Super Mario Maker Arrives On 3DS In December

One of the more surprising announcements from today's Nintendo Direct broadcast centered around Super Mario Maker. Since most of the Nintendo Direct was focused on the 3DS, you can see where this is heading: Super Mario Maker will be launching on the 3DS later this year, albeit in a more limited form than its Wii U counterpart.

Players will still be able to create levels and play through the stages created by others, but unlike the Wii U version, searching for stages via course ID won't be possible. For that matter, you won't even be able to upload courses from your 3DS, as your options for sharing come down to StreetPass and Local Play. Course makers will have most of the tools from the Wii U version available to them, with the sole exception of the Mystery Mushroom, which Nintendo says will remain exclusive to Wii U players.

Now that we've gotten what's missing out of the way, let's move onto what's new. Super Mario Maker on the 3DS will come with 100 Nintendo-made stages, complete with medal challenges, so you're not limited to player-created levels in the 3DS release. Those on 3DS will be able to play levels created on Wii U through 100 Mario Challenge and their recommended stages, though Nintendo points out that not all Wii U stages will be available to play in the 3DS release.

Super Mario Maker is also getting some interesting functionality on the 3DS, allowing players to share incomplete levels over Wi-Fi and collaborate with their friends, which sounds pretty great if you have a few buddies to play with. All in all, it seems like a good alternative if you don't have a Wii U, despite its limited sharing features. Super Mario Maker launches for Nintendo 3DS on December 2.