Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
Back in 2015, the original Super Mario Maker on Wii U opened the world to an opportunity like no other. Nintendo put the tools in players hands to create, upload, and play their very own Super Mario Bros. levels. It created a community of creative players who loved nothing more than to make their dream Mario boards a reality and entreat (or torture) friends with their creations. Unfortunately, it seems Super Mario Maker on Wii U is coming to the end of its road. Nintendo has officially announced it will be ending support for the game by March 2021.
Nintendo made the official announcement of service discontinuation for Super Mario Maker on Wii U on the game’s page on November 25, 2020. On January 13, 2021, Super Mario Maker on Wii U will be removed from the Nintendo eShop in preparation for service discontinuation. By March 31, 2020 (or possibly before according to the site), players will no longer be able to upload courses and the Super Mario Maker Bookmark website that keeps track of recommended and preferred courses in the game will close as well.
While the website says courses will be playable and uploadable service discontinuation, it doesn’t seem to specify whether courses will become unplayable afterward - only that players will no longer be able to upload new courses. Regardless, it means that most of the prominent features in Super Mario Maker for Wii U outside playing courses would still become unusable.
On one hand, it’s a sad end of the road for the original game. Super Mario Maker for Wii U was maybe one of the best games to ever come to the ill-fated system and it was arguably the start of something magical. Despite the Mario Maker series coming to Switch and even arguably being improved vastly in Super Mario Maker 2 (it won our 2019 Shacknews Game of the Year after all), there were still folks out there that preferred things about the original. It’s sad to think that all of the work that went into those courses could be cast by the wayside.
On the other hand, Nintendo clearly wants to focus everything it has into Super Mario Maker 2 and beyond. The follow-up is great and there’s no lack of courses and creations there. It just also leaves us wondering if Nintendo might do the same thing to Super Mario Maker 2 someday if a better version comes along.