The upcoming Super Mario Maker for Nintendo Wii U is all about experimentation. Players will be able to create their own Super Mario levels and then play levels created by others online. It’s coming loaded to the gills with cool features and customization options, giving Nintendo fans the chance to let their creativity go wild. Now, thanks to a new video released by Nintendo (above), we know the game will make space for musical creativity, too. Plus, it will be compatible with nearly every amiibo.
Super Mario Maker encourages players to do unusual things, like create giant stacks of enemies or make canons fire coins instead of missiles. Some of the levels we’ve seen so far look incredibly satisfying and silly, especially for fans of the original Super Mario games. There are four different themes, each based on a different Super Mario game. Within each theme, there are six different areas you can explore, including underground, underwater, and castle. And the whole experience is designed to flip smoothly between edit mode and test mode. You’ll be able to try out everything as soon as you add it to the course.
If you’re worried about being overwhelmed with features, take a deep breath. The new video also explains that tools will be unrolled slowly, allowing you to take your time. Master one kind of building, and a new tool will become available the next day. There’s nine days of new content in all.
Plus, if you don’t want to start from scratch, you can go online and manipulate courses created by other players.
Super Mario Maker will provide you with the option of doing a 100-Mario (or a 10-Mario) Challenge, in which you try to beat a selection of random levels using only 100 (or 10) lives. Since the game is curating the levels for you, you don’t need to go digging around to find levels—you can just jump right in.
Musical levels can be created by creators who use music blocks that play different notes when tapped. The farther up on the screen, the higher the pitch of the note. So, level builders can use these blocks to create elaborate compositions. They can also add sound effects like applause or fireworks. Or they can record their own sound effects using the microphone on the GamePad. Cool!
The amiibo news is cool, too. Super Mario Maker will be compatible with more than 50 different amiibo. The only ones left out of the lineup (so far) are the upcoming Mii fighter amiibos and Animal Crossing trading card amiibos.
Each amiibo will allow you to place a special item in a level that you build. The item will allow you to turn into an 8-bit version of the character depicted by your amiibo. For instance, if you have a Link amiibo, you can play through the level as Link instead of as Mario. Some characters have been made into multiple amiibos, like Peach, Luigi, Bowser, and Link. It’s unclear if the two Link amiibos will create the same version of Link in the game. It seems likely, but we’ll have to wait and find out.
Super Mario Maker comes out on September 11. Stay tuned for Pixelkin’s review.
Super Mario Maker will be compatible with almost every amiibo.
