Super Mario Maker 3DS

I know I'm late to the party with Super Mario Maker 3DS but there may still be some people out there who are undecided about picking it up - having played the Wii U version first, I know I was.

In a nutshell, this is a very fun platformer which can go on forever thanks to a seemingly endless selection of player-made levels.

The only thing which brings it down in my opinion is its slightly limited scope as compared to its Wii U counterpart.

First things first, Super Mario Maker offers 18 worlds to play through from the start, all made by Nintendo to help you discover how best to use both Mario's abilities and the level components, which are unlocked gradually as you complete worlds to be used in course creation.

As well as the usual goal of reaching the end, players have two optional challenges in each level, or 'course' as they are called in this game.

Online features include the 100 Mario Challenge, which strings together a set of player-made courses in a difficulty level of your choice to be beaten with a limit of 100 lives, and 'recommended courses' which presents a never ending list of individual player-made courses.

Create a Course mode is a lot of fun. You can start with a completely blank canvas and make whatever sort of challenge you like in one of four visual styles: original Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World or New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Each of the art styles brings its original game's mechanics - for example abilities Mario has in his New Super Mario Bros Wii game don't translate to levels made in the original Super Mario Bros style, which is important to consider when building.

I was initially worried the 3DS XL touch screen might make the level creation a bit cramped, but it has not been too bad. I can't speak for the experience on an original 3DS sized screen however.

In terms of looks and sound, it looks and sounds like the four Mario games it lends assets from - which I suppose  is what the developers were going for - with a few nice remixes of familiar tunes here and there.

The game is a lot of fun but I know some people were a bit miffed at the differences between the 3DS and Wii U versions of Super Mario Maker, such as the lack of uploading your creations to the pool of player-made courses for others to try.

In place of that feature the 3DS allows players to share their courses locally, which isn't bad but definitely a bit restrictive.

You're also unable to look up particular courses online by code, which was a popular feature in the Wii U version. Instead you have to trust the list to pick out interesting ones for you and then refresh for a new set when you're done.

Mario is also unable to take on the costume forms of other Nintendo characters such as Link or Samus, which also seemed popular in the Wii U version.

All in all there are differences between the versions but generally I found this title to be a lot of fun. It has eaten up a fair bit of my time and I'm still enjoying the course creator.

It is a shame some of the popular features were stripped out but it still works well without them and definitely opens up the Mario Maker creativity to those who don't have a Wii U (myself included!).

Worth buying, but still pricey at the moment!

Do you have the 3DS version? How do you think it compares to its Wii U counterpart?

UPDATE:

* Re save data: I'm told Super Mario Maker makes it quite hard (but not impossible) to transfer your extra game data from 3DS to 3DS, for example if you got yourself a new 3DS and wanted to move your levels over.

That was pointed out to me by the good folks on Reddit and I didn't mention it initially as it is not a problem I've come across, having played it on the one 3DS so far.

As far as I understand this also limits the possibility of sharing the one cartridge between different 3DS units - I could be wrong there but I have seen complaints in different places to that effect.

So if that sounds like it might be a problem it may be worth doing a little research beforehand.