Topic: Super Mario Maker - OT

I've been making a bunch of levels lately, but since I'm limited to only 10 at a time, I've been deleting a lot of them. But here's a few of them, some new, some updated versions, and at least one that needs re-posted because nobody played it, and it's too good of a level to be neglected.

@Byron-3D: "The requested content cannot be loaded.
Please try again later." I would love to play your levels but the link doesn't work. Why don't you use the NL-Level sharing?

@FattyWhale_42: I played "P-Switch SPIKE_TRAP!". This is a level which forces you to a lot of patience. I guess, I can beat it. I will try again.

@mrichston: I beat your skull level as you can see here. You were right, it was an easy puzzle level. However, in the first room I needed some time to figure out that you can ride on the skulls. And I have to admit: I cheated in the second room since I was still Super Mario in there
So I didn't learn how to use the doors in the second room. At first I died since I didn't know it.
(EDIT: Now I realised that there was no solid wall but only a cloud.. Stupid me..)

Keep up the good work everybody! We have some awesome levels here!!

@Chandlero: Thanks. You didn't skip much in second room. Just one little obvious step. Can you guess?

I might do new version where I move spike one block to right so you can't slide under it and fix other little thing.

Of course, I know the little step, but I didn't solve the puzzle in the right way. It didn't feel right in that way
If you update the level, you could remove the cloud in the second room, too. Overall a great puzzle level. I really enjoyed it

Has anyone ever had any fun playing Expert 100-Mario challenge? Do you think Nintendo realizes/cares what a failure this is?

I usually play expert. Yea there is a lot of junk but that's true with all difficulties. At least it isn't as bad the easy mode.

it's terrible. I've only beat easy and normal mode.

I'm going for all the costumes and I own 0 amiibo so I am playing all modes. Easy was definitely also joyless and lead me to consider selling my copy of the game. Let's just say I'm very bitter about auto courses now. But at least I quickly got 19 costumes out of it (everyone is saying 20 but mine clearly said I maxed out at 19). Normal does have a lot of junk but there's no comparison of volume. When I play normal, I spend most of the time actually playing. When I play expert, I spend a good majority of the time skipping. Literally just waiting over and over and over for awful courses to load so I can skip them too. I've probably never finished normal with less than 97 lives which means it's way too easy but I will still definitely take that over clearing 12+ courses and running out of lives which is what always happens in expert.

This is one thing that Nintendo really needs to just catch up on already. Most game series figured out long ago that running out of lives and starting all over isn't fun. Mario definitely has a special place in my heart but the reality is that the new Rayman games put Mario to shame in many ways mostly because Ubisoft understands these simple concepts and Nintendo refuses to evolve in some specific ways.

Here is my first upload for over two months. It's one of my favourite levels I've made but it doesn't seem to be getting as much stars as my other levels. Maybe people are finding it more difficult than I thought it was when I was making it.

I find it very satisfying to complete each obstacle in the level and I hope you all do too! If you want feedback on a level I'll give you some in return for feedback on mine. Thanks!

I have more levels hopefully coming up soon. I'm waiting to see if they could be improved by any of the new objects in the update.

@AdamLikesNintend: The limited lives system is a bit old school and I can agree with you that some games are better off without it like Rayman origins and the Lego games, but it's not something I would just drop all together in my opinion. There's a difference on where the lives system can be a benefit or a nusience (or just have so many lives where it doesen't even matter at this point. The newer mario games has this stimgma for those good enough but that's a can of worms) it mostly depends on the game and where it's best used at.

@AdamLikesNintend: yea I don't really care about the costumes because most levels I make are mario 3 or world. I like difficult levels, the kind that require you to die over and over before you beat it but then feel very satisfied at having completed it (not troll levles but precision timing). Usually I play expert until I find a good one, star it, and then go find it in my starred levels and play with unlimited lives until I win. I will spend hours at a time on a single level sometimes. Right now I'm working on pangea's newest one.

Wow! Thanks for providing feedback on my latest level, which is Sweeping Snake Block Fortress. It felt I've gained even more confidence for doing some nice level design.

The thing with 100 Mario Challenge is that, there isn't any consistent learning curve when it comes to playing, since many of the levels are usually self-contained and the rules differ greatly from one to another. The traditional Super Mario Bros. games don't do that, as their levels are properly arranged in a way that the players actually get some sense of progression and becomes better at platforming later in the game.
For example, the Easy difficulty in 100 Mario Challenge has an abundance of infaillible automatic levels and levels that don't present any form of challenge at all. Sometimes, you'll encounter a stage that poses just enough challenge for a newcomer to enjoy, while others levels are actually so difficult that they would belong to Normal or Expert difficulty. Here, the sense of progression feels disjointed as result and the newcomers might have more trouble on getting better at platforming in general.

I also quickly noticed the levels on the Expert difficulty are not only trickier, but some knowledge of the metagame is actually required in order succeed. Here, determining if you really should skip the level also ultimately decides how well you'll perform in this difficulty, along with having a good amount of knowledge on how the Super Mario Maker engine works (e.g. avoiding the subarea and doors as much as possible to beat said level). You won't find that sort of metagame in the traditional Super Mario Bros. games, since all levels are carefully designed to never feel unfair in most cases.

Even if I'm outside of the 100 Mario Challenge, I never waste my time on levels that will require plenty of trials and errors due of the sheer amount of pixel-perfect movements required in a long level. I've certainly got better things to do than to satisfy my ego and spend many many hours with nearly no sense of satisfaction.

More new levels for you:

What/who is costume number 112? I have beaten all event levels so far I think, but I'm missing that one

Different strokes for different folks I guess. Before this game came out I spent the last few years playing rom hacks and that's just what I enjoy. I play medium difficulty levels also when Im in the mood, I don't have anything against them. The problem is like you said with the randomness of the order of the levels. Your not playing a game that gets progressivly harder, your playing random gaming styles and difficulties. The other problem with expert is you get all the troll levels. I enjoy hard, but not a poorly designed, 50 bad guys coming at you at once, death traps through pipes or doors, or find an obscurely placed invisiblock to advance and have to make blind jumps. There is soooo much garbage in this game and when it gets skipped after a couple deaths without being completed it ends up in expert mode. If you enjoy harder levels like I do, you really have to dig for them.

Is there any way to see what diffulty level your own levels are?

I dont think so.

@99mushrooms: Yeah it wouldn't be as frustrating if I wasn't trying to clear 100-Mario Challenge when I play it. I've never been interested in spending a lot of time on a single course. I'm glad you find it useful but the way you're using it definitely negates the purpose of 100-Mario Challenge and points out the obvious need to have a better way of discovering courses. Of course the costumes are a pretty weak prize honestly (would be vastly better if they were available in all styles) but I always like to get 100% on Mario so that's what I get.

@Captain_Toad: I honestly can't think of a single game that is made better by forcing you to sit through a loading screen a thousand times or forcing you back to the title screen because you keep missing a certain jump or whatever. Personally I would get rid of it completely in every game forever and never look back. I love Nintendo but I think they fail miserably at this. I am SOOOO tired of watching those 100 little Marios scoot up to the front. It was never entertaining and it serves no purpose at all.

At first I thought you asked if there is a way to see how difficult your courses are but after I wrote my response, I realized you are asking if you can see if your courses appear in easy, normal, or expert 100-Mario challenge. I'll go ahead and post my original response since it still probably gives the best answer to your question.

So here's how to know how difficult your courses are:
1.Have other people play test them before (or after) you upload them. You are the worst person to play test your own courses. Thankfully I have a husband who isn't nearly as good at Mario as I am so I always have him test them out before uploading them and I always end up tweaking some things because of it.
2. Ask people on here to record themselves playing and upload it so you can watch.
3. Obviously the clear rates will tell you a lot after they have been up for a while. This is almost certainly what determines where they will appear in 100-Mario Challenge. I believe the vast majority of courses go to Expert because the vast majority of players cannot stand any level of challenge and only care about quickly unlocking costumes. Something that would belong in world 3 on a normal retail Mario release will probably end up in Expert with a clear rate of like 10%. I think the cut off for expert is somewhere around 10% or less.
4. After enough people have played the course, look at those little red x's on the course overview. Are they in surprising places? Then your course is probably a little harder than you thought.

How can you tell if your course has been sent to die slowly in Expert mode? It stops getting played. Not entirely of course but you will see that it is played WAY less than your easier courses. This is partly because not many people play expert (you can see for yourself when you view creator profiles) and also because expert is mostly awful so the people who do play it are very prone to skip a course with no hesitation.

Here's a level that uses springs in a cool way. Just to note, this isn't my level.
0054-0000-0125-4938