“Demo Disk” – Super Dungeon Maker (2022) [Steam]

Demo Disk is a series of first impressions for new releases and quick opinions.

Whether Nintendo through sloth or malevolence, whatever the current word on the street slander is, to give us a true Zelda maker, the indie scene has once again stepped in to fill the gap. I, like any red-blooded Legend of Zelda fan, have pined for a Zelda maker game from Nintendo for many a misbegotten year. After all, the company’s flagship character received not one but two Super Mario Makers. Why not Zelda? Rising in answer to my plaintive plea is a delightful little indie-in-progress, one Super Dungeon Maker.

Now it bears mentioning that Super Dungeon Maker is still in the process of being, well, made. It’s still in Steam Early Access and a recent update has just been rolled out. Though the game is in flux, never fear. There’s a very playable game to be enjoyed right now if you need to scratch your creativity genre itch.

Comparisons with Zelda are not unfair. Super Dungeon Maker makes no attempt to hide its foundation. Its visually cheerful and bouncy world of chickens, hens, and roosters–appropriately named Henrule–will immediately remind you of the classic 2D Zeldas of yore. What indie isn’t based on Zelda these days? What must be conveyed here, though, is that the superficial resemblance is just the surface. The game equally handles like a Zelda just as it looks like a Zelda.

Sure, you’re a cock instead of a woodland sprite, or whatever Link is supposed to be, but there’s the familiar charging swing attack with your sword, the Link to the Past–ian village or hamlet (henlet?), the archetypal enemies broken down by movement patterns, the keys, the chests, the jars, and yes, the cuttable grass. All of this can be navigated around and through with a control scheme befitting a Zelda. There are buttons mapped for traditional items to help you dash, toss bombs, or use this game’s riff on the hookshot.

Where Super Dungeon Maker dares to tread is where no Zelda has really gone before, discounting of course the miniature dungeon making feature embedded in Switch’s Link’s Awakening. You can build the dungeons yourself either through messing about in the sandbox playground on the outskirts of town, having at it in earnest in the first building you meet, or selecting from a hoard of online dungeons. Rest assured, there’s a voting or rating system of sorts in place.

The tendency in this sort of thing is always toward the kaizo, maybe even the downright impossible, just so some stranger behind a computer screen can point and laugh at you, but it’s easy enough to get a glimpse of which user-generated dungeons are community favorites.

Super Dungeon Maker has the bones in place to truly thrive. As I said, it’s pretty playable as is. You get the idea that there’s still more to be done, though. For instance, its somewhat stiff animations now and then nick its overall bright and bouncy microverse. Lifting jars still seems a bit jarring, for instance. Thwarting an enemy can feel like thwacking a brick wall. However, the lighting highlights the game’s best features, giving the objects that move through it real tangibility and there is humor aplenty to be enjoyed in this light.

The actual creativity mechanics and controls can take some getting used to. I tried both a keyboard and controller. In creativity mode, labeling items, tiles, features, doorways, hazards, and the like could be a great addition to the game. I found it wasn’t always easy to tell what something was or why it was grouped under a certain branching file of object types. Labels could make creativity easier and quicker, especially for new players.

Super Dungeon Maker didn’t have a whole lot to ruffle my feathers, though. Were I a younger man with more time, I’d have loved to spend time lavishing attention on multiple themed dungeons. I spotted a few: one based on Breath of the Wild, another on Undertale. I’m looking forward to seeing this egg really hatch.

Thank you to FIRECHICK and rokaplay for providing us with a copy of the game.

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the “games themselves” in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, on Twitch, or MAGE CAST. Please support my work on Patreon!