Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS

At its core this is a decent port of the intuitive touchscreen jump-n-run-builder: Proven mechanics, technically sound and easy to control. Unfortunately Nintendo decided to take the online level exchange out.

If you’re looking for endless side-scrolling action on a handheld, you aren’t going to do better than Super Mario Maker on 3DS. It’s the most Super Mario we’ve seen packed into the handheld to date with a seemingly endless number of levels to tackle that will keep you busy as long as you let it.

Super Mario Maker 3DS hits home and aside from a couple mild issues, it’s a dream come true for Nintendo nuts.

The lack of interaction with the Wii U version is a huge disappointment and the removal of some assets (like Mystery Mushrooms) makes the 3DS version feel like a “lite” version. It’s also bizarre that Nintendo didn’t include any 3D effect. On the flip-side, the inclusion of 100 exclusive, Nintendo created levels was pretty cool. Without a doubt, if you haven’t played the Wii U version, this game is an absolute must.

Super Mario Maker is every bit the engrossing, feature rich creation tool that it is on the Wii U, but only if you plan on sharing your creations with a very limited pool of people. Its lack of real course-sharing rips out the heart of what made this title so captivating on the Wii U, making it a clear second best choice.

Where the game truly is lacking is in the online component - no course sharing and searching is a big oversight and does dampen the selling appeal of the 3DS edition, something that Nintendo should resolve.

Super Mario Maker for 3DS isn't a bad game or even a bad creation tool, but without its online heart continuously pumping life into it, it feels more like a useless skeleton, and nobody likes skeletons. NOBODY.

Super Mario Maker 3DS is a great port, with creation tools that work wonders on the touchscreen and the Challenge mode is a brilliant addition. It's only besmirched by the fact online sharing is so very limited. Perhaps with a future update? We seriously doubt it.

What Mario Maker on the 3DS has forgotten is that one of the key reasons to make games is to have other people play them.

The game acts like a quick Super Mario campaign with an accompanying endless collection of levels — and endless Super Mario levels is never a bad thing. Despite a fantastic new delivery system found in Super Mario Challenge, too may of the downgrades strip the components of Super Mario Maker that made it a breakaway success on Wii U.

Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is still great, but leaving from the Wii U to the less powerful 3DS has been rough. The new graphics are less shiny and you can’t share your new levels online. Despite that, you’ll have a very good time with the brand new challenge mode and with the simple but clever tutorials.

It's hard to recommend the new Super Mario Maker for people already familiar with Wii U version, but it's a great proposition for 3DS enthusiasts. Handheld conversion offers equally good gameplay and few additional functions, but less in terms of internet integration.

Super Mario Maker 3DS is not a hurried porting. The efforts made to ensure the title could have a place in the 3DS line-up are tangible. The single player mode, for instance, is finally interesting and funny. The lack of online, on the other way, deprive the project of a substantial dose of appeal.

Sadly the scope for this game is severely limited by the lack of online sharing of levels, which was one of the main qualities of the original and overall this feels like a downgrade. It's still an appealing title and it succeeds in what it offers but it's impossible not to shrug off a certain sense of disappointment.

Not being able to share levels online to get global feedback (or show off your creation to a friend across the country) holds the 3DS version of Super Mario Maker back significantly. The fun community aspect is almost entirely gone, which is disheartening. The ability to create, however, still feels great, and playing all of Nintendo’s new levels is worthwhile. Mario Maker encourages creativity and continues to be one of the best level creation tools ever made, but the limitations on sharing make the 3DS version an inferior experience compared to the Wii U original.

When stacked up to the Wii U version, there’s little doubt that Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS is the lesser of the two – and it doesn’t even support 3D on the notoriously 3D-enabled handheld. The lack of online sharing is only made more baffling by the fact that apparent user-made levels from the Wii U iteration can be accessed through the ‘100 Mario Challenge’ mode, while the exclusion of Mystery Mushrooms also makes little to no sense given how prominent amiibo support on the portable is nowadays.

The Challenges not only provide a detailed explanation of the items, they also reveal the gameplay's deepest secrets through an amazing level design. While the creation interface is slightly cramped, it remains an incredibly simple, funny and exhilarating way to build courses. However some important parts like the costumes and the online sharing option were removed, thus reducing the social reach of Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS to a local, pocketable level.

Making courses in a streamlined editor on the 3DS is a joy, but the unexplained absence of sharing courses online takes away any interest in continued building and playing.

A game design masterclass, but you'll need to Wii U version to make the most of its teachings. [Jan 2016, p.65]

The final package then is mixed, but the bottom line has to be that Super Mario Maker is still an insanely fun game. It’s one of the best 2D Mario experiences out there and plays great on 3DS. It’s not as complete as we might have liked, but it’s certainly not bad.

DIY paradise. Fun for traditional players. Hell for anybody who wants to share the content with the world. If a game wasn´t developed, really nothing would happen because the better version is offered by Wii U. Yet two out of the three elements work and are entertaining.

Missing features are balanced out by excellent additions, but if you want the world to see your work, stick to the Wii U version.

Super Mario Maker for the 3DS is enjoyable but it has its drawbacks. While the 100 Mario Challenge and Super Mario Challenge are both fun to play through, the lackluster search function of the Recommended Courses, having to go through the Super Mario Challenge to unlock most of the stuff for stage creation, and the quizzical lack of ability to upload courses and share them with the world outside of locally and via StreetPass make this a hard game to recommend at $40 for a lot of people.

Super Mario Maker 3DS is a subpar port of a great game. While a lot of the fun is still there, the lack of sharing and search features make for an overall inferior experience.

A good Mario game with a fun single player, but one that lacks the tools to make it fully worthwhile from a creation point of view.

Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS loses some important features the Wii U edition had, but also adds a few interesting ones. And we can still play thousands of levels based on the best Mario 2D games ever, now in portable.

The core idea behind Super Mario Maker is the ability to create, play, and share your creation, but the 3DS drops the ball on the last part of that credo. It’s worth noting that designing stages is as easy at it is convenient on the portable 3DS, but not having a larger platform to showcase unique creations left me wondering what the point is. It’s still an excellent way to play a bottomless pit of classic-style 2D Mario, though, and that makes it worth keeping in your pocket.

18 worlds full of beautiful levels, pure Nintendo quality, with interesting achievements, are the main selling point of the game. The editor is nice, but it's crippled by the limited sharing options.

The infinite Super Mario that was Super Mario Maker on Wii U is quite limited in this portable version.

Super Mario Maker without the possibility of sharing levels through the internet feels like playing chess alone. It's a well designed game, but it certainly lacks something.

Super Mario Maker 3DS is a fun game on this console that offers some really fun gameplay and more importantly, the ability to create your own 2D arcade worlds with an intuitive creation system. However the downside of this title is the lack of sharing your creations with other players from the around the world and if this was included in Super Mario Maker 3DS, it would have been a fantastic game on this console. It’s still a fun game but is missing that final piece of the gaming puzzle!

On 3DS Super Mario Maker is a little bit different, with limited options, but still the same excellent level editor. Thanks to the hundred amazing levels that Nintendo made, Mario Maker on 3DS is good for people that want to play instead of create.

If the content is getting lighter from the Wii U version, Super Mario maker 3DS is still a great game that challenges the player with a lot of stages, but we would have loved to be able to share our creations on internet.

Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS is a good recreation of the Wii U classic, but the lackluster online capabilities makes this conversion severely inferior to its console counterpart.

Some of the best 2D Mario levels in years, but the lack of online options means the construction aspect is unnecessarily limited.

The Nintendo levels are really good and differ from the main series, but the impossibility to upload your own stage is an heavy flaw.

Mario die-hards that only have a 3DS will find some enjoyment in playing the new mode, and the limited selection of online courses, but without the ability to share your created courses with the world, it seems like a waste of time.

Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is the barebones, no-frills, no-extra-options-selected factory model version of its original, tricked-out 2015 Wii U release. [Issue #25 – January/February 2017, p.64]

Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS doesn't match the Wii U original in terms of visual polish or amiibo support, nor does it have the vibrant online scene that defined that title. Despite this, there are smart design choices that compensate for these inevitable shortcomings, with additions that enable quicker and more educated level design, along with Super Mario Challenge, a large set of official levels that's more structured and enjoyable than equivalent modes in the HD iteration.

The lack of meaningful level sharing or communication with the full Mario Maker community that has come up over the last year is sad. The local level creation is nice when it’s available, but that’s probably not going to be very often. The ''Maker'' part of the title seems less to matter. While I never made too many levels to begin with, having the possibility missing is something that can't be denied.

Easy to use, versatile level-creator with some content-sharing limitations. Solid platformer.

My biggest gripe with Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is that it’s not designed to be shared between more than one person playing on different consoles.

Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is not just a shrunken-down version of its Wii U counterpart, but a title that puts more emphasis on the single player and on local sharing of contents. It's a pity, then, that no online sharing is included and that some features are missing. Still, a worthy episode for long time fans of the franchise.

Ultimately, Super Mario Maker is paired down on 3DS, but not to ridiculous levels.

A perfect conversion that brings to the 3DS all the power of the Wii U version, keeping in mind the obvious differences between the two platforms.

I find myself much more frustrated by Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS than I really ought to. If this had a different verb in the title and eschewed the notion of creation, if this wasn’t releasing in the wake of the outstanding Wii U version of the game, it wouldn’t be a problem, but this game strives for something and comes up short. It’s still worth picking up for fans of Mario games, but there are too many jarring limitations that I really hope Nintendo see fit to address.

Super Mario Maker 3DS takes everything that worked on the Wii U and replicates it for a handheld experience. It's a shame that sharing levels via the Internet isn’t yet possible – but this game’s a joy all the same.

While the core experience of Super Mario Maker stays the same on 3DS, the exclusion of certain aspects definitely hurts the game. Not being able to upload and share your courses is incredibly disappointing, and somewhat defeats the purpose. The overall presentation is great, but the exclusion of features like a course search and amiibo support also feel like strange decisions.

Super Mario Maker for 3DS comes pretty close to being a perfect portable adaptation of an incredible Wii U game. It certainly works a lot better than previous ports had led me to expect! That said, the absence of one of the original game's most important elements truly diminishes this conversion. The new format and new pre-baked content go a long way toward making up for the loss... but while this version is worth owning for the 100 (!) new levels alone, it's still not the definitive Super Mario Maker.

Mario brings his 'Maker' series to 3DS with many additions with the single player in mind. If you just want to play, this version is as good (maybe even better) as the one for Wii U. If you want to create and share it with the world, then stick to the Wii U.

Super Mario Maker for 3DS is a perfect fit for the handheld, with loads of content and excellent creation tools, but why can't you share levels online? That decision is baffling.

The addition of the tutorials to the maker modes, the addition of the Super Mario Challenge and retention of the all great single player content and the ability to still download courses means this game is less Super Mario Maker and more Super Mario Fan Edition. It's hard to recommend this one, especially when the Wii U version is far superior and feels more alive, the Super Mario Challenge is interesting but it still feels incomplete.

Super Mario Maker is a great game, but this handheld version is missing a couple of features that made the Wii U version essential. Loads of fun to be had, just far too familiar.

Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is a delight to play and create with, but it's got some disastrous barriers to entry. The inability to share 3DS courses online is a painful limitation, as is the choice to gate creation tools behind 18 worlds of platforming. If you can overcome these issues, you've got a portable version of Nintendo's best game from last year, but I fear most users' patience will run out before then.