With frequent updates and free costumes, Super Mario Maker continues to impress and inspire. Today we saw the arrival of the previously reported Birdo and Excitebike costumes! Both are fantastic additions to the Mystery Mushroom lineup, and along with them come some new courses inspired by their source games; all under the NES Remix banner.
Birdo’s Super Mario Bros. 2 inspired course features doors, doors, and more doors lining a vertical environment that mimics the unique layout of Doki Doki Panic’s first level. With plenty of Koopa Troopas around to jump off of there’s a lot of potential to perfect speedruns on this course, finding the optimal route to the proper doors. It even features a nice boss battle-esque encounter where Birdo would normally be found.
The costume itself is well done, allowing Birdo to join in on the platforming fun. It’s a new sprite in line with the Yoshi costumes instead of the original appearance, but features a fun winking animation and sound effects from the original game, as is the standard.
The Excitebike course (or track?) is a great example of an auto-level’s ability to show action around the player, though in this example input is required for the full effect. With the use of clouds to create a checkered flag motif the course uses springs, conveyor belts, and other elements to capture the high speed action of Excitebike. There are even Spiny “racers” thrown into the mix to keep you on your toes and get you moving fast as possible to the finish, all without the risk of overheating.
The costume might be a new favorite of mine, with wheelie sprites in tow. The Excitebike costume can join the ranks of Captain Falcon and Sonic for speedy, race-inspired levels. The sound effects are great touches as well, pairing nicely with the event course it came from.
Today was a fun morning of Super Mario Maker content, and I definitely recommend checking out the courses as soon as possible. With the number of costumes quickly reaching 120, it’ll be interesting to see if more get added to the fold. Maybe even 128? In the mean time let’s keep the completion rates high and shoot for world record times!
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Written by Ricky Berg
When he isn’t writing for Nintendo Wire, Ricky’s anticipating the next Kirby, Fire Emblem, or if the stars ever align, Mother 3 to be released. Till then he’ll have the warm comfort of Super Smash Bros. to keep him going.
