Friend of the site (and mine), Dave Corn is back with a guest review. Taking a look at a title that could best be explained as Zelda meets Super Mario Maker. From developer  FIRECHICK, comes Super Dungeon Maker.

“Super Dungeon Maker is a creative pixel art dungeon editor inspired by the best 2D adventure games. Choose however many levels, enemies, secret rooms, traps and items you want. Challenge your friends and the community to master your dungeon or play the countless dungeons of the community.”

Super Dungeon Maker, from developer FIRECHICK, isn’t exactly a straightforward title to review. It has no story to speak of and the protagonist is a chicken. That’s that. What you get here is a community-driven dungeon-creating and sharing game in the style of the SNES’ The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Unfortunately, this game has none of Zelda’s charm or personality. There is no start and no finish and it really boils down to a very hollow experience which, on putting down your controller after playing, leaves you with a sensation of just being a massive waste of your precious free time.

The game itself launches with a tutorial, the personality-lacking main character ‘The Chicken’ appears and you are taught how to use the game’s crafting mechanic. How to use the tools and how to navigate the in-world obstacles. Then, you are shown how to build and create. Creating in this game (as the title suggests) is focused on dungeons, Zelda, 16-bit style dungeons.

As a fan of retro games, there is a certain warmth that I feel towards this style and to an extent, when it is done well, one that sometimes yields a bit of extra favour. Super Dungeon Maker is a creating and sharing tool (and good at being that) bolstered by a community which has already embraced it with some very impressive creations. I found myself, in many a dungeon, just bemused by the creative ways that players have found to kill each other off. The frustrating tricks and almost domino-like precision of some of these custom-made maps would leave Jigsaw and his cohorts from the Saw films positively green with envy.

If you are like me and gaming time is limited, picking up a game and playing for a few minutes, then this probably won’t be the game for you. Tuning themselves in on the Minecraft/Terraria audiences with as much time to put into the community, as you take out, seems only fair. While there are creative games out on the market already, such as the incredible Dreams on the PlayStation, it makes you wonder if there’s any more room for a title like this. Super Dungeon Maker isn’t really anything new. Sure, it’s simple but I think gamers tend to embrace intelligent design, new ideas and forward thinking. Lemmings let you design your own levels back in the 90s, this isn’t really much of a jump forward.

I  have to admit that I am curious to see how long this game will be supported for. However, I won’t be coming back to Super Dungeon Maker. For me, it felt a little soulless with very little to offer that hasn’t been done better before and with more personality. See Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker.

To sum up.
Gameplay 2/5. Relying completely on community content gives this one a limited shelf-life and something better will soon come along.

Graphics 1/5. Very Simple, 16-bit style, but not attractive with it.

Value 3/5. If you enjoy this style of game then you will most probably play this endlessly. If you are a guest reviewer, you will force yourself to play for another hour and another hour and another, because you have some sense of journalistic integrity, or because you hate yourself.