsers, to be fair.

Such a shame they made this version so limiting in so many ways.

YOU HAD ONE JOB, NINTENDO!

I still might get it for the challenge mode but that's solely because I make bad decisions with my money.

Well, at least that Star Wars level was neat

Good ol' Nintendo return to form.

Its always a shame when developers cut popular features when jumping up to the next generation, they need all that horsepower to make the graphics super shiny.

I can't wait for next year when this new Nintendo handheld comes out, but for now happy end of 2010 everybody!

I thought this already existed, even after finding out it wasn't on the 3DS several times. I just keep assuming the game was on 3DS because it seems like A) such an obvious thing to do (their most popular game on their most popular platform!) and B) such a reasonable game to run on a 3DS.

How are they making so many mistakes with this? They seemed to make the wrong choice at every decision they made with this thing. This is just downright bad.

I have been getting closer and closer to buying a 3DS this year, wanting to play things like Monster Hunter and Mario and whatnot, and this would have tipped the scales enough for me to get the system and a few games next time a decent sale came around.

This is the game I feared Nintendo would make when they first announced this for the Wii U. What a weird trip to bizarro world. Also known as 2016.

Some of the best Mariomakesmen in the business.

I'm guessing that they probably thought to target this directly to school children. Since school it's the only environment in which this makes sense.

Not that it would be any less of a mistake.

I get that for certain things, but I can't imagine how not being able to enter a level code or having literally any way to find levels beyond an "I'm feeling lucky" button could be outside the 3DS's capabilities.

@cloudymusic: Exactly, hopefully they can at the very least patch in better search functionality at some point in the near future. If they could do that and perhaps an "Upload to my Wii U" function so people with the "full" version on Wii U could share their levels later, that might just salvage this game.

(Also people in the homebrew scene are already working on such tools, thankfully.)

Wow a Mario maker on the 3DS could have been the most amazing game ever.... wowwhat happened

Man, if this just allowed searching by codes I'd be interested. I'm not a creator type, so really all I need out of the game is all of the playing options.

Missing the searching is huge letdown.

So unfair that Mario Maker gets to win GOTY two years in a row. Because this is clearly a perfect, well thought-out product.

super mario disappointer

Dan asks at around 39:00 how no one speaks up in meetings to defend the functionality of Mario Maker... It's a simple answer. Japanese culture, particularly Japanese business culture forbids this sort of thing. It is taboo to question those who are older, and in positions more superior to you. It isn't like here, where people are sometimes encouraged to share their opinion and the CEO sometimes listens. It's very possible that there are people at Nintendo who are in junior positions who totally "get" Mario Maker. Unfortunately, they are virtually powerless when the higher ups make backward decisions. Nintendo is a company much like another Japanese company, Canon, who consistently make ridiculous head scratching decisions in regards to their products.

What a bummer...

That reminds me, they never did finish that box-maker level did they...?

I definitely think that they could bring Mario 2 stuff into a follow up to this, they'd just have to make it so that some things, like turnips, had equivalents in all the other versions. This would be a lot of work to be sure, but it could be done.

What really made the original game stick with me were the updates they added. It was cool to see the possibilities of the game continously grow and I still feel like there are so many more things that would be exciting if they added. I'd hate it if this amazing concept never got expanded into anything more than what it currently is.

@jonny_eh: But you can't even play other peoples levels unless they enter your proximity while both your 3DSs are on. It's fucked.

I really really miss Giantbomb makes Mario.

@thornie: This "Senpai and Kouhai" attitude is which why we can't have nice things in Japan. Its probably only one person who made all of these detrimental propositions.

Its not about respect of your upperclassmen if creating good products is part of your job. Convincing others that they may have to reconsider their proposal for the sake of a better product should be of everyones interest, expecially the company they're working in. It shouldn't be catering to what the audience wants but rather creating and maintaining quality products other companies aspire to reach.

And I know enough about Japanese working culture that I know that once you're working it is of everyones interests to work hard enough and if its good for the company its also good for you.

But my uncle never worked for Nintendo so I can't ask him if thats really true ;).

This is among the best examples of Nintendo not understanding why people like one of their games I can recall.

i dont think nintendo would cut out anything for security because the 3ds is fucking 100% wide open for homebrew at this point

looks great. buying 10 copies for friends at christmas

its funny seeing the gb crew finally getting a peek into what the average players experience of the original wii u game was like in regards to level creation, ie no one engages with your levels because you arent some well known gaming personality with a large community that will seek out what you make

This feels like the game that came out BEFORE Super Mario Maker Wii U, not over a year later.

Yeah, and I am glad that Jeff took a moment to actually explain that too.

Still though, this product seems kind of miserable anyway.