Super Mario Maker will unlock tools over 10 days, SFX and Music creation revealed
With Super Mario Maker less than a month away Nintendo is taking the wraps off some of the features in the game with a new trailer.
The biggest two new features are the ability to add sound effects and music to the game of your own creation. You can use these newly created sound effects with music blocks. You’ll be able to record the sound with the microphone in the GamePad. We reported early that Super Mario Maker would work with up to 99 amiibo, this trailer confirms at least 50 to start with.
It’s also been revealed that you won’t be able to use all of the games’ tools from the outset. You’ll need to spend 5 minutes with the tools available before more unlock – the next day. That means over the course of 10 days you’ll eventually have all of the tools available in the game.
What do you think about this move to limit the tools available from the outset? Let us know in the comments.
I’d like to weigh in on this one.
Forcing players to come back day after day serves two purposes:
1) Giving players time to digest skills, increasing the quality of submitted levels, and
2) Giving the game extra time at the top of discussions.
First one is exciting: I want to see some real quality and awesome levels come out of this. But the second is the business side of the insanely fast news cycle we have in modern reporting.
What this screams of is caution on the part of Nintendo that people will move on to other games before they’ve explored the full potential of Super Mario Maker. Ultimately, the time a game can spend in the spotlight is so short, you take whatever time you can. They’ve done this with Splatoon (albeit in a slightly different format with it’s periodic but constant updates of new content) and plenty of DS & 3DS games (I’m thinking the Professor Layton games and the daily puzzles, or even just things that use Play Coins with a limit of 10-per-day), and the model works for growing loyalty among the user base and keeping them concentrated on your game for longer.
TL;DR: Force people to come back, keep ’em loyal, and grow your community through investment of their time in a non-binge way.
I get the logic behind tool-gating but I don’t like it (at least not like this). I’d much prefer it if it were something like
-Spend 5-10 minutes
-Use all the (newly added) tools at least once.
Then it gives you the option to unlock the next set
I don’t want to feel like I have to only play in short bursts over 10 days until I can finally sit down for a long session with all the tools 🙁
Either way, game looks awesome as usual.
Think of it as a challenge: Make the best level you can with the limited tools you have.
Then do it again tomorrow. And the next day.
When you’re up to your 10th level and have all of the tools unlocked, then you will be able to come up with some amazing creations, relative to just having a mish mash of ideas to begin with.
Restrictions breed creativity.
Not going to lie, while I still think it should at least be an option (like Nicholas said below), that does sound like fun.
Not a fan, if they offered a way to opt out of the delay for the more experienced users that would’ve been nice. You could delay their level submissions by 10 days to ensure their creations don’t start appearing until most people have unlocked everything, though. This would give them time to make a level with everything on offer, without spoiling the surprise or showing up other players artificially limited creations.
I agree! They absolutely should unlock all of the tools from the start for the more experienced users!
But given that it’s a brand new tool that almost no-one other than Nintendo has used before, you’re essentially agreeing with what they’re doing..
I get your point, I’m just being facetious. It’s still a completely new tool that none of us have experience with. The “experienced users” you’re talking about are people that have played a heap of Mario and probably dabbled a little in game/level design and know what is good and bad and even with a limited tool-set (still enough) will be able to create some amazing things.
I think it depends what tools they’re deciding to gate off here. It might sound like sacrilege but gating off some tools that increase complexity, like Warp Pipes or a third sub-map might not be a bad idea. It would encourage the player to develop a solid understanding of how they can develop a fun challenge on one single map before creating ones which start crossing back and forth between them. Letting the player think small before thinking big can often breed some good skills when it comes to map design
That being said though I understand why people would also be irritated. I too am eager to jump in and create the most hellish level I can.
I’ve been playing around with Mario ROM editors for over seven years now, so this is just an inconvenience to me, I won’t be able to use the stuff that I’m buying the game for right away! But never fear! I’m just going to change the date settings on my Wii U until I’ve got everything unlocked within an hour of unboxing.