Revolutionary concept allowing creation of 2D Mario levels in four styles. Exceptional creative tool, generous creator community. GamePad is perfect for creation. Potentially infinite in content. One of Nintendo's most brilliant ideas.
Your verdict
Category
Platformer4 players3+
Description
The player builds their own Super Mario levels in the style of four classic franchise titles and shares them with the world via Nintendo's service. Published by Nintendo, released in 2015 in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Wii U exclusive making full use of the GamePad as a level creation tool, with millions of community-created levels, Course and Expert modes, and integrated amiibo.
Super Mario Maker review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
Drawing on four eras of Mario, from 8-bit to the most modern, the music offers a jubilant journey through its most beloved themes. Each sonic style faithfully matches its era, piling up nods and mischievous variations. This playful celebration of the Mario heritage delights as much as it touches.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Sliding in a block, placing an enemy, testing right away then starting over: building your own Mario levels becomes a game in itself, intuitive and endless. Sharing your stages and tackling the world's creations opens an inexhaustible reserve of fun. Between free building and viral challenge, it's a love letter to the series that turns every player into a game designer.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Placing a block, dropping in an enemy then testing your idea at once sets up a create-and-play loop where inspiration never lets up. Tools to unlock, an endless stream of community levels and challenges to take on constantly revive the urge to build or attempt one more course. The tools' learning curve slows you down, but this playful freedom stays a bottomless well.
Difficulty
"Easy"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Beyond the supplied levels, it's the creation tool that opens a bottomless well: shaping your own stages across four classic styles, polishing them, then diving into an ocean of creations shared by the whole world. Between designing, community challenges and hunting the most fiendish levels, the urge never fades. A workshop turned living legend of the platformer.
Super Mario Maker, a Nintendo level-creation workshop turning the player into a designer across the series' graphic eras, a strong console success exploiting its touchscreen. Its desirability rests on this status as an emblematic object of the machine and a lasting demand rather than scarcity, the decline of online sharing shifting interest toward local creation. A prime piece for a Mario set on the console.
Better with friends
A level-creation workshop that turns into a social playground the moment you build devious stages to trap your friends, passing the controller to attempt them. The fun springs from the challenge thrown down in person: watching a buddy tear their hair out over a trap you set sparks teasing rivalry and plenty of laughs. The era's online sharing has closed, but the duel of improvised level designers stays a treat.
Is Super Mario Maker still worth playing in 2026?
A Wii U exclusive level editor by Nintendo EAD, Super Mario Maker offers a Mario level creation and sharing system with four graphical styles Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros U. The vibrant art direction, powerful creative system and online community make it an absolutely unmissable reference of the Wii U catalogue. For anyone fond of Mario or seeking an absolutely essential creative game, an absolutely essential recommendation today still truly here indeed.
