Disclosure: This is not a compensated or sponsored post. I was provided the product for review purposes only. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Mario fans around the world, unite! Now you can play, create, and share the side-scrolling Super Mario courses of your dreams in the Super Mario Maker 2 game, available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch System.
Don’t let the title confuse you. Nintendo hasn’t merely made a game for makers; it has made a nearly full Super Mario title that just so happens to be paired with an exceptional creator’s suite.
The most approachable part of Super Mario Maker 2 is Story Mode. Here, the game presents me with a thin veneer of plot (Undodog, a franchise staple, literally blows up Peach’s castle) before tossing me dozens and dozens of Nintendo-made Mario levels.
While the levels in Story Mode are shorter than you’d find in a traditional Mario game, they are varied and bizarre. These levels were created using the same toolset that players have access to, but thanks to the Nintendo team being, well, good at its job, they are consistently excellent. While not quite enough to be its own stand-alone Mario game, Story Mode comes surprisingly close, with around eight hours worth of levels to plow through.
One has me chasing a P-Switch on a track through a haunted house, using small pinpricks of lantern light to guide me. Another has me wall-sliding to stay ahead of a constantly shifting screen, but not so far ahead that I fall into some perilous goop waiting below.
They’re not all plat forming challenges. Sometimes I’ll take command of Koopa’s flying clown car, transforming a Mario game into a fast-paced shoot-’em-up. Or maybe I’m tasked with babysitting a lifeless cube that needs to make it to the end of the stage .
Unlike a traditional Mario game, the mode focuses more on showing the possibilities of the Mario universe rather than making a perfectly curated experience.
While playing these levels, my dullard brain has become awash with ideas for levels I might create. What would happen if I removed Koopa’s clown car, filled the stage with water, and added a fire-spitting Yoshi? Super Mario Maker 2 encourages that sort of iteration with premade levels that appear whenever you launch the game, avoiding the need to start with a totally blank canvas.
Armed with inspiration from Story Mode, I dive headfirst into making my first level. It’s … a lot. The basics in Super Mario Maker 2 are pretty easy to grok. Creating new land is as simple as tapping the land icon and dragging across the screen. Enemies are easy, too: Just drag and drop. But even though the basics are simple, there are so many options — I feel a bit like I’m drowning in the possibilities.
So I try out a new feature called Yamamura’s Dojo. Yamamura is a pigeon that is really jazzed to teach me how to make levels in Super Mario Maker 2. These tutorial videos definitely help nail down the basics, but they are also painfully dull to sit through, with no interactivity to speak of beyond advancing the text. I would have liked to make levels while I learned about enemy placement and proper jump positioning, but instead, I just need to absorb the information and lock it away for when I’m ready.
This time I decide to make an Auto Mario level. If you’re unfamiliar with the genre, the idea is to make a Rube Goldberg machine where Mario, uncontrolled by a human hand, will ping-pong through a level using the game’s physics. It’s less of a challenge for the player and more like a fun roller coaster ride where incredibly well-timed events yield an eventual victory. I theme it off of Bowser’s airship, add some fart sound effects, and publish it to the world.
Power-up the fun even further with a Nintendo Switch Online membership, where you can share your courses, access a near endless supply made by others, enjoy online multiplayer with players both near and far, and more!
You can also customize how you appear to others by dressing your “Mil” character with fun accessories.
Now it is time to have fun.
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