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stop me if you’ve heard this before, but my biggest gripe with mario maker is that you often figuratively run into walls because the game doesn’t give you tools or conditions you’re looking for so you spend over an hour trying to get something to work >close< to the way intended
i tried using the super mario 2 shroom to create a boss fight reminiscent of said game. so far so good, until i realize the boss characters can be stomped, which makes the power-up useless in this scenario. so i select bowser, who can’t be stomped
bowser is guarding a door, so to prevent the player from running past him I give bowser a key. now you have to defeat him to move on. problem is, if you run past bowser, he follows you in the opposite direction. and if he jumps up to a ledge, he STAYS there
now i implement conveyer belts to keep him from wandering & a path back to be fair to the player. constant, endless workarounds. and that’s design for you but it often feels like you have to create Rube Goldberg machines to do things that were simple and elegant in the real games
you’re constantly learning the limitations of the tools you’re given in disappointing ways, from the finicky room detection (since you can’t just assign borders with a tool), or that you can’t overlap more than five semisolid blocks without it just...deleting some
and honestly it’s just really frustrating when you go in with a 100% clear idea of the level you’re going to make (barring the obvious rest runs) only to find the prevailing philosophy is why take two steps when you can take five
all that said, it is a pretty exceptional game. my criticisms are coming from a place of appreciation rather than disdain. the world builder rules, and if you scale ideas properly you can create some really cool stuff
