VideoGame (3DS VERSION) Anyone can make it. Everyone can play it. Well, unless you own this version.
It goes without saying that Super Mario Maker was somewhat flawed. I was hoping the 3DS port would fix what it got wrong. Guess what didn't end up happening.
A good port will take note of the original's flaws and do its best to improve on them. This one doesn't do any of that. Everything that I had a problem with in the original game is either unchanged or removed entirely instead of being fixed. In fact, half of the game's fun is missing. I'll elaborate more on that below.
First off, remember this
? Now remember how much variety it brought to courses? Yeah, the 3DS version doesn't have it. No Big Mushroom either, Power Up Letdown or not. They brought a lot more variety to level design. Without them, we're stuck making some very generic stuff. And Nintendo didn't bother to add anything in place of this. Honestly?
The next thing I don't like is a bit of a double-edged sword. The game has half of the menu unlocked by default. Sound good? It gets worse. If you want the rest of your elements, you have to complete the single-player campaign. Keep in mind that this takes hours while you could bypass the thankfully-flawed system in the original and cheat the system, on top of the official patch. Here, there's no easy way, and certainly no loophole to abuse. Want your full menu? Set aside a couple hours.
On a side note, the New Super Mario Bros. U theme looks awful on 3DS. It's understandable, considering the system can't handle HD graphics, but it becomes lazy when you realize they could've replaced it with New Super Mario Bros. 2.
By far the worst part about the port, however, is the online functionality, or rather lack of it. Course World was flawed, built was still half the game's fun. Here, almost everything about Course World is eradicated. There's no star system, no code search, no bookmarks, no anything! And certainly no name search. All you get is a random selection of courses. All you can do if you don't like any of them is refresh to get a new batch. That's it. As a bonus, 100 Mario Challenge is unchanged in all of its horrible glory, but with no Bragging Rights Rewards.
The only way to share your courses publicly is through Streetpass. This is okay if you live in a city, but if you live in a rural area, you've just wasted a lot of money. Cross that with the fact that Streetpass is pretty dead where I live...
It's easy to forget about the collab system (The only good thing about this port) under all this suck. I swear, I haven't been this disappointed with a Mario game since Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Take my advice and save your money. Waste it on the Wii U version. That one's better.
EDIT: And IGN gives this a 7.2/10. WTF.
VideoGame A flawed start of something beautiful
Years ago, level editors and ROM hacking tools have allowed hackers to create their own levels for classic games, such as Super Mario World. However, the average person had no idea how to use these tools, and they weren't as intuitive as they should have been. The result was that while there were a number of hacks for Super Mario World and other games, both Mario games and other franchises, the hacks tended to be relatively small in number, and not very good.
At first, it was impressive being able to play modified versions of games I'd loved. Over time, though, my tastes began to refine, and I needed the hack to actually be high-quality, not merely to exist. It needed to have good gameplay. Good level design.
Well, now everyone has access to a level editor. One that's insanely easy to use, and allows anyone to easily create a level and upload it to the internet.
Sturgeon's Law hits, of course. Most levels are awful. But at the same time, if you give a million monkeys a million typewriters, eventually, one of them will write Shakespeare. There are some great levels buried in the ocean of shit. Truly great ones that feel like they belong in an actual official Nintendo-developed Mario game. Ones that strike the right balance of aesthetics, challenge, and accessibility for less-skilled players. The problem is finding them, but they are out there.
The editor itself is a thing of beauty in its simplicity, but is lacking many features I wish it had. But first, the good: this editor is so easy to use that my 7-year-old nephew picked it up very quickly and began experimenting, throwing wacky ideas out there that take advantage of everything possible. That says it all.
The bad is the missing features. Why can't I choose the "athletic" background music from each game? Why can't I create slopes? How about putting water and/or lava in outdoors levels? I'm not talking about something as complex as entire level themes (e.g. snow, desert), but features that seem pretty basic to me. Maybe in DLC or a sequel...
Super Mario Maker may have a flawed system for finding levels, and a significant lack of features in its editor, but its core concept is brilliantly executed, and it could be the start of something beautiful.