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Can someone explain the hype around Super Mario Maker 2?
I don't understand what makes the game appealing. It looks like it takes forever to make a level, and why would I want to play levels from random people on the internet?
I like games that you build stuff like KSP but just wondering what the appeal of SMM2 is.
There are more multiple levels of appeal.
Some people want to design levels or learn how to design, and Nintendo's tutorials are supposed to be pretty robust this time around.
Some people want to play different levels, similar to a daily challenge, or procedurally generated levels, except made by actual players.
Some people make ridiculously hard or gamey levels, sort of like a game of Horse, far harder than anything Nintendo would put their name on as a challenge.
Some people have been part of the ROM hacking scene for years, and like playing with new toys.
Some people just like novelty.
Thanks! Are there high scores per level or some way for it to be competitive? Or do you compete against yourself?
There is world record speed, number of players who clear to number of players who tried it, and an Endless Mode which ranks how many courses you can go through before your lives are used up.
EDIT: Also Local Multiplayer, but probably not the competitive you were looking for.
Ok that definitely helps me understand it better. That sounds fun. I do like couch co-op too. Thanks!
You forgot to mention that people just love Mario! His charismatic persona is a major factor in getting Nintendo the big bucks.
Because with Super Mario Maker, you have nearly infinite replay value. People got really creative in the original with all sorta of levels - you had stuff like speed runs, story quests, puzzle levels, music rythem levels, troll levels, find and seek levels, and so much more. Some people even did really esoteric things like reimplement binary circuits inside the level editors. There was so much cool and creative stuff in the original, and so with all the new tools and mechanics combined with a far larger audience, the expectation is SMM2 will be even better.
Hmm ok this is piquing my interest. I didn't think of all the types of levels.
Do the more popular levels get "voted" to the top or are otherwise easily found?
Yes, there are tools to vote on levels, share a particular level, play a selection at random, etc, and just about whatever else you would expect. Did you look into the first Super Mario Maker at all? If you didn't get the hype around the first, you won't get the second. People love Mario, they got a game that let them make Mario levels with some good tools, and their imaginations went wild. this one is basically more of the same with a few improvements. If you want an idea of how much people got into it and why, try this article and dip into some of the videos.
Great article, this was a lot of fun to see the competitiveness and community around it. Some of those levels look dastardly.
Also cool to see how easy it is to make levels. The editor is really nice.
Thanks all for the replies. I can definitely understand the appeal better now. Sounds like it is really creatively stimulating and has a ton of nostalgia and replayability.
Variety? I kinda miss the golden age of modding around the Half-Life 1 days and such. These—slightly more corporate—games bring back some of that DIY inventiveness.
Ha yeah I had a lot of fun with Gary's mod back in the day. Good stuff. Maybe that's waiting to be reawakened in me.
Gary's mod is actually a perfect analogy! Not quite as wild (again, it's still embedded in a very "safe" Nintendo environment) but I just played a level that's basically a working Pong done in Super Mario.
My biggest disappointment with the first Super Mario Maker is that it included neither Chargin' Chuck nor Rip Van Fish. I want to be able to kill both of those little bastards by the millions.
For me, it's that it's like a "best of" of Mario games. I've played through about 20 of the story levels so far and had NES era mechanics through to wii-era mechanics and I'm having a blast. Once I finish with the story mode, I'll get a Nintendo online subscription and start exploring the user generated content. There'll be some terrible stuff but then there'll be some really innovative ideas which the developers wouldn't have thought of so I'll get some more bang for my buck.