Review Information
Game Reviewed Mario Editor, by Hello
Review Author RaymanFan1995
Created Jun 13 2016, 5:53 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
If you've ever played the original Super Mario Maker, you'd know just how quick and easy it is to use the game's editor. Simply click a tool, or bring the full palette down to select a tool not available on the current toolbar, and drag your stylus in the editing area. To erase something, simply click Mr. Eraser (yes, that is his real name) and drag the stylus over the tiles or objects you wish to erase. To undo an error, simply click the Undo Dog.

Because levels can be extremely time-consuming to make (depending on what kind of level you want to make, how much detail you want to include, and because it's incredibly important to test your level often), Nintendo understood just how vital it was to make Super Mario Maker as user-friendly as possible. Unfortunately, though Hello's version isn't as bad as I used to think it was, it's still nowhere near as quick and easy to navigate through the editor's features and make a level. It sports a HELL of a lot more features, yes, but Super Mario Maker is still the much better option.
 
Pros As I stated previously, Mario Editor (INCREDIBLE name, by the way; how long did it take to come up with that?) has a HELL of a lot more features, tiles, objects, enemies, themes, and even music than Super Mario Maker, and some of these features (like the ability to choose what music you want to have playing in your level, no matter what theme you're using) should've been in Super Mario Maker in the first place. In addition, because computers have keyboards, you can actually type your level name, rather than painstakingly using the Wii U Gamepad stylus to pick out each and every character (though admittedly, both are MUCH better than pointing the Wii Remote at the TV to type something, isn't that right, Wii users?). Unfortunately, those are pretty much the only two things about Mario Editor that make it better than Super Mario Maker. There are some other pros, but they don't really make this game much better than Super Mario Maker overall. So what makes this game WORSE than Super Mario Maker? Well...
 
Cons NOTE: I'll be using this section to talk about the editor itself (since it's full of cons) and the Gameplay section to talk about playing levels (which won't require a lot of words seeing as it's essentially the same as just making a level with the Hello Engine in GameMaker and just playing that).

...For starters, the editor (you know, the most important part of Mario Editor?) is not nearly as user-friendly as Super Mario Maker's. When you first enter said editor, you're greeted by a toolbar with several buttons. It's obvious what some of these buttons are for, but others are not, and you have to hover your mouse over them. The icons for these buttons simply use random sprites/tiles; one icon is a coin (items) and the one directly next to it is a Question Block (blocks). At first glance, you somewhat expect both of these to be items. Then there's an icon of a Cloud Block, and you're not sure what it's supposed to be, but as it turns out, it's the tiles button. Couldn't that button just use a common ground tile like in Super Mario Maker?

Speaking of tiles, Mario Editor sports more than enough tiles to make a full level with more detail than even an average Mario level from the classic games, but the tileset is that of a full tileset like the ones you'd use in GameMaker; there's a tile for flat ground, one for each edge piece, one for each wall piece, the list goes on and on. In other words, there is no auto-tiling; there is no one tile you can select and easily form ground shapes like in Mario Maker. Granted, I'd imagine that'd be a pain in the ass to program, but it still would've been nice to have, and the tiles section would've been much smaller and easier to navigate through. Not to mention, it would've allowed for faster level creation. But hey, at least there's slopes!

You know how in Super Mario Maker, you have a slider that allows you to lengthen the level? Well, there's none of that here. The level always has a set length and width that cannot be changed, and what really sucks about this is the fact that, even with this game having a hell of a lot more to offer than Super Mario Maker, in neither of these games can you make a vertical level. In addition, scrolling requires you to either drag the mouse along the sides of the window, or using the arrow keys, both of which feel somewhat clunky. Oh, and you can even scroll outside the level's boundaries. You can't go infinitely out of bounds, and you can't place anything out of bounds, so why not make it so the scrolling stops when you reach the very edges of the level?

Now on to the backgrounds and music. As I said a long time ago, you can choose a song to play throughout your level (or rather, the current section you're editing; and by the way, this game allows you to have as many sections as you want, whereas Super Mario Maker only allows two), but again, the icons for the music buttons are just random sprites/tiles. You can kinda tell what some icons are supposed to represent (a bush tile for "land", a pipe tile for "cave", etc.), but others (such as the two sign tiles, which represent "railroad" and "road" respectively) are a lot less obvious. Why not make these buttons a bit bigger (say, 64x32?) and use small backgrounds for the icons? The same goes with the buttons for backgrounds; again, you can kinda tell what some icons are supposed to represent, but then there are some that just throw logic out the damn window. Hmm, what's the Blue Brick Block icon supposed to represent? Well, Blue Brick Blocks were only in SMB3 (though a purple Flip Block equivalent would later be used in SMW), and in that game, Blue Brick Blocks were most common in Iced Land, so I'm going to assume it's an ice/snow background. Oh, as it turns out, it's a starry nighttime background. That's probably the last thing I would've expected. Granted, there ARE buttons that represent ice and snow backgrounds (and are much more obvious than a Blue Brick Block), but that was honestly my thought process, seeing as I saw the former icon before the two latter icons.

There are plenty of other problems I have with the editor, but I don't want to make this section longer than it needs to be. Let's just move on to the actual gameplay when you play the level you've made.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
3 / 10
When playing your level, Mario himself plays EXACTLY as he does in the Hello Engine; same controls (Shift to jump, Ctrl to run, Up + Shift to spin jump, which I don't really mind), same physics, same inaccurate power-up physics (jerky Raccoon/Tanooki tail hovering, non-frog-like hopping with the Frog Suit, a Blue Shell that slows down and stops when crouching after running, etc.); it's just Hello Engine Mario with zero improvements. You'd think after all these years of releasing the same engine and game over and over again, he'd finally get around to fine-tuning Mario's control, but no. And speaking of Mario, he still says things. Is it as annoying as literally every other Hello clone produced by the king of Hello clones himself, as well as the engine used to make these clones? Well, yes and no. Yes because he still says things every time he gets a power-up, dies, enters a level, and so on, but no because, at the very least, Hello had the decency to give Mario new voice clips, rather than using the same ones from the Super Mario Advance games and (I think) Super Mario 64. It's not what everyone wanted, but it's still *slightly* better than using the same tired voice clips that've been engraved into our skulls, thanks to the big man himself.

So, with Mario being his usual Hello-clone-y self, and with literally every enemy, object, and item behaving exactly as they do in the Helloverse, what exactly makes this different from the one same game Hello keeps releasing time and time again? Well, normally, I would say the editor itself, as this game is probably the closest thing we'll get to a proper fan-made PC Super Mario Maker for the time being, but there's just one little problem; long before the release of Mario Editor, Hello released two other games centered around level creation: Super Mario Bros.: Level Master and Super Mario Bros.: Game Master, in that order. Had those other two games not been released, I'd say this is probably the most originality Hello's had since Yoshi Tanks, a game which was released three years ago. Are the first two games anything like Mario Editor? To be honest, I can't say; I've never played those games myself. However, the general concept between these three games is the same; all of them are tools used to create levels and (for the second one) games. But guess what? You can just do that with the Hello Engine in GameMaker! What was even the POINT of making any of these "level editor" games when you've already released a tool for GameMaker that lets you, you know, make games!? I love the idea of a Super Mario Maker fan game, but you might as well have just called this "Hello Engine: The Game" or something along those lines. Or better yet, you should've just not released it at all!

So, in conclusion, Gameplay gets a 3/10, because even though the overall physics of the Hello Engine aren't bad, they could still use a lot of fine-tuning, and after several years, Hello hasn't even bothered to do so. And the editor could use a lot of improvement, too.
 
Graphics
3 / 10
Oh, look, SMB3 graphics again. Who'd have guessed. And Yoshi still has that God-awful sprite. At least Mario's Super Flower graphics are different. Not much, I know, but it's something. Anywho, in addition to using the same tired SMB3 graphics with no touchup whatsoever, Hello even bothered to give this game a horrible scaling filter. If you're familiar with the "smoothing" feature found in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, you'll know what I'm talking about. Short and to the point, it makes the graphics look ugly. There, I saved you a Google search. Thankfully, there IS a way to disable this, but to do so, you'll need to download something (it's available in this game's comments section, or you can probably PM Hello and he'll hook you up) and place it in the same directory as the game's executable file.

Here's my question: why in the holy mother of Hell would you force the player to look at a horrible graphics filter by default without having an option to disable it? I mean, granted, it's a lot better than whatever the hell kind of eye-sore filters you used in Hello Fangame Collection, but why give a game a filter in the first place? Especially one that just makes the game look awful as a result?

Graphics also gets a 3/10, due to lack of originality in graphics and the useless filter.
 
Sound
5 / 10
Aside from Mario's new batch of voice clips, Mario Editor uses the same sound effects as every other Hello the-exact-same-game. At least this time around, there's a wider variety of default music to choose from in comparison to the Hello Engine; not only is there music from the Super Mario Bros. quadrilogy (Super Mario World is also known as Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan), but there's even music from Super Mario RPG and (I think) Yoshi's Safari. Though all the sound effects and most of the music has been overused to death in all of Hello history, all audio in this game is still high in quality. A lot of the music could be in slightly higher quality, but it's fine enough. The biggest issue I have, however, is that for every single tile or other object you place in the editor, the same sound effect (which is the "kick" sound from SMW) plays, even if you drag the mouse to place multiple tiles or objects in a row. And when you erase something, it's the same sound effect at a higher pitch (you know how when you jump on multiple enemies in SMW, the sound effect raises its pitch for every bounce?). It gets incredibly annoying, and it'll take a hell of a lot of points away. With that said, I'll give Sound a 5/10.
 
Replay
3 / 10
Like I said, I think this is the closest we're going to get to a proper fan-made Super Mario Maker for PC for the time being, but I still think what Hello has provided us with so far can be improved upon. With that said, play this if you're curious to see what a PC Mario Maker could be like, but keep in mind that it is not, by any means, perfect. And truth be told, after playing this game the first time, I don't really see much need to play it again. I'll give this a 3/10.
 
Final Words
4 / 10
Mario Editor (seriously, how long did it take to come up with that name?) is, in a way, a proof-of-concept for a fan-made version of Super Mario Maker for PC. Not perfect, by any means, but for the time being, this is probably the closest we're going to get to a proper game with that concept. Unfortunately, the use of overused vanilla SMB3 graphics, Hello Engine physics, and a not-entirely-friendly toolbar makes this game vastly inferior to the real Super Mario Maker, and can probably be classified as "just another Hello game".

Comments
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Mors
Jun 13 2016, 11:52 PM
I wish we had more reviews like this. But nope, people just can't spend more than 5 minutes to write a review can they?
 
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RaymanFan1995
Jun 14 2016, 6:19 AM
Quote (Mors on Jun 13 2016, 6:52 PM)
I wish we had more reviews like this. But nope, people just can't spend more than 5 minutes to write a review can they?

Reviewing games on this site is one of my favorite passtimes/things to do here, especially since I enjoy writing so much. I know a lot of my older reviews are kinda half-assed, but things like this take a lot of practice, you know? I usually take a few hours to write these reviews, with LOTS of proofreading. This review took about the same amount of time with minimal proofreading, so I wasn't sure how this one would turn out. It's nice to see that the feedback I've gotten for it so far (albeit one comment) is positive.

And no, no they can't.
 
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TheTwelfthRocket
Jun 15 2016, 3:24 PM
Quote (Review)
The level always has a set length and width that cannot be changed

actually, it can be changed. using shift + the left or right arrow key will change the width and using shift + the up or down key will change the height.

other than that, nice review

Quote (Review)
What was even the POINT of making any of these "level editor" games when you've already released a tool for GameMaker that lets you, you know, make games!?

this is exactly my thoughts about this game (and his other level editors)

i thought he'd stop making these types of games after zero kirby and dj yoshiman told him it was a terrible idea (here), but knowing hello, of course he wouldn't
 
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RaymanFan1995
Jun 16 2016, 1:04 AM
Quote (TheTwelfthRocket on Jun 15 2016, 10:24 AM)
actually, it can be changed. using shift + the left or right arrow key will change the width and using shift + the up or down key will change the height.

Oh, of COURSE it would be something cryptic. Like, how would anyone figure THAT out?

Quote (TheTwelfthRocket on Jun 15 2016, 10:24 AM)
i thought he'd stop making these types of games after zero kirby and dj yoshiman told him it was a terrible idea (here), but knowing hello, of course he wouldn't

And that's the main problem I (as well as many people) have with him. His engine is not terrible, but there's so much room for improvement. And his games would be so much better if he actually took time to LISTEN to feedback and at least ATTEMPT to put the advice he's been given to use. I'm sure everyone is aware of this by now, I don't think I need to go on.
 
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5teven
Dec 31 2016, 5:44 AM
Read the fucking manual(readme), the controls are there too ffs.
 
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Minerador Slime
Jan 5 2017, 3:09 PM
You can disable the filter by pressing Alt + Enter.
 
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