Whileis one of our favorite releases of the year so far, we noted in our review that we were disappointed by the omission of some key gameplay features that had been present in previous Mario games. Happily, Nintendo seems to be working on adding back some of those features through a free post-launch update coming on November 4.

The most welcome new feature is probably the addition of mid-level checkpoints, which let players restart from specific points in a level should they die. That should allow creators to add difficult sections to their levels without worrying that a single misstep will send players all the way back to the start of a lengthy course. Players have already gone to great lengths to hack in a similar checkpoint system using elaborate arrangements of existing course elements, so we're sure this will come as welcome news for many creators.

The new update will also allow power-ups in item boxes to be dependent on Mario's size, as they are in almost every Mario game. This means that a small Mario can get a Super Mushroom from a box, while the larger Super Mario will get a useful Fire Flower from that same box, for instance.

Nintendo is also taking small steps to make it easier to find good levels to play. The online Course World section will now feature an "Official Makers" section for courses created by Nintendo employees, and an "Event Courses" section for levels created by Nintendo partners, such as those from a recent Facebook "hackathon" level-creation event . These additions won't really solve the massive discoverability problems inherent in the current user-created level popularity rankings , but they should at least provide players with some reasonable alternatives to seek out.

It's nice to see Nintendo working to continually improve Super Mario Maker's feature set—and not charging players for the additions, to boot. We hope future updates continue to add more classic Mario features, such as inclines, additional items, and the ability to string levels together into entire worlds.