It looks like we’ll be waiting a while for this rather interesting installment in the Mario franchise , but the concept couldn’t be more enticing.  First surfacing at this year’s E3, details about this inventive approach have been trickling out ever since. Mario Maker, scheduled for release sometime in 2015 for the Wii U, will let players design and play their very own Mario levels!  The Wii U’s Gamepad will feature prominently in gameplay.  As a sort of spiritual successor to the Super NES’ Mario Paint, Mario Maker plans to include visual elements of the the Super Mario Bros. series as well as the New Super Mario Bros. series.  To match the current climate of Mario games, the physics of modern games will be incorporated into older settings.  Producer Takashi Tezuka has said that the game will open up possibilities that aren’t normally seen in a “real” Mario game, and that Mario Maker is all about creativity. Evolving from a tool that developers of Mario games use, Tezuka’s aim is for the player to have fun simply interacting with the software and has promised lots of details (such as enemies wiggling when placed on the screen) that should make for an impressive experience.  The aim is to present a customizable level of difficulty to appeal to both experienced gamers and more casual fans.  Creations can then be shared with friends and family or across the world using the Wii U’s internet connectivity. Some features are still in the works or treated with ambiguity, such as the ability to integrate music into the experience (as with the Melody Maker in Mario Paint) and what visual elements “outside of the Mario series” might look like.  When asked about a release for the 3DS, Tezuka has said that while he wouldn’t mind seeing the idea go portable, right now it’s very much centered around the increased capabilities of the Wii U’s hardware. I’ll admit, it’s been a few years since I’ve played around with Mario Paint, but with all of the producer’s comparisons, I’m eager to give it a shot again and imagine what the concept might look like more fleshed out.  Tezuka has already said that Mario Maker will be a 2D sidescroller, and though the idea of acting as the benevolent, omnipotent creator over my very own Mario realm is certainly thrilling, I’m really itching for the boys at Nintendo to continue pushing Mario to and through the boundaries, a la a possible Super Mario Galaxy 3! Reservations aside, I’m sure Mario Maker will be one of the finest examples the industry has ever seen in the whole “create your own world” subset of games.  It seems like a long wait until 2015, but hopefully Captain Toad: Treasure Track will stay on schedule and be enough to tide us over.

Interested in even more details?  I picked up most of the details from an interview with the game’s producer, Takashi Tezuka.  Read the entire interview here.

Written by The Cubist