By Tarifah Bin Sulayem
DUBAI — In celebration of Mario’s 30th anniversary, Nintendo’s favorite hero dives into a new journey where you create and edit his path as you navigate through the plumber’s perilous adventure. “Super Mario Maker” is an all-new take on classic Mario games, bringing user-generated content to the series.
Overview
Nintendo’s iconic mascot first debuted in the arcade game, “Donkey Kong” as Jump Man back in 1981, later renamed as Mario in his first title, “Super Mario Bros.,” four years later.
The Mario franchise only grew from there. More installments were added to the series including four-player party games like “Mario Golf,” “Mario Kart,” “Mario Tennis” and everybody’s favorite, “Mario Party.”
Gameplay
“Super Mario Maker” is pretty easy to play, especially with the help of its tutorial which appears when you attempt to create your first stage. The more you create and design your stage, the more items and enemies you unlock. After some playtime, you will be able to make longer and more complex courses with some of your favorite Nintendo characters and enemies.
Although this game lacks a storyline, it gives the player complete control over every detail, including what power-ups, items or enemies to hide in question blocks or green pipes. The game also gives players the freedom to choose art-styles from previous Mario games from retro 8-bit graphics to modern 3D art style.
New features
“Super Mario Maker” introduces another new feature, costumes. Players unlock new costumes to use in their courses with Amiibo figurines like Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Rosalina, Pac Man, and several Pokémon.
Since the WiiU’s inception, Nintendo has been working hard to create a more social environment with online sharing features especially with the MiiVerse and Friend List applications. With that in mind, “Super Mario Maker” also includes the option of uploading and sharing your own courses that other users can download via a 16-digit code.
In “Course World,” gamers play uploaded courses and can star their favorites which increases those courses’ ranking. The courses with the most stars end up on top.
The game definitely draws inspiration from another iconic user-generated platform, “Minecraft.” Although “Minecraft” does not exactly have any targets or courses to clear, however as players set their own goals and have the freedom to create any world they want.
In both games, your only limit is your imagination.
Reception
“Super Mario Maker” has been given positive ratings and reviews since it’s release in early September. 68 critics from Metacritic gave it an average of 88%, and IGN awarded it a 9/10.
The WiiU’s latest installment was also given an award from E3 for Best Family/Social Game of 2015 while IGN honored it with two awards: Best Platformer in a tie with PS4’s Cuphead and Best WiiU Game.
The game sold exceptionally well in the first week of its release, with over 150,000 physical copies and 12,000 bundles sold in Japan alone.
Nintendo’s Japanese Twitter account was proud to announce that over a million user-created courses have been uploaded in one week.
“Super Mario Maker” was the second bestselling game in the UK almost catching up with Metal Gear Solid V.
This story was originally published on Sept. 29, 2015. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 25, 2020. The photo that accompanied this story was lost due to the loss of the domain name.
