Nov 17, 2019

Can other game franchises replicate the Super Mario Maker success?

Or the success of this is only due to Mario?
Now, before I begin this rant, this is only applied to games that WORK IN 2D. So, no Crash Bandicoot, Lara Croft, Sam Fisher, etc.
I'm going to look at old 2D franchises and ponder if the Mario Maker formula can work on them.

I know some classic game franchises have had third party mods for old console ROMs. And there have been some fantastic ROM hacks for some classic games.  Others are the stuff of nightmares.

Sonic the Hedgehog:
Let's start with Mario's classic rival: Sonic the Hedgehog. Platforming 2D game Sonic lends himself pretty well for getting a level creator. Wow some of the more elaborate bosses wouldn't be usable we still can get the classic Robotnik on his personal vehicle type of battles. We could also have Mecha Sonic battles.  The possibilities are nearly endless. The only thing I would dread would be water levels.

Castlevania:
The Pre-Symphony of the Night games can lend themselves  to the Mario Maker treatment.  Since these older Castlevania games provided the castle in smaller stages that you just walked around with monsters killed the boss and grabbed their ball, you CAN recreate that feeling in a level editor.
And it says there's a couple of Belmonts available as playable characters  you can have some variety.
 the Metroid inspired let games cannot be remade in the Mario Maker format.

Contra:
Contrast run-and-gun merciless fun could be exported to Mario Maker type game...  but with some limitations. The overhead levels from Contra 3 might be out. The behind the player stages from the original might be out as well.

Ninja Gaiden:
Classic unforgiving platformer. Based on what I've seen in some Super Mario maker stages; yes Ninja Gaiden could be doable.

Mega Man:
Here is where the difficulty ramps up! Theoretically speaking on Megaman stage Creator is doable.
The power ups and Robot Masters is what complicates things. Some obstacles would require power ups to beat them... unless you've sold your soul to Satan.
So do we recycle old Robot Masters or do we bring forth new ones?

2D beat-em-ups (Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, etc.)
I'm mentioning the entire genre. Just to avoid filling up  the list with  all the games of the genre.
I believe this is doable it might be slightly more complicated than Super Mario Maker but it could be done.
Of course there might be some limitations that would vary between game to game but the basic premise of making a stage where your character walks around beats up enemies grabs power ups that have weapons to defeat tougher bosses is doable.  Holy grammatical mess, Batman!

The Legend of Zelda:
Link's awakening Remake showed us that NINTENDO needs to polish up their ideas for a Zelda Maker. And even if Nintendo were able to pull off a Zelda maker the end results would be closer to the original Legend of Zelda than a Link to the Past.  by that I mean that it would be more gameplay focused than story focused. Then there is a show about power up requirements to beat certain dungeons that could complicate things.
This one would reqjire A LOT OF WORK!

Kirby:
If there's a Nintendo property that truly deserves a maker game it's Kirby! The 2D platforming action from the Greenland games land themselves do the Mario Maker treatment.

I think I covered the most popular games that would come to mind that could benefit from a Mario Maker type game.
I didn't add Metroid since I already mentioned that huge exploring games would have a lot of trouble and getting made in a Mario Maker type game. Zelda is the odd man out and it's because I'm just looking at the game s a dungeon maker and Nintendo giving a basic Overworld for people to use for the downloaded dungeons.

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