Super Dungeon Maker 1.1 Update Switch Review

Nintendo recently came out and said that a Zelda-style Mario Maker wouldn’t work, disappointing many gamers who think there could be something there. Thankfully developer FIRECHICK already had something in mind well before this and developed Super Dungeon Maker which was initially released in May this year on Switch. Why am I reviewing it now? Well FIRECHICK has been listening to feedback and working away at the game to add a lot of content to the game, for free, and relaunched on December 19 with the 1.1 update. What’s it Like? Grab your architect’s bench, pick up a shovel, and let’s build this review together.

Super Dungeon Maker takes a lot of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda series, and you play as Fink, who lives in… Henrule, and you are a dungeon builder. There’s a short tutorial cleverly disguised as an actual sandbox, that can show you the ropes, and from there, you simply create dungeons. Creating dungeons is fun and intuitive thanks to the simple control scheme. Once you have the basics sorted, you can start messing around with switches, multi-level designs, and triggers. You can select an overall theme for your dungeon, but disappointingly, you can set a theme for individual rooms. It would have been great to create a snow outer room giving the impression of entering a castle and descending into lava dungeons. This stops players from being able to tell a story with their creations and ultimately holds the player back from really unleashing their creativity. There’s an overworld to explore that holds the tutorial, online dungeons, the dungeon maker itself, and the hall of fame for select dungeons, and this serves as your menu for the game.

There’s a fair bit you can do while creating your dungeon, and once you have tested it out, you can share your creation for others to play, allowing them to rate your design. You can also browse other players’ dungeons, and there’s a lot of them, ranging from cleverly designed to “Let’s crash your Switch.”

The game is also presented with a bright and colourful pixel art style, somewhat akin to the Minish Cap from the Zelda series. The characters are charmingly illustrated, and the overworld looks great too with trees gently swaying in the wind. The animations are slick, the combat is fun and responsive, and the enemies are interesting. The game does have a few performance issues, mainly playing other people’s dungeons, where the game can pause for about 5-6 seconds while loading a different floor of the dungeon.

So What’s new in the update? The Super Dungeon Maker 1.1 patch has added 2 new themes, Lava and Tomb, and 6 new enemy types, requiring different tactics and strategies to best in combat. They have also added new blocks and eggs to hide and discover, adding a lot more content for you to play around with.

All of this is great, but it still feels like something is missing. There’s no narrative really, you just build dungeons or explore other users’ creations, which is fun for a while, but a lack of narrative or progression still seems to hold Super Dungeon Maker back from greatness. I would have loved to see story elements that unlock new items or abilities, but it’s all there at the start and there’s little to no direction aside from building dungeons and exploring dungeons. If you loved running dungeons in any top-down Zelda game, then you’re set for a great time, but for players looking for a bit more, this may not be the game for you.

For my Vision Impaired Dungeon builders, the game has a decent-sized UI and nice contrasts. It also highlights different rooms with bright borders, allowing you to see each individual section more easily. There aren’t any options to adjust so to speak, but you can adjust the brightness of your dungeon to be brighter when creating it, however, you can’t adjust other people’s creations. There are also no touch controls for the game which seems like a missed opportunity due to its point-and-click nature, but the control scheme does work very well and it’s easy to use once you get the hang of it.

Value-wise, it’s currently on Sale until the 14th of January at $13.49, before returning to its normal price point of $29.99, and considering the large amount of community dungeons, and the ability to share and create your own, this makes it really great value if running dungeons is your cup of tea.

All in all Super Dungeon Maker is good fun, but still feels incomplete. The lack of rewards or narrative to push the player forward means Super Dungeon Maker failed to grip me in, and I was really looking forward to playing it too. I hope that this framework is built on more to push the game from a good one to a great one. The new content has definitely helped freshen up the offering here, yet I was still left wanting more.

So, What’s It Like?

Super Dungeon Maker is like a cross between a Zelda Dungeon, mixed with Dungeon Keeper.