All Articles: Super Mario Maker

Callie and Marie, Splatoon‘s Squid Sisters, have one other stop before that game’s final Splatfest on July 22. This Friday, July 8, players will be able to unlock Costumes for Callie and Marie by playing through a new Event Course in Super Mario Maker.

A trailer starring the Sisters has been embedded above.

With the launch of the NX looming, it’s painfully obvious that the Wii U failed to hit the mark with the video game community. According to their most recent financial report, Nintendo has sold less than 13 million Wii U consoles, which is just a fraction of the install base owned by Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. But that hasn’t stopped the consolemaker from creating compelling software that speaks to Wii U owners everywhere.

Just yesterday, Nintendo revealed that more than 25% of all Wii U owners have purchased Super Mario Maker, which translates to more than 3.5 million copies sold worldwide. These Mario fanatics have also managed to produce more than 7.2 million courses, and it would take the average person quite a long time to play them all:

If you played every level in #SuperMarioMaker for 1 minute each, it would take you nearly 14 years to play them all! pic.twitter.com/vEzBMTLGg8

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 17, 2016

Super Mario Maker’s 3.5 million copies puts it just outside the Wii U’s Top 5 behind Mario Kart 8, New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and Splatoon.

Nintendo updated Super Mario Maker again today and added three new items to Create Mode, a new difficulty mode, more Character Costumes, and an update to the official website. Ready, here we go…

• Skewers – Those ridiculously crazy columns from Super Mario World, are now available by shaking a Thwomp.
• Keys and Key Doors – Available by shaking a P-Switch, Keys and Key Doors can now hide parts of a level behind a lock.
• Pink Coins – Much like Yoshi Coins in Super Mario World, shaking a Coin will now give players access to Pink Coins, which turn into a Key after all of them have been collected in a level.
• Character Costumes – A dozen new Character Costumes have been added to Super Mario Maker including Tetra from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
• Super Expert Mode – After completing the 100 Mario Challenge on Expert, players will be able to tackle another random assortment of courses dubbed “Super Expert” by the community.
• Super Mario Maker Bookmark – Nintendo will make a number of changes to the site, including adding a World Records search.

You can get a glimpse at all the changes made to Super Mario Maker today in the trailer embedded above.

Super Mario Maker course creators get ready, Nintendo is about to add three new Costumes to the game as part of a trio of new Event Courses.

A Costume for Captain Toad, the star of last year’s painfully adorable Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, has already been added to Super Mario Maker. In addition to his explorer’s helmet, Captain Toad stops and holds up a star when crouching.

Meanwhile, Costumes for an Excitebike Racer and Birdo will be added to Super Mario Maker on December 31. Birdo is the same egg-spitting dinosaur you know (and tolerate) from Super Mario Bros. 2. But a platforming Excitebike Racer (complete with a crouching animation that pops a wheelie) is something I never knew I wanted until now.

Mini-trailers for all three new Costumes can be found after the break. (more…)

Nintendo will release another free Super Mario Maker update this Tuesday, December 22, and it’ll come packed with three new course parts:

• Fire Koopa Clown Car: This volcanic vessel is capable of shooting fireballs as well as a powerful charged shot that can even destroy Blocks. It’s perfect for creating shoot-em-up-style courses.
• P Warp Doors: Unlike regular Warp Doors, these are only visible while a P Switch is active – perfect for creating truly devious Ghost House courses.
• Bumper: This bouncy donut-shaped object sends Mario bounding away when touched.

P Warp Doors are an essential part of the franchise, so I’m thrilled that Nintendo is finally adding them to Super Mario Maker. And I love that the publisher took some inspiration from one of my favorite player-created courses, “Super Shmup Bros.,” in creating the Fire Koopa Clown Car. In addition to three new toys to play with, Nintendo is also adding a “World Records” leaderboard to each uploaded course so players can fight for the best times.

But next week’s update is even more important because of the launch of Super Mario Maker Bookmark, an online web portal that players to use to search the game’s many courses:

Players can access the Super Mario Maker Bookmark portal site from their computer, tablet, or smartphone, using their Nintendo Network ID to log in. The portal will let players browse recommended courses or search for courses with filters like difficulty, game theme, or course style. Players can also search using a selection of tags, making it easier to find courses that fall into a specific category such as automatic, puzzle, or music. Appealing levels can then be bookmarked for instant access the next time players fire up the game.

A trailer highlighting the new course parts has been embedded above, and another trailer that’ll walk you through the Super Mario Maker Bookmark site is available after the break. (more…)