GameSided Game of the Year #12: Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker customizes a way into making it in at #12 of our Game of the Year 2015 list.

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It’s been a while since Nintendo has made an iconic, side-scrolling platformer. While New Super Mario Bros. and its ilk are fun additions to the series, nothing has quite stood out like the NES and Super NES games of old. That’s why Nintendo throwing out the editing tools to the public and proclaiming, “Fine, you go make a Super Mario game if you think you’re so smart” just makes perfect sense. That’s essentially what Super Mario Maker boils down to, and thanks to the internet we have a lot more Mario experiences than we previously thought possible.

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Using the GamePad, you have a toolbox of items, enemies and objects from the series at your disposal, allowing you to create levels based on classic and contemporary Super Mario games. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U are games at your disposal, but something unprecedented is that the items and enemies from each game are transferrable for use in different areas.

Better yet, because you can do several types of level styles (haunted house, underground, water) and combine them with enemies, objects and other things that typically aren’t “canon” levels, you can do some really fascinating designs. You can set up traps, leave messages, record your voice to play on certain actions or even create your own narrative over the course of several maps. Players are given an unprecedented freedom with Mario, considering Nintendo’s stance on how they handle their most sacred IP.

Once completed, you can bring creations online to share, and for players to explore levels themselves. Fixed shooters, action platformers, choose your own adventures, and even narrative tales can be shared in Super Mario Maker, making it the ultimate means of expressing yourself within a Mario game.

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