During E3, Nintendo announced Mario Maker for Wii U, the answer to fans' long-standing dream to create their own Mario levels and share them with their friends. Producer Takashi Tezuka sat down with game site NZGamer for an exclusive interview about the title as well as his other big project, Yoshi's Woolly World. When asked about potential multiplayer shenanigans in Mario Maker, however, he dropped a disappointment bomb:
… [A]s far as multiplayer, I’m pretty set on probably not. What’s important about this game is the creation part, and we really want to focus on that.
After New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World both strongly supported four-player cooperation, it's a shame that Mario Maker will return to a single-player affair. On the upside, creating levels using the GamePad and thrusting them upon your friends is its own kind of entertaining joint play.
Another interesting tidbit from the interview is the revelation that Mario Maker partly began as a new version of Mario Paint, the famous Super Nintendo art software. Tezuka's team at the time was working on a platforming course editor to expedite game development, so they decided to combine the two ideas into one. Like Mario Paint, you'll be able to compose your own music and even swat flies that land on your canvas.
The group is also working out the best way to share levels over the Internet — using Miiverse as a delivery medium is a strong possibility. You may also be able to upload videos to YouTube, not unlike the Mario Kart TV feature in Mario Kart 8. All those ideas are still in the early stages, though.
Read the rest of the interview to learn more about Mario Maker, scheduled for a 2015 release on Wii U.
