While the Streetpass features are cool, as they allow your friends to help finish levels you haven’t finished creating, it feels like without the online capabilities of the game, it misses the entire point of what made the Wii U version of the game so great. The more major difference being that you are unable to upload your levels onto the online database of other levels, instead the game opts to share your creations with others around you through Streetpass. The biggest issue with this is the lack of content compared to the Wii U version of this game. However, while the game does indeed have a lot of good things going for it, it has a lot of things holding it back. I honestly suggest creating levels with any of the other 2D elements, as the 3D ones are just jarring. The “New Super Mario Bros” style really doesn’t transition well to the 3DS. The 2D Mario themes are all really good and transitioned well onto the 3DS it’s when you get to the New Super Mario Bros content the issues arise. Visually, Super Mario Maker 3DS is alright. With the ability to take this game on the go now, it’s extremely easy to pick up and play this game to scratch your creative itch. The gameplay mechanics are as smooth as ever when going through your own Frankenstein creations of levels, and the limits to what you can create are still boiled down to what your imagination can think of. Similar to the Wii U version of the game, you have to be able to complete your levels before you can share them. While it may be harder to create intricate designs compared to the Wii U gamepad because of the size of the 3DS, it still gets the job done. Super Mario Maker 3DS’s gameplay is very similar to that of the Wii U, but instead of using the Wii U gamepad to create the levels, you instead use the touch screen on the 3DS to drag and drop things to create the levels.

So, how does this portable version of the game stand up to the critically acclaimed 2015 Wii U title? All I can really say is that it is lacking, in more ways than one. The game touts itself as being a fun Mario Maker experience, but on the go.

“Super Mario Maker 3DS” is the latest Wii U game that Nintendo is bringing to the 3DS. Thank You Nintendo for Providing a Review Copy of this game.

Super mario maker 3ds review