ToonSouls Maker Review

A Mario Maker For Classic Cartoons, Fresh Out Of The Gate

ToonSouls Maker is a $5.99 Early Access 2D platformer and level editor from solo developer Toon Crafter, pitched as a way to "create, play, and share your own chaotic 2D platforming levels," inspired by classic cartoons rather than any particular game franchise. It launched into Early Access on September 18, 2026, with no news posts yet on record, meaning what's currently on sale is, by the developer's own framing, a genuine first-draft release meant to gather community feedback rather than a finished product. The store page's own tagline, "My game is good. The algorithm just ignores me," has clearly become a rallying cry among its earliest fans, and it shows up, quoted almost verbatim, across a huge share of its 33 total reviews (31 positive, 2 negative by the raw count, and a "Positive" Steam rating overall).

The Reception Is A Meme, And That's Worth Taking Seriously As Data

Reading through the review pool, the single most striking thing about ToonSouls Maker isn't the platforming itself, it's the sheer volume of ironic, copypasta-style praise the game has attracted in its first day. Reviews built entirely around repeating "the algorithm just ignores me," reviews in all caps declaring it "the greatest game since sliced bread," and reviews that are just the word "goty" make up a large fraction of the current pool. That's a real online phenomenon worth reporting plainly rather than a sign the game is secretly beloved on its individual merits; a meme-driven wave of positive reviews inflates the headline score in a way that tells you more about internet culture finding a sympathetic underdog narrative than about whether the platforming itself holds up. One of the more grounded voices in the pool makes exactly this point in the game's defense: "It's at the very first EA release right now, and it doesn't have much in it, which is okay, because the developer was releasing it so people could say feedback and work with the community. People are being very mean-spirited for no reason, the dev is very nice and polite to everyone."

Two Independent Reviewers Flag The Same Undisclosed AI-Asset Concern

Underneath the meme wave sits a genuine, corroborated content concern, not a joke. One reviewer's negative review states it directly, framed as a Steam policy violation: "My game is good. The algorithm just forgets to tell me that I should label it as using gen ai because of some of its assets... You can make a game using gen ai assets and put it on Steam, but you need to specify its usage in the game." A second, otherwise supportive reviewer raises the identical concern independently, in gentler terms: "I think the game may have some AI assets left over, I don't think ToonSouls uses AI anymore. ToonSouls, please redraw these assets if you can! People would much rather have okay-looking human made assets than AI ones!" Two separate reviewers, one hostile and one sympathetic, independently landing on the same specific claim, that some of the game's current assets are AI-generated and undisclosed under Steam's labeling rules, is a real signal rather than a single crank complaint, and it's worth flagging clearly for anyone deciding whether to buy in at this early stage.

Early Access Rough Edges Are Everywhere, As Advertised

Setting the meme culture and the asset question aside, the reviewers who actually describe gameplay specifics paint a picture of a genuinely unfinished first build. One reviewer's otherwise positive review doubles as a bug list: "I fell through the floor multiple times and didn't respawn me, please fix this game. I can also not really scroll in maker mode." Another flagged a "softlocking that can easily happen." A more critical reviewer went further, listing specific design gaps rather than bugs: "Lava water, no death zones, no requirements for level uploads, the list goes on," concluding bluntly that the project felt underbaked for something billed as a passion project. A second negative review was shorter and harsher still: "This game absolutely sucks. Massive disappointment." None of this is surprising for a day-one Early Access maker game, but it does mean buyers should go in expecting an editor and platformer that are both still finding their feet, not a polished experience with a few cosmetic rough edges.

The Toon-Cartoon Art Direction Draws Real, Specific Praise

Where the pool's more substantive reviews agree, meme-speak aside, is on the game's visual identity. One reviewer offered an unusually thoughtful breakdown of the aesthetic in Traditional Chinese, describing the deliberately retro, PS1-and-pixel-art-inflected style as invoking "a feeling of nostalgia" through "unconventional game design," coining the term "Trans Games" for titles that resist a specific genre label in favor of a specific visual mood. Another reviewer credited the game's "low skill floor yet such an impressively high skill ceiling" as a 2D platformer, praising "seamless" transitions between gameplay and menus even while calling the graphics "appalling, retro, and best of all TOON," clearly using "appalling" affectionately rather than as a genuine complaint. That specific, considered praise for the art direction, buried under the meme noise, suggests Toon Crafter's visual pitch is landing with at least some of the audience on its own terms.

Verdict

ToonSouls Maker is a genuinely rough, day-one Early Access platformer and level editor whose review pool is dominated by an ironic, meme-fueled wave of support that says more about internet culture rallying around a perceived underdog than about the state of the actual game. Strip that away and what's left is a buggy, feature-thin maker mode (no death zones, no upload requirements, a scrolling bug, a floor-clipping softlock) with a genuinely appealing retro-cartoon art direction, plus a real, corroborated concern from two independent reviewers that some of its current assets are AI-generated and left undisclosed under Steam's labeling policy. None of that is unusual for a first Early Access build, but at $5.99 this is a project to watch develop rather than a safe buy today; check back once the asset-disclosure question is resolved and the editor has had a patch or two.