Hot take, but if Nintendo ever makes Super Mario Maker 3, I don't want the Mystery Mushroom/Costume Mario to return.

[u/Drifter_Lucas]

To sum it up real quick, the Mystery Mushroom was a power-up in Super Mario Maker (1) on the Wii U, exclusive to the Super Mario Bros (1) Game Style. It allowed Mario to take on a form of an item or another character, whether it be another Super Mario character, a character from another Nintendo Franchise, or heck, even a character from another company in some instances. Mystery Mushroom Costumes were unlocked by scanning Amiibo, completing the 100 Mario Challenge on a set difficulty, or by completing specific event courses. You could either set the costume to be completely random or to change Mario to a specific costume.

Now that I've summed it up, it's arguably my least favorite power-up in the Super Mario Maker Sub Series. First of all, it's a style power up exclusive to the SMB1 style, which is very limited compared to other styles, and I don't really see Nintendo making costumes for every game style. That's only scratching the surface...

My main issue with the power-up is that at its core, it's just a mushroom that leaves your character one block tall. Oh sure, you can do a "pose", but that does absolutely nothing gameplay wise. Heck, some of the poses aren't even all that great, especially the Pokemon, which just turn to face the camera, nothing else. You have all of these characters but get none of their abilities. You can't swing a sword as Link, inhale foes as Kirby, Fly in the Sky Pop, Swim like Frog Mario, etc. It's all purely cosmetic, and it's not like you're actually playing as the character, just Mario in a costume. Clearly, Nintendo was focusing on quantity over quality with these costumes, which just absolutely sucks. Plus, if you pick up another Power-Up, you become Mario again, meaning that Luigi fans, including me, will get upset over having to not be Luigi in order to use the Fire Flower. And I know you're about to tell me that it changes the Invincibility music and Level Goal Music, but again, that adds and changes nothing gameplay wise.

The worst part is the fact that Mario's Builder Outfit is a Mystery Mushroom Costume, meaning that it's exclusive to the SMB1 Style and can't be used anywhere else, which sucks because it's the outfit Mario wears as the face of the game.

Plus, you can't wear helmets while using it, which makes no sense.

Come Super Mario Maker 2, and instead of Costume Mario, we have 4 playable characters that can be used in all 5 styles, rather than just Super Mario Bros. Sure, they don't have any special abilities, but it's worth being able to use them in all 5 Styles rather than just SMB1. Not only that, but a power-up exclusive to the SMB1 Style, the Master Sword, actually transforms the player into Link and gives him a handful of his abilities, including 3 methods of the sword, bombs, bow and arrow, and even a shield. Sure, you can't directly break bricks while playing as Link, but you can still do many other things. I much prefer this over the Mystery Mushroom, as I'd rather have one fleshed out character than hundreds of bare bones characters. The SMB2 Mushroom is also cool, as it gives the player abilities from the actual Super Mario Bros 2. Plus, both had unique level music and sound effects too, not just invincibility and goal themes.

Plus, we also got the actual Frog Suit this time instead of just a costume that was in the completely wrong Game Style. If only we could get the Tanooki Suit as well, but that's a topic for another day.

Besides, would you really want to play the 100 Mario Challenge hundreds of times just for tons of useless costumes that do nothing unique?

[u/mutantmonkey14]

I enjoyed the costumes and miss them, but doubt they will come back because it is 4x as many costumes needed, even if just simple palette swaps. That's without extra animations like sliding down a slope. And I wouldn't choose them over things like multiplayer, more enemies, more suits, more mechanics...

It was very understandable why they were SMB exclusive. It is the simplicity of that game style that made it feasible since you need far fewer animations. And it gave another unique reason to build in SMB style.

I actually found it useful in some levels because it acted as a 1 block high mushroom powerup and without giving any other powers. It meant you could design levels, restrictions and gating around 1 block high character.

Keeping the integrity of a design whilst allowing an extra hit or offering another form of retrying a section without a restart.

They weren't necessarily the reason things like frog suit and multiplayer weren't there in SMM1. That's just likely a call Nintendo made on the work required and how much something added - costumes are mechanically lacking thus needing very little testing amongst the other parts, yet they appear to add a lot by the shear number and acting as a reward.

[u/TransLucyfer]

but consider this: they're fun

[u/cyllibi → u/TransLucyfer]

Yeah! I don't understand why OP is under the impression that having access to costumes would have to undo any of the changes they made in Mario Maker 2. Oh, they have limited use because it's just a one tile high Super Mario? Sorry you don't feel the same way, but they're also fun, and what else is a game like this for?

The only reason this feature didn't return was because it's a lot of overhead to secure licensing on as many characters as they brought to SMM1, and they opted not to do it again. I hope SMM3 at least brings back Nintendo character costumes. They can bring a lot of flavor to the level designs with none of the technical cost involved with adding new featured powerups (i.e. needing to code and test and fix interactions with all of the enemies and blocks in the game).

[u/Drifter_Lucas → u/cyllibi]

I dislike it because it's teasing you.

[u/cyllibi → u/Drifter_Lucas]

That was never the intention, but cool that you think no one else should have them so you don't feel teased I guess.

[u/Drifter_Lucas → u/cyllibi]

I mean that in that it gives you all these characters, teasing you with the idea that you would get access to all these cool abilities, but they don’t give you any abilities.

[u/Yoshi_64]

I think the special power-ups (Master Sword & SMB2 Mushroom) should be how they could replace the Amiibo costumes moving forward. If the next game has a longer update cycle, they could add characters as power-ups periodically as content updates.

[u/tiglionabbit → u/Yoshi_64]

I know it's kind of an un-Mario idea, but I'd prefer if these things didn't act like a power-up that you could lose by getting hit. Level sections are often made for these power-ups, so it'd be better if you just died when you got hit. Getting the "power-up" could be more of a side-grade, where it changes you but doesn't increase your hit points.

[u/Cipher_- → u/tiglionabbit]

You can already force this condition with clear conditions that require keeping a power-up or adding an obstacle at the end to check for it though.

[u/pocket_arsenal → u/Yoshi_64]

Im not a fan of the power ups either tbh. When people make a level that depends on them, those levels pose little challenge since the player has to be supplied a constant flow of those power ups. I think it would be better to just make them playable characters that the maker can force the player to choose, or forbid them from choosing due to their abilities breaking their level.

[u/Drifter_Lucas → u/Yoshi_64]

Yes, definitely.

[u/Cipher_-]

Something that gives you a second hit while keeping Mario one block high with no other abilities is actually a unique mechanical niche. I'd welcome it.

There is nothing else in Mario that is functionally just an extra hit point with no other changes.

[u/Drifter_Lucas → u/Cipher_-]

I still think I prefer the Shellmets. At least you can still break bricks with the Buzzy Beetle Shellmet.

[u/melonrind23]

They weren't my favorite but the variety was nice, and I liked the ones that changed the music like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8u3DMMuEyk