Nintendo Reveals Mario Maker

[Tanooki]

It may be old but I missed this clip. It's also rarer to hear Miyamoto use english as he seems so cozy still using an interpreter.

The fascinating thing with Mario Maker is that the menu bar up high reeks strongly of the Mario Paint interface of the SNES, and I couldn't think of a better one to ape for the present. It's mind blowing they do NOT put the rom for that out or make a real second Mario Paint as a download only (at the least) game for the 3DS. I hope Mario Maker once the WiiU version sales fizzle will pull a 'smash bros' on it and throw it on there for more penetration. I can't say I'd use it but if I did, portability would be key in that interest.

[ZP3]

The OP link goes to an old E3 2014 trailer, unless I'm missing something here.

No worries, but my link was the same as yours, sans the Miyamoto intro!

[Leo_A]

Darn, I was hoping that was something new. That Game Awards trailer from a couple of days ago has me excited about this title and ready to see more.

You're right about those Zeldas, but if you go back farther there were 'quality' and expansion delays with both the N64 titles, and I think the GC game got backed up too a bit.

Majora's Mask didn't slip and neither did Wind Waker, although they had to cut development a bit short to make their schedule (Resulting in the loss of two planned dungeons).

I don't really think that Ocarina of Time has any bearing on things. That was nearly 20 years ago and their first 3D Zelda, so a long development period only seemed natural.

The 3DS still gets the third party games, but it's nothing like it was the first couple of years at all.

Even when new, it was sadly weak in that area and few 3rd party releases are part of my collection. They saw some decent support from a few like Capcom, but I'd say that just in quantity alone, the stream of 3DS software is only about 1/3 of that of the DS.

And sadly, a good chunk of shovelware and software aimed at young kids like Disney movie tie-ins still accounts for what we're getting. So the diminished counts haven't been just a matter of the cheap cash-in junk disappearing now that that Nintendo's handhelds aren't setting sales records.

[davidbrit2]

No worries, but my link was the same as yours, sans the Miyamoto intro!

Um... no? The one you linked to was posted back in June. This new one was from just a couple days ago, I think. And it looks awesome.

[Rickstilwell1]

The main difference between Mario games now and the old ones is that they go for the same art style these days instead of making drastic changes as they did when the series was evolving with the hardware. The polygons might be smoother depending on what system you're playing on, but everything is drawn the same way. What the Mario series needs is some variety in the art direction. We wouldn't be saying the NSMB games are too similar if they would have done that. The only one that doesn't feel like a copycat is the first one rightfully so, as a new Mario hadn't been done on a handheld for years, since Super Mario Land 2. Remember how fresh the first NSMB felt. The only thing we felt it lacked was the ability to fly.

[Leo_A]

Speaking of art styles, it was great to see that they've added two more to the lineup for Mario Maker (Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3). Not sure if that has been mentioned so far, but it's a much welcomed addition.

And no music generation is confirmed, despite a Mario Paint style editor seeming like a natural feature.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/...level-creation

[kupomogli]

The OP link goes to an old E3 2014 trailer, unless I'm missing something here.

It was the same video whenever I watched it, I went back to it right now and it's showing the old one. Go to the first page and read my post, it's referencing the additions that were made.

[ZP3]

It was the same video whenever I watched it, I went back to it right now and it's showing the old one. Go to the first page and read my post, it's referencing the additions that were made.

Huh. Odd. Oh well, fixed it!

[Tanooki]

I feel like I must own a different 3DS. I have 18 games, 10 of them are not made by Nintendo. I've had more in the past but let them go like SSFIV, DOA, Ridge Racer 3D and more third party titles. The support was solid for at least 2-3 years, but really has slacked in the last year compared which is why I said perhaps people just knew the New3DS was coming compounded by the uptick in tablet/phone gaming too. The 3DS appears to be getting an abridged life which sucks, but it's a necessity due to the phone/tablet junk and they're going GB to GBC upgrade style on it with New3DS. I'm curious to see how that one plays out with it kickstarting with Xenoblade among other things going forward.


Rick I have said it since NSMB came out and before in the long run wishing there were more 2D Mario games, they need to bring back the world of SMB2. It was huge here and as SM USA was big in Japan too. There's so much barely tapped potential there for a fun game and it even follows their weirdo need to have the thing be an optional 4P adventure seeing the old title had 4 players to pick from. Sure they've kept Birdo and Shy Guy around, Pokey too, but if they could return to Subcon now and again it would be awesome. Perhaps instead of a dream, have the dream world invade reality -- bring forth Wart, Mouser, Triclyde and the rest. Keep the re-mastered physics for movement and jump from NSMBU where they returned it to be mostly like SMW from SNES and not the floaty junk of the DS/3DS games.

[RANGERooB]

just thinking why isn't there a new mario rpg out on the wii u ? since they redid most of the mario series expect galaxies

[Leo_A]

just thinking why isn't there a new mario rpg out on the wii u ?

Wal-Mart has Paper Mario U up for $100, lol.

Hopefully the Wii U lives long enough for something real to happen there since obviously that's part of the traditional Nintendo gameplan these days. Short of dying prematurely (I really would not be shocked to see next generation Nintendo hardware appear in 2016, with Zelda U next Fall as its last major release), it seems a safe bet as does Animal Crossing.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have one or both underway as we speak.

I feel like I must own a different 3DS. I have 18 games, 10 of them are not made by Nintendo.

There' some good stuff there, no doubt.

JRPG's for instance seem to be present in strong numbers. But sadly, I'm not a fan (Outside of Nintendo's "Marioized" attempts). And there's some other quirky, yet quality Japanese stuff there as well in solid numbers like Phoenix Wright. Plus, I haven't given 3rd party publishing the attention it deserves on either the DS or the 3DS, so I can certainly do much better than the four 3rd party 3DS games that I have right now (Not counting Sega's 3D Classics lineup on the eShop).

But it's undoubtedly happening with much decreased frequency compared to the DS, even when the 3DS was new.

people just knew the New3DS was coming

I don't think so, it seemed to come as a shock even to those in the gaming press. I don't think it factored into 3rd party support as well since I don't see many eschewing the regular 3DS just to release a New 3DS project to a far smaller audience when they could instead sell a regular 3DS release to everyone.

The New 3DS will have to be a huge sales success and enjoy a long life if it's to get even a modest amount of 3rd party development/publishing for it. Otherwise, the established install base of the regular 3DS is going to win out (although I would hope developers will optionally take advantage of the New 3DS when it makes sense).

[Tanooki]

Yeah you've neglected third party games if you just have four real physical games as there are great offerings. Sure the magnitude of releases has slowed compared to the GBA and DS period but that's to be expected against the larger market that exists now. They've making overall great profit on it and that ultimately is what matters because if they don't then the game offerings vanish.

You're right the New3DS was a blindside to the press. As much as they love to think they're connected, the truth of the matter is they're often intentionally left in the dark and or under NDA because they have big stupid gaping traps they can't shut the hell up short of a legal threat. Systems can be known a good year or more at times before the press is allowed to know something exists and even then existence and demonstration or tech jargon come at different points too. People said the same thing about the GBC since the 'beautiful' looking smaller GB Pocket was still pretty new too yet we saw how that went. You had a nice spread of GBC hybrid and exclusive stuff and that should continue on the New 3DS too. I think if anything it will end up a 4 year system too where the sales start large and stay large for a time with certain lulls and boosts due to some train of great games or a really stellar release but will fall off as other media clouds it over again being a stand alone. I still believe the dual console/handheld box is the way to differentiate and make themselves relevant to gamers again both 'core' and casual.

[Leo_A]

Yeah you've neglected third party games if you just have four real physical games as there are great offerings.

To a degree, but when my taste and what I've actually played is taken into account, it's not too bad.

For instance, I don't like fighters so I can scratch Street Fighter IV off the list, in addition to not caring for much of the other Japanese content on there that I already mentioned. Just not really a fan of things like JRPG's, no matter how well done.

And I bought all three PS2 Kingdom Hearts releases a decade ago and still haven't gotten around to them, so I've skipped the 3DS release for now (Along with both HD remasters on the PS3 and the DS game). Hopefully someday assuming my assumption of enjoying this action RPG franchise ends up correct, I'll rectify that. But I could easily end up off the mark and regret what I already rather foolishly invested into.

Unfortunately, I can dismiss a lot of the best 3rd party content since it just doesn't align with my own taste or particular needs.

People said the same thing about the GBC since the 'beautiful' looking smaller GB Pocket was still pretty new too yet we saw how that went.

I doubt even Nintendo is fooling themselves. Why else is it not out there for the Christmas shopping season if they have such grandiose plans for it? Instead, sizable numbers of regular 3DS hardware is being sold this Christmas despite the New 3DS being ready to go. Time will tell, but my money is on it being little better than the DSi situation ended up where exclusives are concerned. A minor hardware refresh with minor software support.

Granted, with Xenoblade Chronicles and presumably, at least a couple of more quality 1st party projects planned, it's already better off than the DSi line was with exclusives. But I don't think that it will ever really take off enough to entice 3rd parties to develop to its capabilities and write off the majority of the 3DS install base. They're out to maximize software sales, not to justify a system revision that they hope will entice people to double or even triple dip on with another hardware sale.

I don't see it having the advantages that the GBC did with color. And even there, much of its lineup was restricted from taking full advantage of the more powerful GBC hardware for the very reasons that I'm talking about. They didn't want to cut out that huge existing install base.

[Tanooki]

Excluding JRPG and the types -- Castlevania, Ace Combat, Adventure Time(the 1st which is a Zelda 2 like clone), Cave Story, Code of Princess, Pinball Hall of Fame, Bit Trip Saga, both the FF Theaterhythm games, Ridge Racer, Asphalt, Samurai Warriors, both Resident Evil games, all come to mind as a decent cut of variety from the third party world that maybe worth looking into. I don't know your tastes but there's a good spread of genres there.

I just don't see the New 3DS going DSi where there's like 4 games, no advertising, and it's just a shittily handled crutch to last about 2 years before something better shows up. The only realm of possibility I see there is that the system bombs so astronomically hard that third parties pull a WiiU on it and give it the bird after the first year forcing Nintendo do run out another system in a hurry. Supposedly the advantage of the New 3DS depending on taste may or may not be as 'wow' as color was. You get a 3D image finally that doesn't tear apart at the slightest angle which is the only reason I don't use it much at all. They've got a double clocked and twice to four times the ram looking to go into it, other parts upgrades as well which will allow the hardware to pop out stuff at over the level the Wii was capable of making it a pretty impressive handheld. I'm not sure it'll come up to the Vita in quality, but it's definitely not just a minor bump. That added horesepower going on there would make it fairly enticing for developers to at worst use it as a spam box to shove last generation games on there as a cash-in and if you were just a Nintendo tool who avoided the PS3/360 and Vita it would be fresh releases if that happened.

[celerystalker]

I think I would have really played with this as a kid. When I was 20 or so and finally an RPG maker came out over here, I snapped it up, and then realized I just don't care to put that kind of effort into that sort of thing. I don't even tinker with the level editors on games like Excitebike or Lode Runner anymore. My ten year old self would have played 'til he dropped. Now, these games are a nice thought but best left to kids who still get summer vacations and spring/winter breaks.

You know, as I say this, I mean it, and yet I somehow did manage to blow a ton of hours on Terraria last year. Huh. Maybe I'll try it on the cheap sometime.

[Leo_A]

This doesn't look like it's going to require a large time commitment to have fun with.

Plus, even if level creation isn't appealing these days, I'm confident that a full Nintendo produced 2D Mario platformer will be here (Surely, they're not just going to sell us a level editor and nothing else), not to mention user created downloads.

Excluding JRPG and the types -- Castlevania, Ace Combat, Adventure Time(the 1st which is a Zelda 2 like clone), Cave Story, Code of Princess, Pinball Hall of Fame, Bit Trip Saga, both the FF Theaterhythm games, Ridge Racer, Asphalt, Samurai Warriors, both Resident Evil games, all come to mind as a decent cut of variety from the third party world that maybe worth looking into. I don't know your tastes but there's a good spread of genres there.

I've heard good things about Adventure Time twice in as many days now, but have never heard of Code of Princess or FF Theaterhythm [Edit: Latter two definitely aren't my style]. I also already own two of these since I'm a fan of Ace Combat and Ridge Racer.

But several of those are easily dismissed where I'm concerned. I don't like the direction that they took Castlevania in with the Lords of Shadow spinoffs, I have both PSP releases for Pinball Hall of Fame (Not to mention numerous console versions and Pinball Arcade), I have Bit Trip Saga for the Wii and haven't yet played it, I hated Asphalt Urban GT on the DS (Shovelware if there ever was one), Samurai Warriors isn't my cup of tea, Resident Evil: Revelations is on the Wii U, and Mercenaries was received fairly poorly.

But I'm not out to argue. The 3DS definitely has a fair number of nice third party releases and I definitely need to investigate several of them. I just think that it's much reduced from the heyday of Nintendo's dominance in this area, a line of thinking that you seem to largely be in agreement with.

[Tanooki]

Well Code of Princess is kind of like Dragon's Crown, a brawler with RPG leveling and better gear, extra characters, and an enjoyable enough story but you have to like that or it's boring as sin. I don't like Lords of Shadow as the 3D franchise goes, but the 3DS game basically is a hybrid of Castlevania 3 NES and God of War (energy/magic bar enhancement and button combos for nasty hits) which I found hard to put down until I finished it. I know that RE Mercs wasn't the best, a lame demo turned into a game and one with a really evil save setup where you can never reset the data which sucks. I mostly was just listing third party stuff I tried out before or was aware of. It's why I never listed Monster Hunter which is huge as I never could get into the slow plodding pace of it on the PSP when I had it before.

I think the deal is these days is Nintendo has the third party support still totally on the handheld front, but the difference is that you're getting quality over quantity. With the GBA and DS you got a heap of games, a good bit more, but there was so much filler garbage. I'm not saying 3DS is empty of it, but there's far less shovelware turds or mediocre third party releases from more reputable companies.

[Leo_A]

I think the deal is these days is Nintendo has the third party support still totally on the handheld front, but the difference is that you're getting quality over quantity. With the GBA and DS you got a heap of games, a good bit more, but there was so much filler garbage.

Go to GameFaqs, filter their 3DS list by selecting retail and North America, and take a look around. Still tons and tons of obvious shovelware. We're seeing fewer games with no apparent increase in the average quality of what we are receiving.

I bet that the DS saw three times the releases on an average year that the 3DS has done. And even if the percentage of quality 3rd party 3DS software was slightly more that that the DS (Which I definitely don't subscribe to but admit to not being able to prove in any meaningful way), sheer numbers still easily win out for both the GBA and the DS.

Just look at Castlevania alone for one example. Sure, Japan's gaming industry and Konami both seem to be dying and that's surely contributing a bit, but we have what, about six quality games in that franchise split evenly across the GBA and DS (Or at least 4 or 5 for pickier fans) to one average 3DS effort?

Nintendo is struggling here, just look at 3DS software sales this year for instance. Super Smash Brothers and Pokemon should help it a bit, but in the absence of much in the way of major Nintendo published activity, numbers are dismal so far and likely will end up mediocre at best at the end of Nintendo's fiscal year.

The 3rd parties simply aren't here to pick up the slack so the moment Nintendo has a reduced release calendar, it's immediately reflected with the sales data with large drops in numbers.

[treismac]

I would buy a Wii U for this game. Mario Kart, Smash, and Zelda games do not interest me.
Mario Maker looks awesome.

Bam. I totally concur. While it may still be Mario, it is Mario with new life and a different angle. I don't get excited about Zelda, Smash, Kart, or even the newest SMB update, but this entices me. For one thing, it actually makes use of that touchscreen Wii U controller in a way that is functional and not just gimmicky. This could have never been comfortably pulled off on another Nintendo (home) console until now, upping the WiiU's prospective value to me.

The Wii U needs more than a few games worth playing for me to think about buying it. Never mind the naysayers, this makes me think about buying a Wii U.

[WCP]

I wish it was available on Steam or something, lol...


Would love to mess with the game and make Mario World type levels, but don't want to buy a Wii U just to get it.