There perhaps isn’t a single character or series that is more important historically to gaming than the Super Mario series. Born from the mind of Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario is the protagonist of the best selling and most iconic video game series of all time. Not only is this spry plumber popular, but he is also credited with raising video games back from the dead.
When the Nintendo Entertainment System and its killer app Super Mario Bros. hit the market in 1985, console gaming was just a memory. In 1984, all North American consoles had been discontinued. Mario not only resurrected gaming, but he brought it to heights never seen before. The NES and Super Mario Bros. sold more copies than the collective history of video game console sales at that time combined. In the 30 years since, many amazing Super Mario games have been released. Even jumping to three dimensions was no challenge for what is Nintendo’s — and to a larger extent gaming’s — most beloved mascot.
Now this short history lesson isn’t meant simply to pump Mario up, but rather it’s crucial to understanding what Super Mario Maker is. Super Mario Maker is not just another sidescrolling Mario game. It’s a kind of retirement party, a celebration of work well done. Released on the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros, the first Super Mario game, Super Mario Maker is as much a memorialization of Mario as it is a game about him. In this game, we travel back in time with Mario, we experience him in all his various two dimensional forms, stretching from 1985 to today.
It’s no secret that Nintendo loves their main man and want to create a good game to commemorate his anniversary, but they went above and beyond with Super Mario Maker. They didn’t just make a new Mario game, they gave every person on earth the tools to make their own Mario game and to share and experience that with the rest of the world. In a way, they kind of made every future 2D Mario game unnecessary. Super Mario Maker is the finale of the drama of all of the populism and the fanaticism that made the original Super Mario Bros. popular and successful.
In Super Mario Maker, there are two modes. In one, you can create courses for Mario to play on. This works wonderfully with the Wii U’s gamepad touch screen. The player places obstacles and enemies in the same way that they would draw a picture. The process is so simple that from a practical standpoint anyone can create the Mario level lurking in their head.
Not only can the player use traditional blocks and enemies, but they are able to combine two enemies or items to make a new one that has never been seen in another Super Mario game. The player can make giant goombas, projectile Hammer Bros., or cannons that fire coins. The sheer amount of options available to the player make the game feel polished and well thought out. After they have exercised their creative itch, the player can upload their levels and allow anyone in the world to play through their courses. Creating a brand new, never before seen Mario level is now only limited by the collective users’ imaginations.
In the second mode, we are able to experience Mario in hundreds of thousands of new ways (it took less than a week for a million courses to be uploaded). In the game mode “100 Mario Challenge”, the player plays through a random assortment of user made levels, some even curated by real video game designers. These levels are often fun, wonky, bizarre, and everything in between. There is no single feature that all good Mario Maker levels have in common. I have played German, Japanese, French, Russian, and American made courses, and people from all of those countries have played mine.
When I first heard of Super Mario Maker up until the time I got it I had thought that I would not enjoy making my own Mario levels. I thought it would be boring or maybe that my ideas would be stupid. I also was not excited to play other people’s levels, which I assumed would be terrible, but I was pleasantly surprised. Making a new Mario Maker level and sharing it with someone is a fun experience. Someone else will often come at your level in a way that you didn’t imagine. Likewise, you will approach their levels in ways that they never thought of. There truly are thousands of amazing Mario Maker courses waiting to be discovered. In just a week, players have made more Mario courses than Nintendo could have made in a lifetime.
Though this is not to say that putting creativity in the player’s hands is a surefire thing. The players clearly do not have degrees in game design or even a hint at what makes good gameplay in some cases. Many times the courses players make have a trite kind of difficulty. Instead of being fun, they can feel frustrating or boring. In fact, I would say over half the user made levels that I have played are either offer no challenge (i.e., “walk right to win”) or are unnecessarily difficult. The courses don’t always have to feel like a Super Mario course, in fact, many great ones don’t. But missing the whimsical and magical tone of Mario is a surefire way to create a stage that is more annoying than enjoyable.
There’s also a whole host of Nintendo created levels that come pre-bundled with the game and they are a treat, though a tad bit unrefined. They take the tropes of the side scrolling genre and turn them on their head. These courses are a mix between short and zany creative ideas that could never make it onto a “real” Mario game due to their brevity and longer “remixes” of classic levels. These remixes are a little more difficult, a little more potent, and just as much fun as their decades old predecessors.
Super Mario Maker contains within it everything that 2D Mario has ever been and ultimately everything it will ever be. It encapsulates and presents Mario in both his best and worst light. Within its infinite possibilities are worlds yet to be imagined and ones so often tread that they are iconic (here’s looking at you, seemingly endless supply of 1-1 remixes). There are in theory an infinite variety of courses waiting to be created and discovered. In each one, someone has realized their own interpretation of Mario. These players have projected themselves onto him and made him dance to their own song. In its own way, Super Mario Maker is the video gaming conclusion to Roland Barthes’ “The Death of the Author” or at least the “The Death of the 2D Platformer”.
To be honest, the 2D platformer has been treading water since the advent of three dimensional graphics. While some interesting and good games have come out since the mid-’90s, like text based adventures, this is a genre that is no longer at the forefront of gaming. It’s no longer the hip place to be. Yet, as Super Mario Maker shows us, the charm and magnificence of this genre transcends being “in” or “out”. The game is incredibly intuitive, natural, and fun. Where Super Mario Maker shines is not in giving us something new, but in giving us the tools to make something new ourselves. The goal here seems to be to celebrate not only Mario and the way that he has changed gaming, but our own relationship with him and his games.