Super Mario Maker for 3DS falls well short of original

Super Mario Maker for 3DS is coming out this week and, to my absolute lack of surprise, the removed sharing functions does a huge disservice to the package. Our review is currently available on our sister site, Modojo, where it earned a 7/10. 

Why such a high score for a gutted Mario Maker experience? To Nintendo's credit, it attempted to make up the deficit in other ways. The new Super Mario Challenge is a lengthy single-player Mario game in itself that runs the gamut from expertly designed stages, twists on old classics, showpieces for the tools, and even puzzles. Some stages are better than others, and the game hits some oddly uneven difficulty spikes, but on the whole it's a pretty good 2D Mario game, bordering on great. It's made better by the addition of medals, which reminded me of Xbox Achievements in their heyday, subtly pointing me toward extra challenges to test my skills.

The Wii U version has supplied plenty of readymade content for this version, randomly populated through the 100 Mario Challenge and Recommended Courses functions. If your interest in Super Mario Maker is mostly about playing an endless supply of Mario stages, with no particular care for following particular creators, this version is perfect for you. 

But Super Mario Maker is fundamentally about making Mario, not just playing it, and that's where this one falls short. You can't share stages through the Internet, and the population of available stages is so oblique and lacking any search tools that it's impossible to find and follow specific creators. The whole affair feels half-baked, and it's never very clear why.

Check out the full review on Modojo for more detail.