You know that house that is always full of kids, the one with the trail of chips across the living room floor and a bunch of kids in random costumes and pajamas whooping it up at noon on any given Sunday? That’s my house.
I love having a houseful of kids. I love that there are all kinds of personalities in our fun neighborhood crew and for the most part all the kids get along. We have an extremely sweet, tolerant and friendly group of neighbors.
Thanks to Nintendo for sending Super Mario Maker and a gaming console in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
It’s a challenge at times, coming up with activities that everyone enjoys doing together. The age span is about 7-15 and this includes at least a dozen boys and girls. This is where Super Mario Maker comes in.
Our Wii U gets a real workout when the neighborhood gang assembles. All the Mario games are a favorite. Super Mario Maker, however, is the current game of choice on our block.
In case you are still coming up to speed about what Super Mario Maker is, and what it does that is so unique ( I was…) it is a game that allows kids to be designers. Using Super Mario Maker, kids can design their own Super Mario levels. The more levels they build and play, the more game elements they get to work with. Game elements include blocks to jump on, presents to open, obstacles and coins to collect and much more. The possibilities of what they can build are infinite, limited only by imagination.
It’s easy to jump into. I confess that I find designing the games to be far easier than playing! The interface is very intuitive and there’s barely any learning curve. Anyone can start designing game levels with Super Mario Maker almost immediately.
What I love about this game is that not only does it encourage creativity and planning, but it is also extremely social. Kids can build levels for themselves or for friends, making it more or less challenging. Then they play each other’s levels.
My kids even built me a special “Mom” level, with the word MOM drawn out in coins. They tried to make it super easy for me so I could practice my rather lame Super Mario Skills. I won’t tell you how many times I STILL died. But I appreciated having my very own easy level. Sort of like making a fool of yourself at home, singing in the shower…
In addition to game play elements, kids can alter their game’s background with different themes. There are additional ways to get more variety in game elements and characters with amiibos – cute little figures (purchased seperately) that interact with the game pad and get you more options. Tapping your classic Super Mario 39th edition amiibo on the game pad gives you costumes which allow you to play the game dressed as a different character and the ability to play with a giant sized Mario.
We’ve had up to a dozen kids over at a time to play Super Mario Maker, and everyone agrees it’s one the best games for Wii that they have ever tried. It’s top of everyone’s holiday list. I interviewed a few of our neighborhood regulars (as well as my own two kiddos) and here is what they had to say!
Name: Cole
Fave Mario Character: Baby Daisy
Fave Super Mario Maker BackgroundTheme: Big bubbles that you bounce on.
Super Mario Maker Player Style: Competitive. Sneaky. Skillful. Good. Tricky.
Would Love To Play This Person’s Super Mario Maker Levels: Miley Cyrus!
Thinks Super Mario Maker is Best for: Very creative people with big imaginations.
Name: Galileo
Fave Mario Character: Wario
Fave Super Mario Maker BackgroundTheme: Underwater
Super Mario Maker Player Style: Crazy! Unpredicatable. You don’t know what I’ll do next…
Would Love To Play This Person’s Super Mario Maker Levels: Exploding TNT
Thinks Super Mario Maker is Best for: Super geniuses, like me 😉
Name: AJ
Fave Mario Character: Koopa Troopa
Fave Super Mario Maker BackgroundTheme: Flying cars
Super Mario Maker Player Style: Creative. Imaginative. Skillful. Tricky. Cool.
Would Love To Play This Person’s Super Mario Maker Levels: Blake Griffin
Thinks Super Mario Maker is Best for: People who like driving and have creative imaginations.
Name: Fox
Fave Mario Character: Waluigi from Mario Spinoffs
Fave Super Mario Maker BackgroundTheme: Airship levels
Super Mario Maker Player Style: Silly and tough
Would Love To Play This Person’s Super Mario Maker Levels: Stampy
Thinks Super Mario Maker is Best for: Anyone who is into building and destroying stuff. Mean people, nice people, you can be as tricky as you want!
Name: Kenna
Fave Mario Character: Mario
Fave Super Mario Maker BackgroundTheme: Ghost Mansions
Super Mario Maker Player Style: Competitive and fast!
Would Love To Play This Person’s Super Mario Maker Levels: Dan TDM
Thinks Super Mario Maker is Best for: Those kinds of people who need everything totally custom. They can make their own games.
Name: Ciaran (aka “Mom”)
Fave Mario Character: The turtle is pretty cute….
Fave Super Mario Maker BackgroundTheme: Any of the classics
Super Mario Maker Player Style: Slow, uncoordinated, and trying to not use swear words
Would Love To Play This Person’s Super Mario Maker Levels: My kids, because they are trying to save me shame with super easy levels! Plus they never put mean things in the presents.
Thinks Super Mario Maker is Best for: Families with kids of all ages, who want their kids to do more than just play the games. This is great for developing all kinds of planning and critical thinking skills! It’s also a great holiday gift idea for busy moms. Buy it in store, online, or via a download. You don’t even have to leave home to gift this crowdpleaser to the kids on your list!
Thanks for this. I love being able to read people’s thoughts about a game before I actually buy it.