Super Mario Maker (Wii U) Review | Video Game Thoughts.

This was a really difficult game for me to even know how to talk about, just because I always think of the story behind a video game and Super Mario Maker is almost purely gameplay. So let me start with the gameplay. For making levels, Super Mario Maker is super intuitive.

The process is perhaps too simple for its own good, since there are gameplay elements like slopes that I wish were integrated to it. But even so, with quick clicks, making a level in Mario Maker is both easy and fun. The little additions in the game, like the undo Dog or the flies that start a minigame, are wonderful for giving a sense of personality to the interface itself.

Testing a level is as easy as pressing the minus button. And combining different elements is always fun because it's hard to know what will happen until you try it. It's all so new and most of it is easy to use. Easy to use really sums up the level creation: it gives you a number of tools but, even if you unlock it all at once, never overwhelms you because of the simplicity of the interface.

If you want to play levels, I think finding levels is the harder part. I do think this part of the interface could have been done better. And I'll be honest, I don't like the 100 Mario challenge because it seems like you don't know which costume you'll get before you get it, and there are some costumes I just don't want to have, so I've never played the 100 Mario Challenge.

Maybe that is good for finding levels, but I can't comment since I haven't played it. Even so, I still think the search options should have been more robust. I personally don't agree with crossovers like this, because Mario platformers are family friendly and some costumes come from series that are not family friendly.

Mario controls well in pretty much every style of level. And the story? Well, there really is no story, except this. I acknowledge that this kind of story is inherent to any activity, and not particular to video games in general or Super Mario Maker specifically.

The story is your personal story. Your process of creating the level, of testing the level, and of playing others' levels. Just like the game is all about level creation, and level creation in a sense being a player's personal story about how he or she made that level, the game is also about stories.