Super Dungeon Maker
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch
Unfortunately, this game pretty much starts and ends with the hint in the name – dungeon maker. 'Super Dungeon Maker' is very obviously styled after early Zelda games. Some of the dialogue references Hyrule (calling it Henrule). It has the same pixelated art style, though a bit more vibrant of a colour palette and a few more pixels than you’ll remember the SNES having. You have a sword and can pick up a shield. There are even bombs and grappling hooks, but that’s about where the similarities end.
You start off asleep in a dungeon, and quickly get an idea of how the game works. You swing your sword in the direction of your mouse cursor rather than the direction you’re facing – ok, weird choice. Movement is fine, up down left right, hard to get that wrong. A couple of enemy types in your way, quickly figure out how they operate and dispatch them. A room with a blue orb on the ground, a blue pillar blocking your way, and a few floor squares in red behind you. You’ve seen this before, hit the orb, it changes colour, the red pillars come up, blue goes down, your new path is open. Even if you haven’t played a game with this mechanic in it before, surely most people will figure that out pretty quickly? But for some reason after you’ve already had to do this to exit the dungeon, the mechanic gets explained by one of the little chicken buddies.
There’s basically no instruction through this initial dungeon as it’s presumed you already understand the basic mechanics of movement, combat, and puzzles in a game like this.
There is a quick tutorial – actually a sandbox really as the little characters tell you – that gives you the basic instructions you’ll need to make your own dungeon. Great! So, you move on into the little town, talk to the different characters, and come across a sign “Tree Dungeon =>”. Here we go, let’s get this party started. Whelp, the dungeon only takes a few minutes, and you realise you don’t actually get to keep any of the gear you picked up in it?
That’s a significant departure from the Zelda games. What’s the point of the dungeon if there doesn’t seem to be someone who needs rescuing, or some gear to aid in your adventure? Just a couple of rooms and a boss, and the end marked by touching a golden egg which teleports you back to town.
Ok, back in town again, keep moving clockwise and make sure you’ve talked to everyone. Nothing of interest here still? Keep moving, find another pre-made dungeon. Egg. Back to town.
So that’s about it. There is no actual story in 'Super Dungeon Maker'. The first twenty-ish minutes of gameplay are all there just to frame either you making a dungeon to share, or to play other people's dungeons.
That’s really all this game was ever supposed to be. 'Super Dungeon Maker'. But there should be some kind of warning to not expect anything in the way of a story, yet the framing described above leads the player down another path entirely. It hints that the story is just around the corner, you just have to find it.
There are a fair few user-made dungeons to explore, and these, as you can imagine with any user-generated content, range from absolute garbage to absolutely fabulous and everything in between.
The range of tools you have access to is everything you’d expect too. You can place cracked walls that open up secret areas when destroyed with a bomb, doors that only open when all the monsters are dead, place hidden keys in chests or pots, the list goes on. Basically, if you’ve played an early Zelda (pre-3D), you can make a fair effort of recreating any of those dungeons.
There is unquestionably tons of potential and possibility here, but it's relying on the player to realize it themselves.
A simple story mode which let you access different tools from the dungeon maker would have been incredible. Instead of a grappling hook, give the player limited options of floor tiles to place. Instead of a shield, placeable solid blocks. It would be so easy to add so much to this game, but 'Super Dungeon Maker' stopped at the dungeon exit.
