Whatever you may think of the Game Awards, there’s no doubt that Nintendo brought some
interesting trailers to the show.
And they started that off immediately with the new Mario Maker trailer.
Though it wasn’t very long, it did show off a ton of new elements to this Mario level
creator.
But there’s more here than you might realize showing that the game has progressed quite
a bit since E3.
So it’s time to break out the old Analysis Machine to find out what secrets and hidden
details that Mario Maker is hiding.
Let’s start things off by taking a look at the interface for creating these levels.
At the top left is a drop-down menu to decide which Mario game the level will look like.
In addition to the original Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros., there’s Super
Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.
Choosing one of these four decides what the elements of the level will look like, from
the style of enemies to the power-ups to the blocks you break along the way.
But within this part of the interface are two other things of note.
One is an arrow on the right side that will likely cycle through different level elements
to choose from.
What we’re not sure of is whether you’ll always have to hit that arrow to select them
or if you might be able to switch out the ones that are immediately available, essentially
creating a customized quick select dashboard.
This might explain why the options available here are slightly different than the one shown
during E3.
Then there’s an odd empty spot marked by a ninja star symbol on the left side.
If this is indeed a quick-select menu, perhaps that’s what appears if nothing is placed
in that spot?
Although, it may also be something entirely different since all of the other elements
are grouped in sets of four while this one is all on its own, which is a bit odd.
Could it be a toggle of some sort?
Or maybe an unlockable feature?
Below the game select icon is an option that allows the player to select the theme for
the level.
And in the footage we can see several of them in action, including Castle themes for Super
Mario Bros and Super Mario World, underwater levels for Super Mario Bros and Super Mario
World, underground levels from Super Mario Bros. 3, and of course, the primary level
theme which is the only one shown for all 4 games.
Despite this, we think it’s a safe bet that every theme shown here will be available in
all 4-games.
Now based on the 2 icons we can see, one showing hills representing the grassy levels, and
the other lava for the castles, this likely suggests there will be some elements you won’t
be able to mix and match, like the lava, which appears in both castle themes, and no where
else.
And we can’t help but wonder if the lava is a constant element of the castle levels,
automatically being placed at the bottom of the course.
Directly across the interface, on the right side, is the timer--and we’re guessing it’s
customizable too, otherwise there’d be no reason for it to appear here.
Now in the latest footage, we can see it always starts at 500-seconds, although it’s possible
you’ll be able to extend that all the way to 999, since that’s what it was set to
in the E3 demo.
The hand and the eraser icons are pretty self explanatory as to what they do; either selecting
or erasing certain things respectively.
Oh, and their appearance is actually ripped right from Mario Paint.
And so are the dog and trash can icons directly below--and also serve the same purpose, with
the dog undoing your last action while the trash can deletes the entire project.
Now in the bottom-left of the interface is the start button which allows players to test
their creations.
But it’s the icon next to it that has us curious.
It’s just a little picture of Mario.
Could this perhaps be a toggle to select whether you start as small Mario or Big Mario?
It would explain why Mario is big in a couple of the clips, despite having used up only
a few seconds on the clock--assuming it started at 500-seconds.
Or--and this is a bit more of a wild idea--what if it’s a character toggle, allowing you
to choose between maybe Luigi perhaps even the Toads?
Continuing on, there’s the level scrub bar, which shows the Start and Goal points, and
allows you to quickly scroll to any point in the level, while highlighting the section
of the level that you’re currently looking at.
But there’s one more thing to note: the arrow sign at the beginning of the level.
These signs never appeared in the original Super Mario Bros or Mario Bros 3 so it’s
a completely new asset for these games.
However, it serves an important function, as it appears to mark the starting point for
the player.
And its location can seemingly be changed at will by moving the yellow bar beneath it
to wherever the creator wants--although there may be a stipulation that it has to be on
some kind of platform.
But there’s obviously much more to Mario Maker than just the interface, as the game
is loaded with elements from all four games.
And there seems to be a commonality between all 4 of these games since the appearance
can be changed on the fly in edit mode, instantly switching the appearance of every element
from one game to its equivalent in the next.
But just because they look the same doesn’t mean they’ll all behave the same.
The best example of this are the Koopa Troopas.
When Mario jumps on the one while in the Super Mario Bros 3 theme, it curls up into its shell
allowing it to be kicked or presumably picked up and thrown, as in the original game.
However, when Mario jumps on one in the Super Mario World theme, it acts like you would
expect it to in that game, with the Koopa Troopa being ejected from his shell.
So it appears selecting a game’s theme changes far more than just the visual style, as all
of the original objects properties are carried over too.
Well, mostly--but more on that in a sec.
So this means Mario won’t suddenly be able to carry shells in the Super Mario Bros. theme
as we saw at E3, whereas it also likely means that Goombas will act like Galoombas in Mario
World, requiring two-hits to take down instead of one.
But beyond the enemies, these changes even apply to Mario too, as he’ll gain the ability
to wall jump and ground pound in the New Super Mario Bros. theme only, as shown toward the
end of the trailer, which opens the possibility for the spin-jump to appear in the Super Mario
World theme.
This means that players can create completely new challenges based on the game they decide
to use, opening up even more possibilities.
However, that doesn’t mean that enemy properties can’t be changed as we saw both in the E3
demo and in the many examples from this trailer.
For example, in Super Mario Bros. 3 Grand Goombas would be squashed just like normal
ones.
But in the trailer, they actually split into a pair of regular Goombas, just like the ones
from New Super Mario Bros.
This could mean that traits from later games in the Mario series can be given to earlier
enemies.
And we imagine this feature may work similar to how you could choose between Red and Green
Koopa Troopas at E3, simply by grabbing one and shaking it.
And we see something similar with Lakitu here when Mario takes him out and hijacks his cloud
for a joy ride, which was something that was impossible in the original Super Mario Bros.
In turn, this gives the Lakitu a new animation where it goes spiraling naked into the distance.
It’s not just enemy behaviors that can be changed though.
Like in the E3 demo, different elements can be combined for completely new combinations.
One example is the cannons that can now be changed to fire things other than Bullet Bills,
such as enemies like Bloopers or even Spinies.
But they’re not your average run-of-the-mill Spinies.
These have wings.
And as we saw in the demo, the wings are a completely separate element that can be added
to just about anything.
So in this case, the combination of the cannon and the wings makes the spinies even more
dangerous than usual.
Oh, but that’s not all.
These Spinies have what appears to be a completely new ability.
As they fly, they continually curl and uncurl into a ball, which not only affects their
altitude--with them dropping, then rising each time they roll into and out of a ball--but
somehow allows them to shoot out spikes in all four primary directions each time they
curl up, turning the section into a kind of bullet hell.
Now you don’t have to make the cannons super-threatening.
Instead, you could try changing it to something a bit nicer, like coins!
Regardless of what you choose, all you have to do is drag the object right onto them to
have the cannon start firing that object, giving each one a mystery box flavor.
And this same idea applies to question blocks as well.
Not only can they be given wings in the original game, but they can be filled with Piranha
Plants instead of coins or power-ups.
Presumably this means that any enemy can be placed in here as well.
And there’s one more example of this too: Lakitu.
He’s actually throwing coins in this scene which likely means that he could throw other
types of power-up or enemies as well, just like the question blocks and cannons.
And we can’t help but wonder if this might also apply to the Hammer Bros that we saw
in the E3 demo--although there’s no sign of them in the latest trailer.
The cannons also show off another ability here as they seem timed to Mario’s location.
Are they timed to always fire in this pattern, perhaps based on the order you place them
in or is it based on the location of Mario?
There’s another type of layering shown off in the trailer as well.
It looks like certain elements can actually be placed in the same space as another--namely
platforms and enemies as we see this new platform appear behind the Piranha Plants without actually
removing the ones that are already there.
This means that some complicated configurations can be arranged.
The best example of this is during one of the underwater levels, with multiple mushroom
platforms layered over one another.
In addition, it looks like the size of enemies can be changed as well since Bloopers have
never been this big in a 2D Mario game.
How many different aspects can be changed for each enemy?
Take this scene for example, where a giant Koopa Troopa shell is actually able to break
through solid blocks whereas it would have just bounced off in the original game.
It’s yet another example of the vast amount of customization that seems possible.
At its simplest, players can even stack enemies to create tricky hybrids such as this one
with a Buzzy Beetle, a Goomba, and a Spiny.
As we stated before, it looks like each game has an equivalent for each level element.
However, there are some cases where it looks like brand new assets had to be created in
order to provide those equivalents.
In this case, the main platform type becomes a cage in the underground Super Mario Bros
3 theme.
Likewise, it seems the mushroom platforms from other
games actually appear upside down in Mario World, where they never appeared at all.
Just how many new assets were created for Mario Maker?
Perhaps one of the biggest additions since E3 though is that levels can now actually
have far more verticality to them.
During the E3 demo, the only types of levels that could be made were ones in a straight
line.
But here we see Mario have to drop down and use Lakitu’s cloud to navigate up and the
down the level.
The question is, did the lava have to be set at the bottom and then build the blocks up
to place the starting position higher?
Or could you zoom out on the map and place things wherever?
And could this hint at the possibility of creating secret rooms and connecting them
with warp pipes?
And there’s something else we can’t help but wonder...did you notice how the goal at
the end of the level changes to match that of the selected game theme, such as a flag
for the original Super Mario Bros. or the goal box for Super Mario Bros 3?
But it’s that Goal Box that got us thinking...because as fans already know, the goal box was really
only useful if you got three of the same items in a row to earn extra lives, which of course
required playing at least 3-levels.
Could this hint at being able to link multiple custom levels together to create your own
Mario Worlds?
Or possibly even an entire adventure?
It might seem massive in scope, but it seems a waste to have the goal blocks there as just
a nostalgic throwback.
And hey, do you remember how we mentioned earlier that some levels appeared to show
Mario starting in a powered-up form?
This could explain why--maybe he had grabbed a Super mushroom in the previous level and
carried it over to the next.
We can only hope.
Now that same goal box scene also confirms the appearance of the Raccoon suit.
But among these games, it only ever appeared in Super Mario Bros 3.
So what form could it take in the other game themes?
After all, we haven’t seen any other game-specific items yet, as far as we know.
And could this mean that every unique power-up from each game could appear?
Such as the Frog suit, the Hammer Brother suit, the Super Cape, the Penguin suit, and
perhaps even Yoshi?
This raises so many possibilities when it comes to creating your own Mario levels.
Okay, we’re almost done here, but there’s still a few things we wanted to point out.
For one, despite emulating the look of the old games, some new graphical touches have
been added.
The fire bars rotate a lot smoother for example, and when enemies hit lava in the original
Super Mario Bros. theme, they now make a splash.
It also takes a note from NES Remix and has everything in the foreground now cast a shadow
onto the background.
It’s little touches like these that give the game a bit more flavor.
Oh, and do you remember how the backgrounds for the New Super Mario bros.
theme were flat 2D pictures in the E3 demo?
Well, they now appear to be 3D as well, just like in the original game.
Despite seeing how far Mario Maker has come since E3, there’s a ton we don’t know
about.
But the sheer potential of the game and what it could allow players to do is astronomical.
And if these levels--or even entire Mario adventures--can be easily shared online, this
could truly be a thriving community.
But until then, we’ve pointed out everything we could find in this new trailer.
Of course, if we missed anything, let us know in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching, and make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Mario Maker
and other things gaming too.
Until next time guys.
Bye.