YMMV / Super Mario Maker

• Archive Panic: There are so many courses that it would take more than an entire lifetime to play all of them. Exaggerated by Game Theory estimating that the amount of possible, fun levels is 1.8x10¹²⁴³¹. That's orders of magnitude greater than the amount of atoms in the observable universe.
• Better as a Let's Play: The game has a very large community of fans that don't even play it themselves but love to watch dedicated streamers play the low-quality levels that random people have created. For this reason, many content creators attempt Super Expert No-Skip runs so that their viewers can watch them play through the horrors that await. Other sub-communities include Troll Levels (levels designed to make players look like idiots), Puzzle Levels (levels designed to test players' knowledge or problem-solving skills), and Kaizo Levels (Nintendo Hard levels designed for players to show off their reflexes and platforming skills).
• Broken Base:
  • When Sonic's Mystery Mushroom costume was leaked, the Sonic fans were split: Was using the 16-bit version a good idea or should they have used the 8-bit sprites from the Game Gear and Master System games?
  • The first batch of Pokémon Mystery Suits lack unique sound effects or music. This disappointed some Pokémon fans, saying it makes the costumes stand out in a bad way and makes them less unique from regular Mario, but others are just glad they got in and weren't Screwed by the Lawyers like in Mario Kart 8.
  • The maximum time limit you can have is 500 seconds; some say it discourages the creation of Marathon Levels, but others state that unique Metroidvania-style levels suffer more due to first-time players trying to find their way around before inevitably running out of time (a Metroid-themed level, although amazing, suffers from this problem in particular). And others don't really care.
  • Automatic Levels.^note The ones that are set up in such a way that they're beaten without touching a button, making it more "watch" than "play" Either they're creative and interesting or lazy and boring. Many of the all-time highest-rated courses are automatic, furthering the divide.
  • Prior to the announcement that checkpoints would be added to the game in the version 1.20 content update, there was contention over whether they would be a good addition. Those who wanted checkpoints coveted the option to make Marathon Levels without subjecting the player to Checkpoint Starvation. Those who were against them speculated that Trolling Creators could place an instant-death trap on the checkpoint, forcing anyone who passes through it and then dies to undergo an inescapable Cycle of Hurting, making the feature easy to abuse. Fortunately, that concern proved unfounded: Nintendo thought of that possibility, and the update requires level creators who wish to implement checkpoints to prove that the level can be completed both from the start and any checkpoints before uploading.
  • The amount of content has been a point of contention among several fans. Many believe that the game should have been released with more settings (such as beach, desert, volcano, etc.), more enemies (Chargin' Chuck, Rex, Boomerang Bro.), and more power-ups and features (the "snake" blocks, Mega Mushroom, Ice Flower, etc.), with many saying that the game isn't worth it because of limitations. Others believe that the amount of content is enough, and that including too much would cause players to get lost in the features. And some speculate that the game will include post-release downloadable content in order to expand options, though whether they should or not is a debate in itself (as per the usual "cash-grab" argument that DLC gets). This wasn't helped by the release of Super Mario Run, which has elements like slopes built into the engine, suggesting Nintendo itself hasn't actually released their full development tools in game form.
  • The game's effect on non-official Mario level editing software. Is the game good for representing Nintendo's acknowledgement of the long-running ROM-hacking scene, or is it bad for giving Nintendo more incentive to drop Cease & Desist demands on and generally bury fan-made software?
  • Fans are also split on the version 1.20 update fixing the "block swapping" and permanent invincibility glitch whilst leaving the underwater softlock involving upwards facing pipe entrances at the top of the screen^note which ended up being fixed in a later update. Not only has it fixed being able to place invisible Cloud Blocks, but any uploaded levels that used the glitch have been affected in a negative way and are potentially impossible to complete now^note The technical issue here is that the fix makes the "front" block overwrite the "back" block. If it was the other way around, the Cloud Blocks with the "appearance" of Hidden Blocks would become normal visible Cloud Blocks, and the levels would remain winnable. Some people are blaming Troll levels that misused the glitch as a potential reasoning for it being fixed completely.
• Cheese Strategy: Often referred to just as "cheese" in the original game and its sequel, it references a design oversight that allows players to skip parts or the entirety of levels. This design oversight can be a wall being too low (thus allowing players to jump over it), the player being able to use their frames of Mercy Invincibility to skip obstacles, or the ability to bring an item or Power-Up into an area where it shouldn't be. Notably, cheese can also be done on the part of the developer, who create a ridiculously hard level that is clearable in theory, but next to impossible for any but the best players in practice, but clear the level with a "Dev star", a hidden invincibility star that lets them skip difficult sections.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Inescapable death traps are a very common element people use to increase the difficulty with doors/pipes dumping you into bottomless pits being the most common one. Trial-and-Error Gameplay rears its ugly head here since you don't know if a pipe or door will be the right path or death trap until you go in.
  • A common element with automatic levels is having sound/music effects playing all over the place.
• Critical Dissonance: The 3DS port has been received as So Okay, It's Average by most critics. Much of the fandom appears to absolutely despise it, however. Both sides do agree that the port is inferior to the original, though.
• Demonic Spiders: While any enemy can be very dangerous depending on how the level is made, there are a few stand-outs:
  • Hammer Brothers, which is standard for this series. They're more manageable in the NSMBU style, where they pause for a second before throwing hammers, but in every other style they essentially throw their hammers at random, making it a Luck-Based Mission when it comes to getting past them without getting hurt. Not only that, but they can be boosted even more with a Super Mushroom (turning them into a Sledge Bro, which can slam the ground and stun Mario) or wings (making them much more agile).
  • Bloopers in underwater levels. They're more agile than Mario, unpredictable, and can't be killed with jumps. They can also be boosted with wings and Super Mushrooms. At least they still possess their original weakness of being unable to reach Mario if he's standing still and crouching down or if he's small, as well as being vulnerable to the Fire Flower, Raccoon Tail, and the Cape.
  • Angry Wigglers in underwater levels. They're fast, they gun straight for you, and they can pass through walls. God help you if there's a pipe in the level that continuously spawns them.
  • Lakitus, if used properly, can be worse than a Demonic Spider due to throwing Demonic Spiders. Bill Blasters also count because of this, but they're more of an obstacle than an enemy.
  • Cheep Cheeps underwater are annoying, but manageable. Jumping Cheep Cheeps outside of water isn't too bad either. Jumping Cheep Cheeps that are on fire are downright horrifying since you can't jump on them and depending on the level, it can be difficult to get around them. However, you can kill fire fish with the cape or raccoon leaf or a thrown item.
  • Lakitus and Thwomps placed above the screen and out of sight can kill you before you even know they exist.
  • Magikoopas can create more Enemies out of certain Objects, Teleport Spam to avoid you, and even make the Goal/Axe vanish so you can't win without killing the culprit. Giant MKs and Winged MKs are even worse, as their creations are likewise amplified.
  • Winged Spinies fire four spikes in an X pattern followed by a + pattern. Large amounts of them is instant Bullet Hell.
• Difficulty Spike: The Gnat Attack minigame here is much more ruthless in its boss level than it was in Mario Paint, all due to the measly timer and the many hits the boss needs to take before going down.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • One of the illusions created by the Big Mushroom is Princess Peach riding Bowser like he's Yoshi. This may look silly at first due to the mustache Bowser has on him and the fact that it was just a Magikoopa in disguise, but there's some potential to be found here. Imagine a Mario platformer where Peach turns traitorous and joins Bowser's side, or at least is brainwashed to join his side. Seeing Peach ride on Bowser as he attacks you here provides a decent visualization of how the final battle would play. After all, people have been saying for years that Bowser should use straight-up hypnosis to get Peach to like him.
  • More Big Mushroom illusions show Luigi riding on a few enemies too (like Dry Bones, Lakitu Cloud, and Bowser Jr.). They're easier to defeat than Bowser with the Big Mushroom, but the idea is still there.
  • Costume Mario's crossover aspect has made it a very popular subject for spriters and fangame makers. Not only have fans created custom Costume Mario sprites based on the Super Smash Bros. DLC characters missing from Super Mario Maker (Roy, Ryu, Cloud, Corrin and Bayonetta), but many others exist, including Shantae, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hatsune Miku, and 7 GRAND DAD.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Because of Weird Mario's tall and leaner design, players call him Skinny Mario, Lanky Mario or Waluigi Mario.
  • Players often call the game by its Working Title, "Mario Maker", for shorthand.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Lakitu's Cloud serves as a shining example on how new players screw up while making levels. Sure, Lakitus that throw tough enemies can be potent Demonic Spiders... but if they're not put out of the player's reach, they can be killed quickly, and they leave their cloud behind. The cloud gives free flight for a decent amount of time, is smaller than the permanent Koopa Clown Car, and doesn't bounce back if it touches a wall or a floor. Essentially, a difficult level can be made effortless if a Lakitu is within the player's reach, and it's something players should know when designing a level with Lakitus in it. (This doesn't apply underwater, where a cloud only allows you to move in all directions without needing to swim — helpful, but nowhere near game-breaking.)
  • The Propeller Mushroom. If a player places one in a course filled with challenges, it's easy to bypass most of the level if the level isn't designed carefully enough. Super Feathers and Super Leaves also suffer similar problems if the player is given enough room to fly and bypass most obstacles. More clever designers will add either low ceilings or vertical shafts to prevent ease of flight.
  • The Fire Koopa Clown Car, added by the version-1.30 update. Not only does it have the same unlimited flight as the original Car, but now you can shoot Fireballs regardless of whether or not you have a Fire Flower (with said Fireball even being tripled if you do have one). Furthermore, the Fireballs can be charged for massive blasts that even break Hard Blocks (in fact, if you have a Big Mushroom and/or a Big Shoe/Stiletto, you can break Blocks without even having to charge; while actually charged Fireballs will tear through multiple Blocks and Enemies like they're nothing).
  • The Weird Mushroom boosts Mario's jump significantly, allowing a player to cheese certain levels. Plus, the power-up has the distinction of appearing even when the level creator didn't add it in themselves, as it has a 1-in-10 chance to replace a regular Super Mushroom when it's placed in a block. Therefore, if you're lucky enough to score a Weird Mush in place of a Super, many players are free to easily bound through levels in a way the maker did not account for.
  • Donning a Spiky helmet allows Mario to break a good deal of blocks, giving him the ability to cheat through a level by taking a route that the creator never intended on, and a way to get out of Troll traps where a small pit has invisible blocks over it to trap the player in a dead end.
  • For particularly malicious level makers, doors allow them to cheat the system regarding uploading their levels. The level creator is required to complete their level before it can be uploaded, but a well-placed door will allow them to make an incredibly hard level while also completing it with ease. The same principle applies to similarly hidden Warp Pipes, as well as Invisible Blocks containing Stars in short but enemy-filled courses and vines that can transport Mario high up to a safe path to the end.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • A glitch involving the door and spike pieces (taking damage as Fire, Raccoon, Cape, or Propeller Mario and entering a door on a spike as Super Mario just when your Mercy Invincibility runs out) causes Mario to become completely invincible. This was fixed in the version 1.20 update.
  • Thanks to a trick involving tracks, you can make blocks with the appearance of one block but the properties of another. The most common use is to make invisible platforms, but there are various other things that can be done with it as well. Needless to say, this opens up even more level design possibilities. This was also fixed in the version 1.20 update, which has the consequence of making some uploaded courses taking advantage of this glitch Unintentionally Unwinnable due to the fix making the glitched block's properties match their appearance and not the other way around.
  • A glitch in the 3DS port allows, by placing a Weird Mushroom, moving away from it, and rapidly switching themes, to reveal the Costume Mushroom is only Dummied Out.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Mario wearing an enemy's shell in this Dorkly Originals skit (warning: gore).
  • After playing through the Final Boss level of Super Mario Odyssey, you'll never see Peach riding a mustached Bowser the same way again.
• Hype Backlash: The game is almost universally praised, but you wouldn't know it from the flak it gets from some of the hardcore Mario fanbase (along with the aforementioned unofficial Mario level editor fans) for being a missed opportunity in several ways and from the Course World featuring low quality.
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!:
  • The general reception to Gnat Attack. The consensus is that "it'd be fun if it was more forgiving". It definitely didn't help when a harder version was added in the 1.2.0 update, which is probably the least-liked new feature of the otherwise-hyped update.
  • The Expert difficulty in the 100 Mario Challenge, which most of the time provides courses that are hard for all the wrong reasons. Very rarely will you actually get a legitimately challenging course that is difficult but fair. It's even worse if you've exhausted all the costume unlocks in the Easy and Normal difficulties and you must play on Expert to unlock the rest.
  • After Expert mode comes Super Expert mode, whose levels are so unforgiving that only six of them have to be beaten to complete the challenge.
• Just Here for Godzilla: More than a few fans bought the game just for all the Mystery Suits.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "You fuckin' make it then if you're so god damn smart!"◊^ExplanationWith many people complaining that the New Super Mario Bros. games were getting stagnant & unoriginal due to the significant content reuse in New Super Mario Bros. U and especially New Super Mario Bros. 2, this phrase circled around as Nintendo supposedly challenging players to make a better Mario game by creating this.
  • One of the levels shown at the 2015 Nintendo World Championships featured Fire Mario riding a giant high heel inside the Koopa Clown Car◊. The image quickly became popular just because of how absurd it is, yet it perfectly showcases the game's combinatorial nature.
  • Some players declared it the best Sonic, Mega Man, Wario Land, etc. game ever.
  • The minute someone noticed Mario grabbing a Weird Mushroom and turning into a bizarre, realistically proportioned version of himself◊ in a trailer, it went viral immediately. Geno from the Cutstuff forums later made iterations of "Lanky Mario" if the Weird Mushroom appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Land, the All-Stars equivalents, and Super Mario World on her Tumblr.
  • Where are the slopes?^ExplanationSuper Mario Maker has a severe lack of diagonal terrain options. This did not go unnoticed. Became a Discredited Meme when the sequel was revealed, where the first new things shown were slopes.
  • The North American and European release date of September 11th has spawned a few jokes about making levels featuring the Twin Towers. Nintendo's official wording of the date, "11th of September" has spread around a bit as well.
  • "Lakitu laughs at your level", thanks to a lot of people often adding Lakitu to their levels without actually making sure that A: it's impossible to actually reach and get his cloud first or B: that said cloud can't be used to skip the entirety of their level.
  • X got in before Daisy?^ExplanationPrincess Daisy, a recurring character in Mario spinoffs, was excluded from the initial release of the game, while costumes like Waluigi (who had never appeared in a Mario platformer beforehand), a Mahjong tile and a trampoline appear from the start. This only enhanced Daisy's Memetic Loser status and caused some fans to joke that the Mahjong tile and the trampoline are more deserving candidates than she is to be playable in Super Smash Bros.. Daisy's loser status had gotten worse when more Mystery Suits had been released before her, including Captain Toad (who can't even jump in his game), Birdo, a Mercedes-Benz GLA, Mario in the Sky Pop (from Daisy's debut game), Master Belch and a new character named Yamamura, who is a pigeon. It wasn't until January 2016, over four months after the game's release, that Daisy was finally revealed as a Mystery Costume. This joke expands to other characters like MC Ballyhoo, Wolf, Microsoft Windows logo, and amiibo figures released after the game that should have their own costume by now: Roy, Ryu and Shovel Knight.
  • "I hope you like (insert level's gimmick here) :D" is a common comment that tends to pop at the start of certain stages, especially ones that verge on Fake Difficulty or are very gimmicky.
  • "Yatta!" the Japanese word for, "I did it!" has become popular among the speed-running community when clearing a particularly hard level as it was what one Japanese runner shouted upon clearing the infamous Pit of Panga: P-Break after 50 hours worth of attempts on a live stream.
  • Mecha Bowzilla^ExplanationOne of the most popular levels is Kiavik's "Super Mario vs Mecha Bowzilla", where Mario has to run away from a mecha made of cannons and other items piloted by Bowser Jr. and eventually destroying it. It became an Ascended Meme when remakes of that level have been showcased in commercials for the 3DS version of the first game and in the trailers for the sequel.
• Nightmare Fuel: This game introduces brand new retro themes that never existed for their original games, one of them being an original Ghost House theme for the Super Mario Bros. 3 style, and boy does it deliver. The theme is hauntingly melancholic the entire time with slow square waves and chilling triangle waves to unnerve players especially since it shares similarities with one of the most infamous haunted Nintendo themes, the Lavender Town theme from Pokémon Red and Blue.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Invoked by a few level creators who deliberately make trolling/deliberately bad levels to get angry comments posted their way, as commenting through Mario Maker's comment system also automatically stars the level, which allows them to upload more levels of their own design.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Super Mario Maker isn't the first game maker by Nintendo that has elements from Mario Paint. That's WarioWare D.I.Y. for the DS. Even further back is the cancelled Mario Artist: Game Maker for the 64DD; the Mario Artist titles that did get released had heavy inspiration from Mario Paint.
  • This isn't the first Mario game to feature a level editor, that honor goes to Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. It is the first official level editor for the mainline 2D Mario games, however.
  • It also wasn't the first Mario game to be released in North America on 9/11. That goes to Mario Hoops 3-On-3.
  • The e-Reader levels from Super Mario Advance 4 introduced exclusive elements from other Mario games to Super Mario Bros. 3, such as Ghost Houses, Monty Mole, Magikoopa (all of which were later in Super Mario Maker in all styles), Triangle Blocks, and the Cape Feather from Super Mario World, and pluckable and throwable vegetables from Super Mario Bros. 2.
• Pop-Culture Isolation:
  • Shinya Arino, one of the Costume Mario characters, is virtually unknown to anybody who isn't (at least) familiar with his TV show Game Center CX.
  • Necky (Nekki) isn't much more known. A good number of Western fans mistook him for Bubsy at first. It's pretty surprising they both averted No Export for You.
  • Many people outside the anime fandom will be puzzled as to who Chitoge Kirisaki is and why she happens to have a Mystery Mushroom costume.
• Porting Disaster: The 3DS port, while perfectly functional, is near-unanimously considered completely inferior to the original. Questionable choices such as the removal of Mystery Mushrooms and the lack of online are commonly accepted as destroying half of the original game's fun. On the technical side of things, the port suffers a good deal more slowdown than the original, and the graphics of the New Super Mario Bros. version are even worse than in New Super Mario Bros. 2 (which was a very controversial title to begin with due to its unoriginality and the graphics were one of the few things players didn't have problems with). The expanded single-player campaign has been praised, but also received some criticism for the poor implementation of the Challenge Medals, and is ultimately considered to not be enough to make up for the port's shortcomings.
• Power Up Letdown: While being Big Mario, courtesy of a Big Mushroom which can be spawned by the Mario 30th anniversary amiibo, is a nice romp with the graphics changes, a buff to Mario's stomp, and its ability to break through blocks, its drawbacks far outweigh such. Jumping on and hitting certain blocks will break them, whether you wanted to or not. Such also applies to ? Blocks, meaning you'll break them instead of emptying them. Also, despite the size increase, you're still just as vulnerable to enemies as you were as regular Mario, even having you survive only one hit as opposed to other higher-tier power-ups which let you survive two hits. Plus, the player is even more in danger now considering such, given the larger hitbox.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • For the online service:
    • Many people were irked that if you make a comment on a level, it automatically stars the level for you, even if all you wanted to do was to give some constructive criticism or helpful pointers to the creator instead of simply complimenting it. And once you star a level, you cannot undo it afterwards. This became a non-issue when it was revealed you can comment without starring by pressing "View Comments" on the level's page on the Course World, but it's still a problem for those that want to comment on levels they came across in the 100 Mario Challenge without starring. When the 1.44 update no longer caused comments to automatically star a level, there was much rejoicing.
    • The search feels hugely incomplete; you cannot search by name or creator, nor can you even filter by type of level, tags, or game style. In a game focused around a large online sharing community, this is a huge problem. Nintendo tried to subvert this by releasing a web portal for the game that allows players to search for specific levels more easily, but the web portal turned out to still lack the ability to search levels by title or creator. The 3DS version's search function is even more incomplete, removing the 16-digit code search.
    • For some players, the fact that levels can't be shared via QR codes despite the codes to input being only 16 characters long, citing that the Pushmo series encodes entire levels within their shareable QR codes.
    • The entire star system in general. Getting more stars (from people who play and enjoy your levels) is the only way to be able to upload more (the default is 10). The biggest problem is when YouTube / Twitch celebrities upload gimmicky trash, knowing their followers will automatically star them, which means they get to upload even more (up to 100). Meanwhile, people who actually take the time to test and make good levels are ignored and have a very low cap they can upload (usually ten, because getting to the next tier of twenty levels requires fifty stars, which most people have a low chance of ever getting). And it also doesn't help that levels with no stars get purged from the servers after a set amount of time, which means you either have to be famous or appeal to the players by making very easy or gimmicky levels, instead of what you actually want to make.
    • The "Played Courses" and "Starred Courses" lists are limited to the 100 most recent, and clearing enough courses causes the game to forget older ones. This can be frustrating since the game makes a point of showing the player their newly-earned flag when they clear a level, only for it to disappear unceremoniously later on. Starred courses can be inaccessible if they fall off the list, though this can be avoided by bookmarking the course on the website as of the 1.30 patch, following the course's maker, or jotting down the course ID.
    • There have been reports that if levels are deleted by the server, the level on the author's Wii U becomes blocked from being re-uploaded ever again^note even when you create a copy of an "already blocked" level it remains blocked, unless you create another copy before uploading. The reason of the removal, however, is left entirely ambiguous, which has left some fans confused or outraged, with some theorizing that levels were being removed because they abused glitches or simply weren't popular. Basically, your level can suddenly become permanently banned with no warning and no reason as to why^note They've since given a list of reasons, though they are quite vague, such as "blank level", "title requests stars", "vulgar", and "didn't earn enough stars". Even worse, you can make a level. It can get many stars, to the point that it will never be banned. Then you can delete that level, replacing it with an identical level that adds, say, a checkpoint, which was introduced post-release. Then the new level can get no stars, say from a combination of bad luck and players getting pickier about starring levels. Now your level, the same as before except for an obvious improvement, is banned, and you can't re-post the original version which was previously safe from being banned. There have also been reports that even rather popular levels with high win rates and many stars are getting banned too, again for no obvious reason. The problem eventually got even worse with innocent levels being removed and banned after nearly an hour after upload. It's gotten so bad now that gaming websites have now been reporting in on the matter. If this happens to you even once, you lose all of your stars from all levels. In version 1.44, players get notified in-game "with a reason" (either one of the three reasons: unpopularity, bugs, or inappropriate content), but still the level is permanently banned.
  • For gameplay: If an enemy or item is placed into a pipe, it will take a long time for the first one to come out after the pipe has entered the screen. This can lead to players being taken by surprise when an enemy pops out near them, or missing power-ups coming out of pipes. After all, many pipes don't contain anything. In most of the original games, piranha plants and other enemies made themselves known much more quickly when their pipe entered the screen.
  • For the 3DS version: Challenge medals in general have been met negatively for numerous reasons, often seen as wasted potential. Besides being what's accepted as an unnecessary lock on World 19, people tend to hate 2 main things about them.
    • Each course in the single player campaign has 2 medals. The second medal only reveals itself when you complete the level with the first one. What makes it so annoying is that even though sometimes the two contradict each other, most times, you can get both in one go. You essentially have to beat most courses twice for no good reason, which is quite annoying, to say the least.
    • Again, for no plausible reason, the game inexplicably deprives you of your ability to earn these medals upon restarting from a checkpoint. It's pretty unnoticeable on some levels, but this can make achieving 100% Completion on long levels such as World 18-8 borderline impossible at worst.
• Spiritual Licensee: It's one to the cancelled Mega Man Universe, both being legal alternatives to ROM hacks heavily based around existing Platforming franchises. Funnily enough, one of the available amiibo costumes is Mega Man himself.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The SMB3 Ghost House theme sounds very similar to Lavender Town's theme and fittingly so as they are both haunting chiptunes in a creepy environment.
• Tainted by the Preview: The reveal of the Nintendo 3DS port was not well-received once it became known that most of the online functionality would be removed (levels can't be shared online, but rather through StreetPass — a nifty feature in densely populated areas like much of Japan, but borderline useless everywhere else). To a lesser degree, the absence of Mystery Mushrooms is also a turn-off for some players.
• That One Boss:
  • Bowser, if he's placed in the Koopa Clown Car, can be nightmarish if you have to beat him. Unlike in Super Mario World where he moved around in various patterns, or in Super Mario Run where he tried to get away from you, he homes in straight for you here. Making it worse is that you can easily get pushed around if the Koopa Clown Car bumps into you, likely into an enemy lingering around or a hazard. And since there are no Mechakoopas in Super Mario Maker, he throws out sets of two Bob-ombs instead. Bob-ombs that are already lit. It gets even worse if Bowser's also giant, where he throws out sets of four giant Bob-ombs. He's also a Damage-Sponge Boss.
  • King Watinga, the Final Boss of the fly swatting game. You only get thirty seconds to beat him, and periodically throughout the fight, bomb flies fly in, and if they're allowed to explode, it takes a second off of the timer each. Not only that, but Watinga also summons several flies and leaves the screen, and will only return once they're all swatted. Finally, he takes an ungodly amount of taps before he dies. And Hard Mode has two Watingas.
• That One Level:
  • The levels shown in the Nintendo World Championships look Kaizo Mario World-esque and serve as a forewarning as just how difficult levels can be made. They can be unlocked in-game after beating all other pre-installed levels. You want to be able to freely place Weird Mushrooms? Good luck.
  • "Zig-Zag Lava Bubbles" fills the entire screen with bouncing Lava Bubbles. Extremely precise movement through thin corridors is required, or you will die.
  • "Be Brave & Get Up Close!" has a row of ? blocks in front of a huge tower of giant Chain Chomps. You have to try to get the invincibility star placed in the very last block so you can use it to knock out the Chain Chomps and jump over the remaining tower of Chain Chomp pegs and hit the goal, but the somewhat erratic behaviour of the Chain Chomps makes this practically a Luck-Based Mission. You also have a short timer on this level as well, so you can't take forever either.
  • "Even Trampolines Dream of Flying" consists of mostly nothing but a bottomless pit with winged trampolines as your only means of getting across, it doesn’t help how not only are they constantly moving, hardly give you any time to position and bounce properly and bouncing on trampolines is extremely wonky. You will die A LOT while playing this level.
  • This trope is actually exploited by the game itself. In the 100-Mario Challenge, courses are pulled from the Course World based on their completion rate^note which is a ratio based on deaths and quits vs. wins. On Expert and Super Expert difficulty, the courses usually have a completion rate in the single digits, meaning that players will receive levels that are considered That One Level by other players.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Getting all of the Mystery Mushroom costumes. There are several ways to unlock them: four of them are obtained when the Mystery Mushroom is unlocked, two of them are earned through Gnat Attack, and certain costumes are attached to Event Courses instead. You can also use the associated amiibo figures to unlock a good chunk of the costumes, but not every one has a figure. For the rest, you'll have to go through the 100-Mario Challenge. Playing on the 8-course Easy mode limits you to 20 costumes; 160 courses total. This means that the player must endure the full 16-level challenge up to 82 times if they don't own any amiibo at all. For those keeping track at home, that's a whopping 1,312 courses to play through. And, while only at 6 levels per-run, there are an additional 5 costumes unlocked only through Super Expert mode. This makes for an additional 30 levels each with incredibly low clear rates.
  • Clearing Gnat Attack to unlock the Mystery Mushroom costume it contains. To begin with, it's made unclear how to unlock the mode in the first place^note either leave the Gamepad completely still for fifteen minutes (you can't even move it, as that counts as an input), move a block (which only has a random chance of working), or shake a Muncher for several seconds and three flies will show up; swat them all to begin the game. After that, it's usually smooth sailing until the Final Boss Wattinga is reached. The boss isn't difficult, but the main problem is that it's a Timed Mission, and there's only 30 seconds on the clock. If they player doesn't constantly wham on the bot, the timer will inevitably run out. Not helping matters are the distracting bomb flies, which remove one second from the clock if not swatted. You also have to start the minigame all over again if you run out of time even once. The reward for finally clearing the boss is the Builder Mario Mystery Mushroom costume.
  • The 1.20 update added an even harder version of Gnat Attack, accessed by shaking a Muncher until Watinga appears and swatting it. Every level has bomb flies thrown into your face like hell, and Watinga Turns Red twice. And there are two Watingas. There's a reward for beating it, obviously: the Fighter Fly enemy from Mario Bros. can be used as an unlockable Mystery Mushroom costume if this near-impossible challenge is done.
  • The 1.40 update added the Super Expert mode in 100 Mario Challenge. While the regular Expert level was hard, but doable with enough patience and determination, the Super Expert mode regroups the toughest and most sadistic levels online. Fortunately, it's only 6 levels long, but good luck even making it to the second.
  • The 3DS Challenge Coins. To get them, you have to complete a level after, say, finding a particular item, and after finding that item and a hidden exit. The remake of World 1-2, for example, requires you to go through all three of the warp zone's pipes to get both coins, which doesn't initially make sense.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans were not happy that they gave Bowser in the World style entirely brand new sprites instead of just reusing, fixing the coloring errors, and expanding upon the original sprites from his final boss in that game, feeling that the new sprites for Bowser clash with the other sprites in World and are out of place compared to the Bowser sprites in the Super Mario Bros. and 3 styles, which remain faithful to their original sprites from their respective games. The fact that the infamous 2020 Nintendo Gigaleak revealed that Bowser originally had full sprites only adds to this.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Some Sony fans have immediately taken to calling it a ripoff of LittleBigPlanet; some Microsoft fans have also claimed it to be a ripoff of Project Spark, despite the fact that both games are leagues above Super Mario Maker in terms of what games they can make. Level Editors have existed in video games since 1974, and fans sharing their user-created levels was a well-worn idea before the turn of the century. In fact, one of the most popular fan-made level editors was Lunar Magic for Super Mario World, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis featured an official Mario level editor years before LittleBigPlanet was even a thing. While LBP and other games are beloved for bringing the concept to the mainstream and providing user-friendly content distribution, it was hardly a new idea.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Yoshi (or, at least, the concept of a dinosaur steed for Mario) was intended to be included in the original Super Mario Bros., but was cut due to technology limitations. With so many enemies from 3, World, and U receiving retro designs to fit with the original game's aesthetic, this would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce a retro 8-bit Yoshi that Mario can finally ride, but Yoshi is limited to World and U levels, replaced with the Kuribo's Shoe in the 8-bit levels, and as an amiibo costume in the Super Mario Bros. levels.
  • Aside from his amiibo costume and a brief cameo in one of the start-up screens, Luigi makes no other appearances here. This despite the fact that he has perfectly functional sprite sets for all four of the games represented (and even more than one in the case of Super Mario World).
  • While the Raccoon Leaf and the Propeller Suit appear in their respective themes, there's no sign of SMB3's original suits (Frog, Tanooki and Hammer^note you can throw hammers, but only by having Yoshi eat one and spit it out) nor any of NSMBU's other power ups (Ice Flower, Penguin or Flying Squirrel). The Power Balloon from SMW is also missing, though that may be for the better, and it's fairly similar to the cloud anyway. The NES Remix Event stage is beginning to avert this as its Costume prize is Frog Mario, but it's a Mystery Mushroom costume for the Super Mario Bros. theme. And it doesn't come with its original abilities.
  • The only enemy that genuinely changes upon receiving a Super Mushroom is the Hammer Bro, who becomes a Sledge Bro (even in the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World themes where he didn't exist prior). Giving a Monty Mole a mushroom just makes it bigger like with most other enemies, whereas the original Super Mario World has Mega Moles with their own sprite that can be ridden. Similarly, Cheep Cheeps become bigger Cheep Cheeps (although this eventually became a legitimate enemy type) instead of the logical Boss Bass / Big Bertha / Cheep Chomp, and enlarged Boos do not appear as Big Boos.
  • The Mystery Mushroom. While it's a unique powerup, it's only usable in the original Super Mario Bros.. Wouldn't it be amazing if the Mystery Mushroom appeared in 3, World & U, with the former two games receiving new sprites for the costumes? That's especially glaring, considering Diddy Kong & Sonic the Hedgehog have the sound effects from the 16-bit games they appeared in and not from their 8-bit counterparts (Donkey Kong Land & Master System/Game Gear Sonic games). Even if alternate costumes would have been too much work, it would have been nice to be able to have the 8-bit costumes available in the other games.
• Unexpected Character: The many forms of Costume Mario are full of unexpected surprises:
  • Besides the obvious Mario cast, most amiibo are supported, allowing characters like the Wii Fit Trainer, the Inklings, and Robin to become playable. Then there are Mystery Mushroom costumes that aren't linked to amiibo, like Tingle, Donkey Kong Jr., Nikki, Ashley, Dr. Lobe from Big Brain Academy, the Arwing Walker, the Wii Balance Board, and even a mahjong tile.
  • The November 2015 update added, of all costumes, Mario from the Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania manga series.
  • Shinya Arino, the host of the Japanese-exclusive gaming show GameCenter CX, is perhaps the most unexpected choice for a costume, especially for non-Japanese fans who don't know him from Adam. Even for those who have, it's still a left-field choice considering he's the first costume to be based on a real life person.
  • December 9th saw the release of a Mercedes-Benz GLA costume, most likely put there for the Product Placement and as a nod to Mario Kart 8.
  • A costume based on an anime character is a surprise on its own, but said character is Chitoge Kirisaki. Making it even more surprising is the fact Nisekoi has, to date, only been released in the US in the form of the translated manga; the anime has yet to receive an English dub.
  • The March 2016 update added more costumes, a few are based on characters from the Japan-only Famicom games (specifically the games that are made for the Famicom Disk System). That includes Ayumi Tachibana from the Famicom Detective Club series, Donbe and Hikari, both from Shin Onigashima.
  • Yu Ayasaki, a character so obscure that several, even GameXplain, initially mistook her for a hentai game character that happened to share the same name and hair color. This was thanks to Google results listing the latter before the former during the first hours after the costume was announced. (Since the release of the costume, Google can now distinguish searches between Yu Ayasaki the Nintendo character and Yuu Ayasaki the aforementioned hentai game character.)
  • The heavy metal J-Pop band Babymetal had its three lead singers added to the Mystery Suit line-up, to the surprise of western players unfamiliar with them.
  • Continuing the trend of Japan-related costumes, Hello Kitty and My Melody were unexpected as well, though at least the former was already a pop-culture icon in the West as well.
  • Following a string of Japan-related costumes, the reveal of Shaun the Sheep caused surprise for bucking the trend by being the main character of a British stop-motion show-turned motion picture.^note Though as stated on Shaun's YMMV page, Germans Love David Hasselhoff over in Japan is in play here.
  • Some of the unused Mystery Mushroom costumes that were Dummied Out are just outright bizarre, with some of the notable examples being Super Mario Bros. 2 Mario, a Muncher (those black plants that are stuck in place and attack Mario), and the Microsoft Windows logo.
• Win Back the Crowd: The game's showing at the 2015 Nintendo World Championships^note Which required players to be at least 13 unlike the original championships from 1990. won over uninterested fans by capitalizing its potential for absurd and interesting level designs.
• The Woobie: Trying to erase Mario in editor mode will have him cowering in fear. This returns in Super Mario Maker 2.