Number Three: Super Mario Maker

I mean, it sort of has to be on here, doesn’t it?  Unlike everything else I’m putting on this list, even the Witcher 3, there’s going to be some controversy as to whether or not it’s worthy of a top 5 list.  Especially my Game of the Year.  However, It’s difficult to understand why anyone could deny that Super Mario Maker, a practically bottomless well of unique, interesting and outright insane Mario levels wouldn’t deserve to be on this list.

It’s Mario.  Nintendo packaged the best parts of Mario and let the community do (almost) whatever it wanted to with it, and the community ran wild.  First, just the sheer scope of this game is worth of praise.  Yes, there are fan hacks and level editors on the Internet, and they’ve existed for decades, and some of them may have better tools than this one, but that’s not the point.  The fact that Nintendo would release these tools to the public and allow anyone with a Wii U to go nuts and live out their desire to be Shigeru Miyamoto is amazing.  Then, to present the game with such clean visuals, an excellent and well designed user interface and continued support, it’s just phenomenal.

In the package, there’s nothing wrong here.  Sure, it could probably use more stuff, and the fact that every generation runs on a modified version of the New Super Mario Bros. U physics is slightly disappointing, these are minor problems, at worst, and in practice, are minor nuisances.  Mario handles great, better than he did in Super Mario Bros. U, in fact, and the switch to other generations is hardly noticeable, except in the most extreme cases.  Then, when it comes to actually building a level, Nintendo has done everything they can to make the process as painless as possible.  In a lot of ways, it’s similar to Minecraft, or Lego.  It may not be as in depth as some other level editors, but it does allow for anyone to jump in and work on what they want, how they want to, thanks to such an easy to use process of level construction.  Nintendo puts all their tools right out in the open, and makes it so they’re easy to access, and does a really good job of teaching new players how to use these tools, even the ones that are slightly less intuitive than others.

Even the limitations are, in some ways, a strength, since it allows for a lot of designers to come up with inventive solutions, in many cases, strengthening their levels.  I’m a big proponent of utilizing the tools to go outside the intended scope, and using limitations as a means to be even more creative, and the community as risen to the challenge.  There are so many levels that are more than just Mario levels, or worse, Kaizo Mario or Auto Mario rip offs.  I’ve seen Zelda games, Sonic levels and Metroid maps.  I even saw some guy turn a level into a working calculator.  That is absolutely insane.  Even more, Nintendo continues to support the game, adding more and more tools and ideas every day.

Sure, things aren’t perfect.  Unlocking things, and the Amiibo functionality, aren’t exactly great, or fun, especially attempting 100 Mario games, and it apparently used to be worse before I got my copy (something like almost 20 days just to have all of the level editing features?  Lame), but now we’re starting to see things level off and it’s becoming pure creativity.

So far, I’ve only seen two real downsides, and they do sort of play into each other.  First, not everyone is going to be a talented level designer, and that does mean there are going to be a lot of bad levels.  Worse, because of how hyper competitive video game communities tend to be, curating the experience is currently a nightmare, with the most popular and well known levels being more about difficulty, which is often arbitrary instead of skill based, rather than creativity.  There are some truly challenging and good levels out there, but there’s also a lot of stuff that’s trying to rip off things like I Want to be the Guy, with difficulty being more about rote memorization rather than skill.  Related to this, the other problem is that the game is intimidating as Hell.  Yes, Nintendo has removed a lot of barriers to entry, but some still exist, and a lot of them are somewhat psychological.

Full disclosure, I have not completed or submitted a level of my own yet.  I’ve played a bunch of fan made ones, plus a bunch that come pre-loaded on the disc, but I haven’t been able to finish one of my own.  Part of this is that I’m a grown man with a full time job and papers to grade, and I keep thinking World of Warcraft will be good to me this time around, but another part is that it’s scary.  There’s a lot going on, and I want to make a good level.  Still, that’s just me, and not a reflection of the game.  The tools themselves are nice, but they do scare me.

Still, it’s some of the best Mario I’ve ever played, and it might just be the gift that keeps on giving.  Sail on Nintendo, you crazy bastards.  Sail on.