Super Mario Maker 2 is without a doubt one of the most anticipated games on Nintendo Switch. Right in time for the Summer and rooftop parties, Nintendo brings this long-awaited sequel to your favorite console. It improves on almost everything and it’s clear that the team listened to the fans. If you’re a Super Mario fan, this is the must-have game to spend your Summer nights with.
It’s your job to build the castle
In almost every Super Mario game, Mario has to save his beloved Princess Peach. In the first Super Mario Maker (Wii U/3DS), there was no story, only the ability to create some of your favorite courses and share them with the world. The lack of story or decent singleplayer content was something fans missed the most. In Super Mario Maker 2, there’s no need to worry about that since it includes a completely new story including some crazy Nintendo created Super Mario courses. The story is all about rebuilding Peach’s castle by earning coins while completing challenging levels.
The story mode is the perfect starting point for those new to the franchise or those looking for an extra challenging Super Mario game. These courses are created by Nintendo but they don’t really follow the rule of other Super Mario games. If you want to clear all the courses, you’ll have to be creative and you’ll have to prove your Super Mario skills time after time. What I like most about this new story mode is the fact that it learns you how to use all items correctly while creating your own course. It’s a tutorial disguised as a challenging story and it’s amazing to see how well this is balanced. While advancing, you’ll meet some interesting characters too, some of those might ring a bell if you played the original. The inclusion of a story mode is one of the many great decisions since it offers enough content to keep you going.
Create the course of your dreams
Of course, the story mode alone isn’t the reason why you’ll buy Super Mario Maker 2. The beating heart of the game is its Course Creator, where you can create the Super Mario course of your dreams. This mode comes packed with new things and improves on almost everything compared to the previous entry. Right from the start, you’ll have access to everything you need to create the course of your dreams. No need to unlock everything step by step, if you buy the game, you’ll have access to everything right from the start. This wouldn’t be a sequel however if there wouldn’t be any new items to mess around with. Super Mario Maker 2 is packed with new things but we’ll discuss some of the most important innovations.
Slopes, finally, slopes are part of Super Mario Maker. If you played regular Super Mario games, you’ll know that slopes play a crucial role in most courses. The lack of slopes in the first Mario Maker caused a lot of frustrations but thanks to the sequel, you can go all-out. Creating a huge slope filled with enemies is great but sliding from it while killing all those enemies while playing your own level is even better. The slopes offer tons of new ways to create courses and I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with.
Next, the day/night cycle. This time, you can choose between day or night by adding the sun or moon to your course while creating it. The night mode is one of my new favorite things since it adds an extra challenge to your courses. At night, things get slippery or your vision gets limited so you never truly know what to expect. It’s a small innovation on paper but once in action, it really changes the way you play a certain course, clearing it will only be harder.
Talking about clearing courses, you can now set your own goal too. If you think reaching the flagpole at the end of the level isn’t enough to justify a win, you can alter the condition to win. For example, you can force players to collect all coins, the one who collected them all or collected the last one in multiplayer wins. Thanks to this, Super Mario Maker 2 isn’t only limited to courses, thanks to those new options, fans can create a lot of different game types.
Just like in the first one, you can create your own course in several styles, the Super Mario, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii U all make a return. While creating your course, you can constantly switch between styles to see which one serves your ideas best. New, is the extra style of Super Mario 3D World. This extra style can’t be combined with the others, if you create a course in this style, you’ll need to start over since the objects are too specific for the style. The catsuit power-up can be used to climb trees and walls, something that isn’t possible in older Super Mario games. This extra style is a great new addition since it gives you even more tools to create your favorite course. Compared to the older styles, this is the best-looking one and the items are the most modern ones too. I’m pretty sure a lot of gamers will find tremendous amounts of fun in this new mode. Also note that there’s room for a second extra style in the menu so my guess is we’ll see get another extra style in the future!
Challenge yourself
Just in case you thought the fun ends here, you’re wrong, creating your own course is merely the beginning of all the fun. In the Course World mode, you’ll be able to find and play thousands of new Super Mario courses, created by fans all over the world. Compared to the original game, this mode got improved, a lot. Searching for your favorite type, of course, is extremely easy thanks to the tagging system and extended search options, you can easily filter on the levels you like most. For example, you can easily search for multiplayer levels in the Super Mario 3D World style so you can challenge your friends to complete this together (as Mario, Luigi, Toad or Toadette). Not only this but Course World also keeps track of everything you’ve done, resulting in special new outfits for your Mii character. Combine this with the fact that you can comment and rate courses and you know Nintendo handled this mode correctly.
Since the Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console that you’ll like to take with you while you’re away from home, some might be worried they need a constant internet connection to play those fan-made levels. Well, that’s not entirely true. Thanks to the download option, you can pre-download some of your favorite levels so you can enjoy those everywhere you go. It’s a small extra feature but it resolves a lot of potential problems.
Some small things worth mentioning
Before we conclude this review, there are a couple of things worth mentioning. For starters, the way you create your course is entirely up to you this time. Since this is a hybrid console, you can use the buttons of your controllers in television mode and the touchscreen in handheld mode. Since the touchscreen of the Switch is a huge leap forward compared to the one of the 3DS or Wii U version, I preferred creating my courses on the touchscreen of my Switch. Of course, it’s up to you to decide which way you like most.
Talking about creating, it’s also worth mentioning that the options in the Super Mario Bros. style are rather limited compared to the original game. No extra costumes and no amiibo support for Mario this time. This mode just got a lot plainer and it looks like the team went for a more serious undertone this time. It didn’t really bother me since the game gives you tons of options to have fun but if you were hoping for more absurd elements in the original Super Mario Bros. style, you should know those are missing in action.
Conclusion:
Super Mario Maker 2 offers everything you could dream of and even more. It’s by far the most complete Super Mario course builder out there and in combination with a great story mode, this one will keep you hooked for the coming months. It’s a bit of a shame the absurdity of the Super Mario Bros. style got toned down but in return, you’ll have access to thousands and thousands of extra Super Mario courses, created with a lot of freedom and new options. If you own a Nintendo Switch, you should pick this game up as fast as possible. If not, this one might be one of the best reasons to get yourself a Switch system.
