And though the available Wii U courses function just fine on 3DS, you’re limited to a list of ‘recommended’ courses, without any way of refining the selection beyond the difficulty setting. The musical accompaniment to object placement that gave level building on Wii U a delightful performative twist is badly missed. Given that you can no longer share stages online, it makes little sense that there’s no way to create your own sound effects – even if Nintendo was concerned about objectionable noises reaching unsuspecting StreetPassers, that’s an easy fix. But other restrictions are more problematic. Targeting a narrower niche isn’t necessarily a negative, even if that represents an unlikely change of tack for a developer that tends to prize inclusivity over most other things. And yet in gating design materials behind some truly fiendish challenges – even finishing all 18 worlds will be beyond some players - it seems tailor made for precisely that type of Mario fan. In theory, Nintendo is trying to encourage budding level designers to move away from the kind of masochistically hard courses that are only ever completed by Japanese streamers, shrieking “YATTA!” with a mix of elation and exhausted relief after 19,000 attempts.

Then again, you won’t be able to edit a course until you’ve earned both medals.

The latter, inevitably, is comfortably the trickier of the two, and it’s fascinating to scrutinise the stage furniture and enemy placement to discover why that is. One late stage asks you to bounce on all Wigglers – including some giants – before reaching the goal, while the second asks you to avoid every single one. Some courses don’t really come alive until you’re trying to get both medals, but they’re often ingenious. Again, you’re learning: this time Nintendo’s demonstrating how you might choose to test players in more inventive ways than simply stacking up enemies or adding more saw blades. Seasoned Mario players should have little trouble reaching the end of a level, but doing so having earned five extra lives on the way (whether they’re tucked away secret areas or killing enough enemies with a single shell or Super Star pickup) gives you cause to study each stage more carefully. Two medal objectives per stage allow Nintendo’s designers to construct a tiered challenge in a more creative way.

Super mario maker 3ds review