Disaster Nebraska
Banned
Great game, it really is, but C'MON Nintendo! This game missed so many marks, yet I can't stop playing. Here's hoping that Nintendo makes DLC (or a second one).
My biggest gripe is that the game is more of a glimpse of things to come instead of a be-all-end-all editor. Reminds me of the first LBP compared to LBP2. I wouldn't expect them to include every little thing from the previous games, but....let's face it. These assets already exist. Sure, there's a little technical wizardry in coordinating the palette-swaps, but overall it's not like they had to slave over this game creating a ton of new content, and it's evident that they didn't intend to. This is an "okay" editor that could've been so much better. If I had to nail it down, this game lacks nuance and passion.
Small stuff inexplicably missing from the game, or stuff that they overlooked:
- can't change color of pipes (no silver pipes in SMB; no red/green pipes in SMW nor NSMB)
- menus feel like they were designed for a different game in the "Wii ____" series, not a Mario game. For instance, the Uploading icon is a Wii Fit-looking dude doing situps. For a game that's supposed to be a celebration of all things Mario, the menus leave a lot to be desired.
- speech bubbles are from NSMB, even if you're playing one of the other palettes. Would it've been so hard to include the original text varieties of the original titles?
- the white "crouch to drop behind" panels from SMB3 are included...except you cannot fall behind them.
- end-of-level minigames in SMB3 and SMW mean nothing. I appreciate the touch but there's no real point.
- floating platforms are missing a few options. There are no perpetually-scrolling floating platforms (like in SMB3 1-4) nor can you have a platform that both moves and also falls down after you jump on it (unless I missed some menu option)
- sound effects included in the game don't mesh with the overall Mario theme and are pretty stupid. It's disappointing to have some disco party light effect instead of more items from the Mario games. Mario's content is legendary. It speaks for itself. We don't need to have ringing doorbells and laughter to make this a good game.
- Yoshi eating red shells has no effect in SMW (normally, it shot fireballs)
- Would've liked to see a few more powerups. Frog suit, colored Yoshi varieties, and ice flower are three that would've been so fun.
- no verticality. This mostly affects the SMW and NSMB palettes, but it's noticeable in those two games. Would've been nice to have vertical layout options.
- Amiibo integration is mediocre. It's just a palette swap. Instead, Nintendo could've knocked this out of the part by giving each character some power to use (like Samus shooting bullets plus being able to morph-ball).
- no option to pick which song you want to play in the background.
- Warp pipe is the very, very last thing they give you access to. I kinda understand why (it unlocks the second "zone" for you to warp to) but it's annoying to build levels and being unable to use this option from the start.
- no "item reserve" from SMW.
- Aesthetic options in general are pretty limited, which is disappointing. Would've been nice to have some basic color-swapping options.
Big stuff that really irks me:
- NO WORLD MAP? Instead we get a papercraft sort of generic map. I understand that this was never advertised, but the option to make your own "Rom hack" would've made this game so much better. I want to play so-and-so's Super Mario Bros 3 game, or maybe a mix of different game styles mashed into one world. Instead, levels are just disjointed experiments. A world map editor would be very ambitious but it's a necessary inclusion for this game (or the next) to be the "ultimate" editor. Let us make our own Mario games!
- Lives don't matter. Since there's no world map and no real progression, there's even less of a reason to grab 1ups.
- Fly Swatter minigame is a waste of time and is annoying. Yet another example (like the disco lights and sound effects) of Nintendo spending time on something that doesn't belong in this game. Were they trying to be funny? Creative? This doesn't belong in the game and only serves to interrupt my sessions.
- popular levels available online are of the typical "don't touch the controller" Rube Goldberg machines. Or pixel art. It's difficult to find or tag levels that are simply good MARIO levels. More menu options could've helped a lot here.
- the "timed delay" delivery of new items. Now that I've unlocked the full set of items, I can say with confidence that there really aren't such a huge wealth of items that would confuse you. Instead, the system penalizes new players who have access to a very limited set of items, and since you must build with what you have (or wait) you end up making a bunch of levels (or scribbling on the screen for 5m straight) to unlock the next batch. Perhaps for the more complicated items (like rails, or doors) I could understand why they'd want to hold off, but the game themes and backgrounds are locked behind this system too. You like Super Mario World? Too bad. You'll have to play quite a bit in the editor before that palette is unlocked.
- only 24 "themes" in total (ground, underground, ghost house, castle, airship, and underwater for each of the 4 game palettes). This isn't very many. No "icy" or "grassy" or "desert" themes in SMB3. No "jungle" or "underwater ghost ship" in SMW. Even if there were a few more backgrounds per "theme" with no gameplay functionality, I would've been happy.
- speaking of water....no water! And no lava! The only way to get these course elements is to use the underwater (in which case, it's the whole level) or castle (in which case, it's the floor) themes. There is no option to add pools of these into levels. It's all or nothing.
- no hills or sloped ground. Every palette except for SMB had hills in the original version. Would it have been so hard to include them in the game and maybe omit them from SMB? In combination with the "no lava blocks" limitation, this means no Blaarg's Bone Ride Never Ends levels like in SMW with upward- and downward-sloping lava hills.
- No multiplayer. It may have been a challenge to include it in the 2d games, but NSMBU had 4p multiplayer as a default.
Stuff that I'm absolutely loving:
- Despite my complaints, the nostalgia is still really good. Playing through some good fan-made SMB3 and SMW levels with those classic tunes playing in the background is a dream come true.
- skinny Mario. Wat?!
- though they are uncommon in the wide pool of 2hard4u, pixel-art, and automated levels, I've played some fantastic Mario levels in each of the four palettes. Some levels do the source material justice and are a pleasure to play through. I always Comment and Star these levels to add to their visibility.
- lots of ways to combine enemies. You can (for instance) stack a cannon that shoots cheep-cheep on the back of a giant flying Red turtle and have it spawn out of warp pipes. You can have Airship cannons stuck to blocks following a track. You can have roving bands of Hammer Bros stacked on Wigglers. There are a ton of combinations here and even basic combos have some cool gameplay effects. Favorites so far: flying wrench-throwing gophers and cannons that shoot Spiny shells.
- it's cool to see some of the newer enemies included in the old games. This mostly applies to SMB and SMB3.
- Lots of good platform options (especially moving platforms). There's a ton of stuff you can do. If you like Cheese Bridge (SMW) or SMB3 1-6, or if you like scrolling levels (like SMB3 1-4), then this game has you covered.
- turtle shell physics are so much fun. Most of the levels I've made include a cool way to kick a turtle shell and have it bounce off a spring, off a wall, into a floating section of Spiny guys, and hit a ? block.
- spawning enemies out of blocks never gets boring!
- each game's jumping physics is fantastic. I wouldn't say that it is 1:1 in all respects, but it's pretty close. The NSMBU palette really shines here because of the twirl, triple-jump, ground-pound, and wall-jumping. You can great some awesome levels that make use of these abilities. It feels solid to run around as Mario in all the different game palettes. Stuff like picking up shells, the P-meter, and drilling down into blocks (SMW) is included in the appropriate games too. They did a great job here.
- pretty large levels. Other than the aforementioned "no vertical layouts" complaint, they give you two 10x2 chunks to play around in, and this is quite big.
- item limit seems generous. I'm certain it can be maxed out but I've been able to pack a ton of stuff into a level without hitting the limit.
- so many ways to use Trampolines/Springs/Music-note blocks.
- pretty decent selection of vanilla enemies (setting aside the ability to stack/combine them). Every game has their staples represented here, though of course more enemies wouldn't be a bad thing.
- a few novel uses of Spiny and Buzzy shells, like wearing them on your head and being able to take a Thwomp to the dome without dying. Sadly, you can't do a running-crouch and turn into a shell like in NSMBU as far as I know. I would've loved to do that.
- editing tools are intuitive. Stuff is changed or reverted simply by scribbling the item back and forth on the screen.
- While using the Editor, you can play any part of the level at any time by dropping in, making it very easy to test your stuff.
It isn't as though they didn't put ANY effort into this game. That's the weird part. They made a lot of items from scratch for the 2d titles (especially SMB) in order to be compatible, and I really do like that. They added themes to games that didn't include it at all, like adding Ghost Houses to SMB and SMB3, or adding Airships to SMB and SMW. But lots of the stuff seems like it was picked arbitrarily. Hopefully the game sells well enough and Nintendo listens to complaints and feedback.
I just wish Nintendo could've spent a bit more time packing and polishing this game. It's not an incomplete game, but as I mentioned at the beginning, it's more a of a glimpse of what could be instead of the ultimate editor I wanted to get.
I guess this simply means that I'll be buying whatever DLC they make, and/or the next Mario Maker. This game is such a fantastic idea, but this isn't the first game editor we've seen in the past decade. That being the case, it pains me to see Nintendo overlook so many basic things that other "editor games" learned long ago.
My biggest gripe is that the game is more of a glimpse of things to come instead of a be-all-end-all editor. Reminds me of the first LBP compared to LBP2. I wouldn't expect them to include every little thing from the previous games, but....let's face it. These assets already exist. Sure, there's a little technical wizardry in coordinating the palette-swaps, but overall it's not like they had to slave over this game creating a ton of new content, and it's evident that they didn't intend to. This is an "okay" editor that could've been so much better. If I had to nail it down, this game lacks nuance and passion.
Small stuff inexplicably missing from the game, or stuff that they overlooked:
- can't change color of pipes (no silver pipes in SMB; no red/green pipes in SMW nor NSMB)
- menus feel like they were designed for a different game in the "Wii ____" series, not a Mario game. For instance, the Uploading icon is a Wii Fit-looking dude doing situps. For a game that's supposed to be a celebration of all things Mario, the menus leave a lot to be desired.
- speech bubbles are from NSMB, even if you're playing one of the other palettes. Would it've been so hard to include the original text varieties of the original titles?
- the white "crouch to drop behind" panels from SMB3 are included...except you cannot fall behind them.
- end-of-level minigames in SMB3 and SMW mean nothing. I appreciate the touch but there's no real point.
- floating platforms are missing a few options. There are no perpetually-scrolling floating platforms (like in SMB3 1-4) nor can you have a platform that both moves and also falls down after you jump on it (unless I missed some menu option)
- sound effects included in the game don't mesh with the overall Mario theme and are pretty stupid. It's disappointing to have some disco party light effect instead of more items from the Mario games. Mario's content is legendary. It speaks for itself. We don't need to have ringing doorbells and laughter to make this a good game.
- Yoshi eating red shells has no effect in SMW (normally, it shot fireballs)
- Would've liked to see a few more powerups. Frog suit, colored Yoshi varieties, and ice flower are three that would've been so fun.
- no verticality. This mostly affects the SMW and NSMB palettes, but it's noticeable in those two games. Would've been nice to have vertical layout options.
- Amiibo integration is mediocre. It's just a palette swap. Instead, Nintendo could've knocked this out of the part by giving each character some power to use (like Samus shooting bullets plus being able to morph-ball).
- no option to pick which song you want to play in the background.
- Warp pipe is the very, very last thing they give you access to. I kinda understand why (it unlocks the second "zone" for you to warp to) but it's annoying to build levels and being unable to use this option from the start.
- no "item reserve" from SMW.
- Aesthetic options in general are pretty limited, which is disappointing. Would've been nice to have some basic color-swapping options.
Big stuff that really irks me:
- NO WORLD MAP? Instead we get a papercraft sort of generic map. I understand that this was never advertised, but the option to make your own "Rom hack" would've made this game so much better. I want to play so-and-so's Super Mario Bros 3 game, or maybe a mix of different game styles mashed into one world. Instead, levels are just disjointed experiments. A world map editor would be very ambitious but it's a necessary inclusion for this game (or the next) to be the "ultimate" editor. Let us make our own Mario games!
- Lives don't matter. Since there's no world map and no real progression, there's even less of a reason to grab 1ups.
- Fly Swatter minigame is a waste of time and is annoying. Yet another example (like the disco lights and sound effects) of Nintendo spending time on something that doesn't belong in this game. Were they trying to be funny? Creative? This doesn't belong in the game and only serves to interrupt my sessions.
- popular levels available online are of the typical "don't touch the controller" Rube Goldberg machines. Or pixel art. It's difficult to find or tag levels that are simply good MARIO levels. More menu options could've helped a lot here.
- the "timed delay" delivery of new items. Now that I've unlocked the full set of items, I can say with confidence that there really aren't such a huge wealth of items that would confuse you. Instead, the system penalizes new players who have access to a very limited set of items, and since you must build with what you have (or wait) you end up making a bunch of levels (or scribbling on the screen for 5m straight) to unlock the next batch. Perhaps for the more complicated items (like rails, or doors) I could understand why they'd want to hold off, but the game themes and backgrounds are locked behind this system too. You like Super Mario World? Too bad. You'll have to play quite a bit in the editor before that palette is unlocked.
- only 24 "themes" in total (ground, underground, ghost house, castle, airship, and underwater for each of the 4 game palettes). This isn't very many. No "icy" or "grassy" or "desert" themes in SMB3. No "jungle" or "underwater ghost ship" in SMW. Even if there were a few more backgrounds per "theme" with no gameplay functionality, I would've been happy.
- speaking of water....no water! And no lava! The only way to get these course elements is to use the underwater (in which case, it's the whole level) or castle (in which case, it's the floor) themes. There is no option to add pools of these into levels. It's all or nothing.
- no hills or sloped ground. Every palette except for SMB had hills in the original version. Would it have been so hard to include them in the game and maybe omit them from SMB? In combination with the "no lava blocks" limitation, this means no Blaarg's Bone Ride Never Ends levels like in SMW with upward- and downward-sloping lava hills.
- No multiplayer. It may have been a challenge to include it in the 2d games, but NSMBU had 4p multiplayer as a default.
Stuff that I'm absolutely loving:
- Despite my complaints, the nostalgia is still really good. Playing through some good fan-made SMB3 and SMW levels with those classic tunes playing in the background is a dream come true.
- skinny Mario. Wat?!
- though they are uncommon in the wide pool of 2hard4u, pixel-art, and automated levels, I've played some fantastic Mario levels in each of the four palettes. Some levels do the source material justice and are a pleasure to play through. I always Comment and Star these levels to add to their visibility.
- lots of ways to combine enemies. You can (for instance) stack a cannon that shoots cheep-cheep on the back of a giant flying Red turtle and have it spawn out of warp pipes. You can have Airship cannons stuck to blocks following a track. You can have roving bands of Hammer Bros stacked on Wigglers. There are a ton of combinations here and even basic combos have some cool gameplay effects. Favorites so far: flying wrench-throwing gophers and cannons that shoot Spiny shells.
- it's cool to see some of the newer enemies included in the old games. This mostly applies to SMB and SMB3.
- Lots of good platform options (especially moving platforms). There's a ton of stuff you can do. If you like Cheese Bridge (SMW) or SMB3 1-6, or if you like scrolling levels (like SMB3 1-4), then this game has you covered.
- turtle shell physics are so much fun. Most of the levels I've made include a cool way to kick a turtle shell and have it bounce off a spring, off a wall, into a floating section of Spiny guys, and hit a ? block.
- spawning enemies out of blocks never gets boring!
- each game's jumping physics is fantastic. I wouldn't say that it is 1:1 in all respects, but it's pretty close. The NSMBU palette really shines here because of the twirl, triple-jump, ground-pound, and wall-jumping. You can great some awesome levels that make use of these abilities. It feels solid to run around as Mario in all the different game palettes. Stuff like picking up shells, the P-meter, and drilling down into blocks (SMW) is included in the appropriate games too. They did a great job here.
- pretty large levels. Other than the aforementioned "no vertical layouts" complaint, they give you two 10x2 chunks to play around in, and this is quite big.
- item limit seems generous. I'm certain it can be maxed out but I've been able to pack a ton of stuff into a level without hitting the limit.
- so many ways to use Trampolines/Springs/Music-note blocks.
- pretty decent selection of vanilla enemies (setting aside the ability to stack/combine them). Every game has their staples represented here, though of course more enemies wouldn't be a bad thing.
- a few novel uses of Spiny and Buzzy shells, like wearing them on your head and being able to take a Thwomp to the dome without dying. Sadly, you can't do a running-crouch and turn into a shell like in NSMBU as far as I know. I would've loved to do that.
- editing tools are intuitive. Stuff is changed or reverted simply by scribbling the item back and forth on the screen.
- While using the Editor, you can play any part of the level at any time by dropping in, making it very easy to test your stuff.
It isn't as though they didn't put ANY effort into this game. That's the weird part. They made a lot of items from scratch for the 2d titles (especially SMB) in order to be compatible, and I really do like that. They added themes to games that didn't include it at all, like adding Ghost Houses to SMB and SMB3, or adding Airships to SMB and SMW. But lots of the stuff seems like it was picked arbitrarily. Hopefully the game sells well enough and Nintendo listens to complaints and feedback.
I just wish Nintendo could've spent a bit more time packing and polishing this game. It's not an incomplete game, but as I mentioned at the beginning, it's more a of a glimpse of what could be instead of the ultimate editor I wanted to get.
I guess this simply means that I'll be buying whatever DLC they make, and/or the next Mario Maker. This game is such a fantastic idea, but this isn't the first game editor we've seen in the past decade. That being the case, it pains me to see Nintendo overlook so many basic things that other "editor games" learned long ago.
