I never got the first Super Mario Maker and wasn’t really intending on its sequel, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat interested after watching yesterday’s Nintendo Direct. At its core, there is level creation and you can share those levels online provided you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Making levels in Super Mario Maker is boosted in this version compared to the first game with the inclusion of slopes, water levels, and on/off switches just to name a few. There’s even a story mode in case you crave a little narrative.
One of the most interesting new features is Endless mode in Course World. The goal is to see how many custom-made courses you can clear before getting a Game Over screen. Courses are queued up and downloaded automatically at random based on the difficulty level you select. Assuming the randomness truly is random, you will never play the same sequence of levels ever.
Endless mode does mean you’ll have to be connected to the internet with a Nintendo Switch Online membership for that to happen. If you’re looking to try some levels offline, you do also have the option to download them and save them.
Courses you create can be uploaded, shared, and rated. If people like your course, you’ll get Maker points. The Direct didn’t really say, but I assume you use the Maker points to buy outfits where you can dress up your Mii avatar to represent you and your courses online.
Searching for courses looks really slick with a variety of options. You can browse by popular or new. You can filter by game theme (Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario 3D Land, etc), level theme, and difficulty. There’s even a tag system where you can filter further by certain level elements like auto-scrolling.
There’s even online multiplayer modes. Yes, modes, plural. Co-op has everyone trying to reach the goal and if one player reaches the flag, everyone wins. In versus mode, points are awarded based on the order the players reach the flag.
Honestly, Super Mario Maker 2 seems like an INSANE amount of value for its price ($59.99). You’ll need an subscription to Nintendo Switch Online to really unlock all of it though but the cost of a subscription is just $20 a year. If you’re not a subscriber yet, you can get a special bundle of Super Mario Maker 2 plus a 1-year subscription for $69.99, saving $9.99 off the top.
I’ve watched the direct a couple of times now getting the above screenshots for this post. And the more I wrote, the more interested I became.
Super Mario Maker 2 comes out on Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2019. You can pre-purchase the digital version or the subscription bundle right now.
