I always find it funny when it comes to deciding my Game of the Year nominees, originally I always seem to start out with only five nominees, I say to myself “this year I am doing five” but then we get here. Once again the unplanned sixth nominee is born simply because I decided to play something else from the year and it was worth considering. Don’t worry unlike last year’s decision which kind of just happened this year’s actually all worked (at least I think so), and my final nominee is no last minute addition and why would it be, it goes without saying that Super Mario Maker is one of the year’s best games in so many ways.
Since we first got our hands on Super Mario Maker back in 1985 people have dreamed of the possibilities of what they can build and create, The possibilities seemed endless and the ideas of beating Nintendo at their own game seemed like a wonderful dream, one though that by rights I would have thought to never happen. Let’s face the past truth for a moment, who in the their right mind would ever have thought Nintendo would put us the fans in control of their flagship franchise, I for one never did and sadly I am not in my right mind. But yet in 2014 the impossible became possible and Nintendo welcomed us to Mario’s world full of possibilities, and in 2015 we finally got to live the dream.
The thing that truly changes the game in Super Mario Maker is that the possibilities are endless, and apart from a few simple ideas Nintendo has opened the Super Mario playbook and has said have fun. Sure I admit I would have liked an ice scenery, I would have even liked penguins, or even that interesting spinning star level from New Super Mario Brothers U, but I understand Nintendo can’t give all their tricks away. No matter what everything we have at our disposal is pure quality and allowing for any idea you can dream to become the reality we always wanted. One thing I have always asked for was more difficult levels, outside of New Super Luigi U most are far too easy, and this is what I was allowed to do, I could build whatever I dreamed, I and many others could face the ultimate Mario challenge that was our own mind.
Creating was as fun as I always imagined and the way it integrated with the consoles core controller the gamepad really made things even better, it even showed further relevance to the controller’s existence. But even if you’re creatively minded and some of us struggle, the sheer level of potential courses to play has really cemented Super Mario Maker as a part of gaming history for the next few years. There are some amazing ideas out there which are just as fun as each other and once you start playing it is hard to put this down.
Super Mario Maker is a game full of ultimate possibilities, it’s a game which offers years of fun and creativity and truly justifies the Wii U. Nintendo may have had a rough year with the Wii U but Super Mario Maker was a shining beacon of hope, it certainly would deserve to be Game of the Year but the question is will it?
There we have it my six nominees for Game of the Year, each deserves the coveted crown, each offers a high level of fun and enjoyment but who will it be?
Our other contenders for Game of the Year include:
