Super Mario Maker is not the perfect make-your-own-game that I wanted it to be. It comes as close an anything that I’ve played, a lot of that is due to the familiarity with the mechanics presented here. You know how Mario games work, it makes creating levels that fit within the pastiche of a Mario game exceedingly easy. The tool set to make that level is incredibly intuitive combining that familiarity with the amazingly simple, yet deep, UI design.
There’s so much to play with that it can be overwhelming to figure out what to base a level on. In fact, my most accomplished levels probably took an hour or more to perfect (and they’re still not completely there…) while also taking an incredible amount of focus. When I finished this level to the right, I was physically exhausted. The focus it takes to keep adding non-repeating elements is surprising, but I find finished levels leave me with such a sense of accomplishment.
The frustrating part of Super Mario Maker is the lack of a friend level hopper. You’re only way to play your friends games will be to trade a level code, which allows you to add them as a followed creator, and then visit each friend’s profile to play their levels and the levels that they have starred. Outside of following creators there’s a 100-Mario Challenge that mixes up random levels that err on the side of frustrating more than creative.
Once people get over making impossibly difficult gimmick levels that require roblox hacks to overcome, some really creative uses of Mario mechanics show through. Some people actually make realistic Mario levels. Ones that might have appeared in a Mario game at some point in the past. When I run into those inventive levels the true beauty of Super Mario Maker shines through. And I can’t get enough of that.
If you click on the maker’s portrait when viewing one of their stages it will take you to their complete stage list. there’s a little heart icon toward the top that will add them to your “following” list, which lets you easily navigate to them via the makers tab.
I’ve got everyone in my followed list. I just wish there was a feed of all the levels uploaded by those people that I could use. Instead of having to manually click through every maker.