Aw man, Mario Maker for Wii U got delayed! But not for that long; now it’s going to be coming out in September instead of this spring. Hey, that’s fine with me: We need more Wii U games coming out this fall anyway. Question is, does this game have potential? Is it just for hardcore creators, or is it going to be the closest Nintendo will get to Minecraft?

Mario Maker Release Date: The Power Is Yours

The Mario Maker release date was originally set for this spring, but the new September release date makes more sense anyway. After all, Yoshi’s Woolly World and Splatoon are both going to come out over the spring and summer, so those will keep us busy. Mario Maker makes more sense as a fall release. Like last year’s September release, Hyrule Warriors, it has slightly more specialist interest.

So Mario Maker lets players create unique Mario levels in either the classic, Super Mario Bros.-style format, or in the newer New Super Mario Bros. look and layout. It’s a pretty cool idea, something Nintendo has never really done before. But it’s also decidedly for the hardcore fan. I don’t think your average ten year old or your average person with three hours of gaming time a week (me) is going to create levels of the complexity and scale we’d hope for. It doesn’t seem like the kind of game that will reward casual play.

But here’s where Mario Maker gets exciting: There are going to be people who devote an intense amount of time to creating levels in the game. And you’ll be able to play their courses. According to IGN, there will even be rankings of the most popular courses. And that opens up a whole world of shareable creativity. I expect that, like in the early days of Minecraft, early Mario Maker levels will start off pretty simple… but hardcore users will figure out ways to get more out of the game system and do all kinds of crazy things. The levels we’ll be able to play will advance in quality and complexity over time. And Mario Maker will get more and more compelling as they do.

But for a lot of us, just dabbling in the level editor may not be all that satisfying. We shall see. Mario Maker is out for Wii U in September.