Super Mario Maker is a wonderful game filled with a nearly endless supply of inventive Mario levels to play. The problem, unfortunately, is finding them. Nintendo launched a website yesterday to try and fix that. Here’s how it works.
The website’s called Super Mario Maker Bookmark, and while it doesn’t completely solve the game’s issues, it goes a long way towards making it better.
How many times have you watched a YouTube video, seen a tweet, or read an article that described a really cool level in Super Mario Maker? Most people don’t keep a Wii U in their backpack at all times, meaning there’s no convenient way to remember to check out a stage without weirdly emailing yourself the code.
That’s not a good system, so Super Mario Bookmark aims to make that easier.
After logging in with your Nintendo Network ID—I had to spend a few minutes remembering what my ancient password might be—you’re presented with some “recommended” courses. It’s not clear if Nintendo’s dishing these out by hand or there’s an algorithm floating them to the surface, but every time you reload the site, the courses change. It’s a good place to get started with new levels, as features a range of difficulty levels, from easy to the nightmarish super expert.
Rankings is where you can let the community do the heavy lifting by filtering total stars (all-time or weekly) and star rate. Though one might assume the all-time starred levels would also be all-time great levels, that’s not really the case. Most everything is the auto-scrolling gimmick that got old after two stages.
What’s more useful is filtering creators by total stars. If someone’s responsible for an fancy auto-scrolling stage, they’ve clearly got a firm grasp of Super Mario Maker’s toolset. Perhaps they’ve worked on something else that’s less flashy?
I’ll probably be spending a bunch of time exploring some of those levels soon.
Course search is where you can get real down ‘n dirty, though. Want an expert difficulty Super Mario Bros. 3 airship stage from Europe featuring Yoshi that was uploaded in the last week? That’s very specific, but hey, you can try!
Sadly, I wasn’t able to find anything matching that. Maybe next time.
What’s really useful, though, is what the website’s named after: bookmarks.
After finding a stage that catches your eye, you add it to your bookmarks folder.
Super Mario Maker was recently updated, adding not only brand-new creation objects like the fire koopa car, but a section for bookmarks in the courses mode.
There’s even a button to launch the Wii U’s web browser and find new levels through the Wii U itself. (For whatever reason, the search tools are not built-in to Super Mario Maker, but one hopes Nintendo will add that option in the future.)
The Wii U checks for new bookmarks when it’s booted up, but if you’ve added some recently, it’s only a matter of clicking “refresh” in the corner to get them.
Voila!
Now, I’m off to play some more Super Mario Maker. For “work,” of course.
Please share what levels you’re finding in the comments!