Woo, got the game! I've been playing a lot of the 100-Mario Challenge, I find it kind of funny to see just how bad the levels can get. I'll be sure to try out everyone's levels here, but before I get to that I wanted to try my hand at making a few levels before I get any outside influence (playing the random levels just shows me how to troll). Here's my first upload from the basic toolset:

1-1: First Try
F315-0000-013F-2775

I'm going to number my levels based on where I think they would fit if they were in a regular Mario game. The idea for this was to be the first level of a Mario game, so it probably isn't an interesting level for this game where you play one at a time. I remember hearing I think it was Miyamoto explaining about easing players into the game by introducing things slowly, including the first level not requiring the run button so that players can get used to things gradually, so that was my philosophy in making this.

Also, I'm a fan of the more "classic" style of level design as seen in the mainline games, so you probably won't be seeing the crazier stuff from me that most people make. If you're also a fan of the classics, you may like my levels.

@Mop it up

The 100 Mario Challenge is enjoyably unpredictable. It sorta gives those bad levels a place and purpose, you know? My brother and I get a kick out of it.

I'll take a look at that level you made. I'm almost finished with the courses that I've been working on this week. I might upload them today.

@Mop it up

I'm going to give your level a try the next time I boot up Mario Maker thanks to the new bookmark website. (By the way, here is the link to your level.)

Also, a lot of my own levels are more of the "traditional" type level, if you're interested in trying them out. Here's my profile on the website if you want to bookmark any of them. The four "SMB canonj-" levels are meant to played in order starting at canonj-1 to mimic a real SMB world.

I tried out the new online bookmarking website last night and ended up downloading a ton of levels. The increased sorting options are very welcome, but we still need an actual search function. That said, it is cool to see additions like this months after release.

I finally finished making those courses!

Falco's Flight / 013C-0000-014C-599F
Difficulty - Easy to Medium
Description - This is a shooter-style level that makes use of the Fire Koopa Clown Car. Dodge bullets, blast enemies, and defeat the boss!

Boiling Bumpers / 0D0F-0000-014C-70A4
Difficulty - Hard
Description - I love how the bumpers look, sound, and work, so I decided to make a stage full of 'em. The bumpers in this course are partially submerged in lava, so proceed with caution!

Super Smelly Sewer / 7D9D-0000-014C-955D
Difficulty - Medium to Hard
Description - This course has a lot of steep and narrow passages. There's a bunch of debris coming through the sewage pipes, too. Some of the dubious waste might even transform Mario...

@Octorockin

I like the level names haha. I really gotta fire this game up again... people bitch at Nintendo for not having many games this year but simply going through Nintendo only games, I have a hard time to keep up with everything with their post content updates. Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, Tri Force Heroes all have great post launch support with free content.

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

Definitely. That Bookmark website is fun to browse. It's a great way to give people's courses more exposure.

@VofEscaflowne

Thanks! I hear you. I'm juggling all of those games right now, and I haven't even started Xenoblade Chronicles X!

@canonj Nice job. I could definitely feel that you were channeling the style of SMB1, and maybe a little of SMB2j (the good parts of 2j).

@Octorockin I like your themes, but sheesh, you must really hate Mario to want to kill him so much, ha ha. I felt the sewer one was tougher than the bumper one, in fact it's easily the most difficult level I've played in Mario Maker yet. It could be a 100-Mario Challenge in itself! You'd make the Donkey Kong Country level designers at Retro Studios proud. (I mean this as a compliment, to be clear)

@Mop it up

I appreciate your unique compliments! Haha. I really enjoy making challenging levels, but Mario probably doesn't like having to test them out over and over again.

Here are a few more of the levels I made when unlocking the tools, I have a few more too but I don't want to dump everything at once. I've unlocked everything now, so I've edited some of them to add things like a half-way point or expanded with a second area.

3-1 Jump High, or Don't / SMB / B148-0000-014B-D8E1
A pretty straight-forward level I made with the earlier set of elements. If your jumping skills are up to snuff then you can go across the top. If not... well, it's just a World 3 place so it shouldn't difficult, but it'll be slower!

4-1 Wall Kicks Will Work / NSMB / C77D-0000-0152-4521
Inspired by Super Mario 64, obviously. I think this move is now named the "wall jump," which probably makes more sense, but I've always liked the sound of "wall kick" better. In any case, I think it's a fun maneuver, but the NSMB games usually didn't require you to use it for anything. It mostly served the purpose of recovering from a mistimed jump from smaller pits, so I built a whole level around the idea.

5-1 Plug Those Leaks! / SMB3 / 04D3-0000-0158-3A0C
The overall design was inspired by a level from SMB3, a game which had a lot of neat ideas but also short levels, so they didn't always live up to their full potential. However, I felt it needed a little something extra, so I also added an idea inspired by the original Mario Bros. arcade game. If only that game contained such a solution...

I have a request for the Super Mario Maker community on Negative World.

Out of my last 4 courses, 3 of them haven't received any stars. One of them was removed by Nintendo because no one starred it, and I was pretty disappointed since I worked so hard on that course.

If you play Boiling Bumpers or Super Smelly Sewer, please considering starring both of them! I'm sorry to ask for stars, but I really don't want to see those two courses get removed after putting so much effort into them.

@Mop it up

I thought you might like to know that 3-1 has a very tough world record to beat. I played that level for over an hour trying to top PixlJason's speedy performance, but I simply couldn't. I managed to get 00:20.534 five times in a row, but the score to beat is 00:20.525.

Playing that course for so long made me really appreciate its design. Great work on that one!

I got a "kick" out of 4-1. The difficulty ramps up at a steady pace and it does some fun things with wall kicking/jumping.

5-1's "fill in the gaps" theme is cool. I like that you ran with that theme all the way to the goal.

@Octorockin Are you sure those three don't have stars? I thought I gave them one, but it was late at night so I may have been absentmindedly clicking through menus. I guess I'd better check next time, though, um, if I have to beat those again to give the star, that may be a problem...

How long ago was a level removed? I'm just wondering how long these things even stay up. Is it stars that determines what stays, or other factors too like plays and completion? So many questions, it would be nice if Nintendo were more upfront with this stuff.

I guess that's the issue with making such insanely difficult levels though, I don't think most people stick with them even if they display good ideas. Plus, if they show up for someone in the 100-Mario Challenge, people can't really afford to spend too many lives before reaching for that skip button.

In any case, I was disappointed when I found out that Nintendo are already deleting levels from the server. I know the notifications say that publishing is not permanent, but it's been only a little more than three months since the game came out. I figured it would take at least a year before that started happening. A friend of mine has already had 2 levels removed, and the game blocks you from re-uploading them even if you save to a new slot. This wouldn't be a problem if you could send levels directly to someone on your friend list, but as it stands there's no way for me to play those levels.

And thanks for trying the levels and the compliments. With the way 3-1 is set up, the fast path is pretty straight-forward, so I'm not sure if there's room for such a time to be bested. Taking an idea and building on it through a level - or sometimes a whole game - is something that Nintendo tend to do a lot, something I've always liked about their design, so I try to follow such a philosophy when I can.

@Octorockin

If they remove your levels, you can just re-upload them, right? And I starred one of your levels earlier but admit I didn't star the others because I never actually beat them. They're well designed but honestly these extremely precise and difficult levels are a turn off for me I tried to do them at first when the game launched but I just gave up on them after a while.

@VofEscaflowne No. To further explain what I said in my post above, the level will have a "roadblock" type sign on it, and if you try to re-upload it then you will get a message saying that you can't upload it because it has already been deleted. Even if you save the level to a new slot, it will still be blocked. The only way to re-upload would be to remake the level in an entirely new slot.

@Mop it up

Ouch... that's pretty harsh. Seems weird of Nintendo to take that route.

I lived, ate and breathed this game for A BILLION HOURS. I don't know if I have time to go back to it just yet, but I hate falling behind on our NW levels.

Perhaps I'll boot 'er up sometime tomorrow.


@Octorockin
OH MAN, that sucks. I used to pride myself in defeating your levels. I'll gladly give you stars if needed, but it seems Nintendo doesn't want you re-uploading the stage. That's pretty silly.

I found out that you can star a course without beating it, it can be done from the pause menu during a level. So if you see a level with some good ideas, but you can't complete it for whatever reason, you can still star and comment if you wish.

@Mop it up
That's the quitter's path!

@Mop it up

I uploaded a course called Crafty Caverns early November, and it was removed late December. I was notified that it had been removed since it wasn't getting played. I've made some courses that haven't been played much, but I think those courses weren't taken down because they at least had one star. Crafty Caverns went about a month without a star, so I can see why it was removed.

@VofEscaflowne

Thanks for starring Falco's Flight! It was crazy fun and challenging to make a course that isn't about platforming. It's amazing what you can do in this game.

I usually don't set out to make super hard courses. They just kinda end up that way because I personally enjoy that kind of challenge. I make courses that I like and just hope that others will like them, too.

@ploot

If anyone can beat my latest courses, it's you! You've probably saved a few of my other courses from being deleted.

Oh, what the heck?? They're dropping courses now?

I need to play some of Octorockin's again! I remember beating all of his available courses early on but I haven't played much Mario Maker lately. I'm in the mood for some deviously tough levels again. (of the fair variety)