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'Mario Maker' level-design game launches in September
Mario Maker is due out for the Wii U in September, Nintendo announced today during its live stream. Mario Maker allows players to design their own Mario levels, featuring styles from across the series' storied history.
Joystiq Weekly: Awesome Games Done Quick, Kalimba review, DIY Mario and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. It was a pretty quiet week thanks to the end-of-the-year holiday lull, but things should pick up soon! Like, today even – Awesome Games Done Quick has just kicked off a week-long marathon of high-skill and speedrun-oriented livestreams, with all donations benefiting the Prevent Cancer Foundation. If supporting a worthwhile cause isn't enough of an excuse to watch talented players blaze through games, what is? ... Yes, okay, other than free puppies. While you're waiting on something of interest that's buried in the event's schedule, catch up on what you might have missed while you were doing relaxing, vacation-y things. PlayStation Network users got good news regarding last week's service outage, Contributing Editor Danny Cowan's relationship survived his Kalimba review, and we explored the history of do-it-yourself Mario and the technical shift in Mortal Kombat X's gore.
A brief history of do-it-yourself Mario
Nintendo's Mario Maker – launching early next year – may be the company's first official foray into do-it-yourself level editing but, as many people know, would-be game designers have been using unofficial channels to do just that for close to two decades using Nintendo's most popular brand. The end result? A fan community like no other, filled with passionate people from all over the globe, all working toward one common goal – creating an absolute boatload of deviously designed Mario levels. Of course, long before there were dedicated toolsets, there was the humble game ROM. In addition to allowing people to finally brag about beating Ghosts N' Goblins, NES game ROMs had/have the added bonus of being fairly easy to manipulate. What better title to screw around with than the original Super Mario Bros.? It didn't have too many sprites and, oh yeah, there's that whole "pretty much defined video games for an entire generation" thing. So the ROM-smiths went to work. It was simple stuff at first, like getting rid of Mario's mustache or even his clothes. Naked Italian plumbers soon gave way to stoned Italian plumbers. Most of the notable hacks of this early era were simple one-offs created for shock value, like Super Bud Brothers, which replaced some of the game's bushes and character sprites with weed leaves, and the disgusting Super KKK Brothers in which, well, you can probably guess its horrific gimmick.
Joystiq Weekly: Telltale takes on Minecraft, Xeodrifter review, broken games and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Telltale Games looked at Minecraft's build-what-you-want universe and decided to build an episodic, narrative-driven game instead of a crummy castle like the rest of us. At this point, we wouldn't even be surprised if Telltale Games' next project is a narrative-driven series starring Samuel the rock ... it would probably be well-written, too. There's a bit more to this week's recap beyond Telltale's latest reveal though, including ports of the last two Devil May Cry games, free games for those that own Assassin's Creed Unity's season pass, a review of Xeodrifter and an assessment of recent high-profile, broken-at-launch games. All that and more is waiting for you after the break in this edition of the Joystiq Weekly!
Miyamoto says players can share levels in Mario Maker
Players of Mario Maker, the upcoming Wii U game that lets players build their own 2D worlds in the style of the Super Mario Bros. series, will be able to share their creations online, according to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. In a recent interview with YouTube personality iJustine (translated by Nintendo Senior Product Marketing Manager Bill Trinen) Miyamoto said, "You'll be able to see what happens when other people play your course or when you play other people's courses. There will be some popularity rankings for the most popular courses and things like that. So there's a lot on the community side." Miyamoto hopes you won't forsake those in your own home though, elaborating that he still pictures couch-based play, with a creator handing off their level to a friend or family member who is in the room. "But of course we will have the internet ability to exchange courses as well." We can't wait to see all the age-appropriate and completely family-friendly designs that the internet will come up with. [Image: Nintendo]
Thank the Mario Maker for including SMB 3, World themes
As revealed at The Game Awards, Nintendo's pumped some new features into Mario Maker since we last saw it at E3. The Wii U's DIY outfit lets you switch between Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World themes, in addition to old-school SMB1 and new-school NSMBU. Also, check out that flying spiny-shell bullet hell at 1:42 (the vid's below the break). And then, coins! The Mario Maker descends from the heavens and comes to the West in 2015.
Seen@E3: Making Marios
Mario Maker is as super simple to use as it looks. Paint objects into the level, drag pipes to stretch them, tweak things like changing the direction of moving platforms, and then press play to, well, play. The only hard bit is trying to get through the absurd level you just made. Even in the E3 demo, which Nintendo plans to add to, there was an appreciable level of customization. There are little things like giving wings to the goombas and koopa troopas or putting piranha plants into pipes, but also the major mechanic of being able to switch your level from old-school Mario to the New Super look in just one click. The issue I had was the amount of available space, which seemed a bit short; negotiable without obstacles in seconds rather than minutes. Again, maybe that's just the limitations of the E3 demo. We'll all get to meet our Mario Maker when it comes to Wii U next year.
Engadget Daily: an interview with Shuhei Yoshida, a social guide to the World Cup and more!
Today, we sit down with Shuhei Yoshida to discuss PlayStation Now, watch SwiftKey lose its price tag, go hands-on with Mario Maker and explore how to keep up with the World Cup on Facebook, Twitter and Google! Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Nintendo teases 'Mario Maker' for creating custom Mario levels on Wii U
We had a feeling Nintendo was going to announce something called "Mario Maker," a game that allows you to create your own levels in Super Mario Brothers -- after all, Nintendo Enthusiast found a poster for the damn thing in the company's E3 booth. Indeed, Nintendo just teased it in a press event, though it only provided a scant few details. In a series of screenshots, we saw someone creating custom levels, with the help of the Wii U's included stylus. Though you can design the level using old-school 8-bit graphics, as in the screenshot above, you can also go with the sort of modern look found in Mario's newer titles. No word on exact release date, except that it will hit North America and Europe sometime in 2015.
Mario Maker lets you make your own Level 1-1 on Wii U
Surprise! Mario Maker is indeed a real game that lets you build your own Super Mario Bros. stage, stop while building it, and play your creation. While rumors suggested the creation game would be coming to Nintendo 3DS, it's in fact a Wii U game. The game arrives in 2015 in Europe and North America, and will allow players to create Mario stages using graphics from either the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros. or in the style of New Super Mario Bros.
Rumor: Meet your Mario Maker at E3
Mario Maker may be one of Nintendo's E3 reveals, at least if the above image is genuine. The photo, posted by Nintendo Enthusiast, is alleged to be of Nintendo's show floor at next week's conference in LA. The grainy image makes it hard to tell, but both it and the name suggest a kind of content creation game based around making your own 2D Mario levels. Nintendo Enthusiast doesn't note how it obtained the photo, so be sure to apply the grain-of-salt rule to what you're seeing; this is very firmly an unconfirmed rumor. Either way, we'll find out what Nintendo has up its sleeve in a few days' time, both at the show and during the company's live stream event. Update: Hat tip to eagle-eyed commenter arockefellow, who notes what looks like - it's hard to say for sure - grey bases beneath The Villager, Pikachu and Kirby. Of course that could just be innocuous, or maybe we're looking at NFC integration with Super Smash Bros. Again, the image is unverified, so keep those salt grains near. [Image: Nintendo Enthusiast]
