After much time away, I recently returned to my beloved Super Mario Maker 2 to try out a collection of 40 courses taken together in what creator Metroid Mike 64 (known as Mikey_Mike on Switch Online) calls Super Mario Bros. 5. The group of levels, separated into eight distinct worlds like in a traditional 2D Mario adventure, attempts to mimic the kind of design philosophies and principles that have guided Nintendo’s flagship franchises for decades, all with some additional fare extant only in Mario Maker.
(If you want to check out SMB5, you can do so by booting up Super Mario Maker 2 and searching the creator’s Maker ID code 0G9-XN4-FNF.)
A Modern-Made Classic
Super Mario Maker 2, though excellent, stopped receiving updates nearly two years ago, and as a result what could have been a long-standing fountain of user-created fun for years and years was cast aside by the very company that presented it in the first place. The game still has a community, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen all there is to see after my nearly 150 hours of play.
Super Mario Bros. 5, however, breathes new life into the experience, with intricately and meticulously designed stages that challenge the player in ways both novel and familiar. Much like in classic 2D Mario games, SMB5’s levels offer a strong balance of precise platforming challenges, light combat and puzzle solving, and aesthetic charm. Each world contains multiple levels following a particular thematic pattern (e.g., forest, snow, underground), bonus challenges, and even the option to skip past certain levels in favor of going to the boss level (much like in the Nintendo-made titles). Most levels have a unique set of hazards and mechanics that set them apart from one another, and even include opportunities for coin-collecting detours and branching level pathways.
While each stage for the most part looks like it could have existed in one of the older Mario games (since Mario Maker allows players to use actual in-game objects), many levels in SMB5 contain Mario Maker-exclusive options, such as reverse gravity, musical cues/effects, and pink key coins. These objects give Metroid Mike 64’s levels a sense of novelty and uniqueness outside of the Nintendo-made oeuvre, allowing them to exist both as extensions of well-known experiences and as something new.
OK, But Can I Get A…
Super Mario Bros. 5 is a great time for Mario fans, but as much as I enjoyed it, it mostly makes me want Nintendo to make a brand new 2D Mario game, which they don’t seem especially keen on doing. Sure, the New Super Mario Bros. titles overstayed their welcome, but at least they introduced new mechanics, systems, music, and art direction to the series. Even the best Mario Maker 2 stages feel all too familiar, as my decades of expertise in the series mean I know the exact cadence of every movement, every note of every song, and even every possible outcome when I see a pipe. Nothing can surprise me in Super Mario Bros. 5, despite Metroid Mike 64’s best efforts.
This, of course, is the natural limit of player creation, at least in terms of trying to make a game feel like a sequel. You can succeed in creating something that feels like a facsimile of an established entity, but it will always be a facsimile. Metroid Mike 64 can’t go into Mario Maker 2 and invent new power-ups, extend level sizes, change the art direction, or add new music. Super Mario Bros. 5 is a terrific collection of Mario levels that I would recommend to just about any fan of the franchise, but its existence mostly makes me yearn for an actual Super Mario Bros. 5.
