Our hearts jump with joy every time we hear the cheery old “it’s-a me, Mario!” with new mainline Mario titles, but there’s something even more special about Super Mario Maker. It is a Mario game in and of itself, but it also gives you the tools to create your own Mario levels- not a new concept by any means, but one that’s executed excellently. Super Mario Maker 2 is looking to expand on that concept even further and deliver an even better experience, and we truly hope it succeeds. In the lead up to its launch, excited as we are about the game, in this feature we’ll talk about fifteen most vital pieces of information about it that you should know. Without further ado, let’s get started.
COURSE THEMES
Super Mario Maker 2 features a total of 10 course themes to choose from. Five of these are ones making a return from the previous game- namely, Ground, Underground, Underwater, Ghost House, and Airship. The remaining five, of course, are entirely new. These are Desert, Snow, Forest, Night, and Sky.
NEW COURSE STYLES
The biggest addition in Super Mario Maker 2 is probably the addition of a new course style option (definitely the most prominent one). In addition to the course styles for Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. eras making a return, Mario Maker 2 also adds the option for making courses based on the style of Super Mario 3D World.
3D WORLD STYLE
The Mario 3D World style is definitely going to be an interesting addition. It brings with it objects and mechanics that are exclusive to it, which brings interesting implications. So while with all other courses it’s possible to switch in and out between styles in the middle of building, if you were to do the same and switch to or from the 3D World style, you’d be wiping all your progress, because there’s a lot of stuff in that style that simple wouldn’t work in other styles.
SUN AND MOON
Super Mario Maker 2 adds another layer of customizability to the levels you create with day and night versions (or sun and moon versions). Both versions of levels will, of course, be different aesthetically (as you’d expect), but every theme will also have different elements and mechanics in play as well. For instance, during nighttime, forest levels will see water bodies turning to poison, while the ice in snow levels will become more slick and slippery.
NEW UI
Mario Maker 2’s UI also sees a significant change from the Wii U game, owing to the fact that the Switch is much less reliant on touch screen controls than Nintendo’s previous console was. Most of this is done through radial wheels instead of drop down menus. Each course element can be viewed on the basis of categories through a magnifying glass, which is selected from the top right of the screen. Each category has its own individual wheel, with elements being divided as per sectors.
NEW ITEMS
Super Mario Maker 2, of course, also adds plenty of new items, objects, and buildings options. For instance, there’s the On and Off switch, which presents some interesting options and can potentially be put to use in very creative ways. Other building options, such as including water in non-underwater levels, or including snake blocks, are also interesting new additions.
NEW ENEMIES
There’s also going to be several new enemies added to Mario Maker 2. There will, of course, be the ones that the 3D World style brings with it, such as Cat Bullet Bill, Meowser, and Charvaargh. But those are just a few examples- others, such as horizontally moving Thwomps, Banzai Bill, Fire Bro, and Skipsqueak will surely be exciting new additions for Mario fans as well.
SCROLLING
Expansions to the scrolling options while creating levels is something that will allow for some very creative designs in Mario Maker 2. Players can also now customize scrolling levels to a higher degree, which includes choosing the direction of the level’s scrolling, also allowing players to create vertically scrolling levels.
STORY MODE
Super Mario Maker 2 will also include a Story Mode- a proper story mode, that is. The Story Mode will include over 100 Mario courses designed by Nintendo themselves, and will see players working to help Toad rebuild Peach’s castle by completing said courses.
MORE STORY MODE DETAILS
There’s other interesting details to learn about the story mode as well, such as optional missions, but the most interesting is what function it will serve- Mario Maker 2’s story mode acts as an extended tutorial, in that it will demonstrate unique ways that the game’s creation tools can be used to design Mario levels, in an attempt to get players’ creative juices flowing once they get to building themselves.
CO-OP BUILDING
Super Mario Maker 2 is going to introduce one particularly interesting new feature- co-op building. Which is exactly what it sounds like- the game allows more than one player to build a course together using the Switch’s local co-op functionalities, which should be an interesting new feature to have, particularly in light of how the game will handle the UI for both players together.
COMPETITIVE AND CO-OP PLAY
Co-op building isn’t the only way players will be able to have fun in Mario Maker 2 together. The game also allows players to race through courses for more competitive fun, while there’s also the option to work together in levels an reach the finish line as a team. Interestingly enough, players can also design levels specifically with co-op or competitive play in mind.
MATCHMAKING
While co-op and competitive play is definitely a great new addition, it comes with one caveat- it won’t let you play with your friends (unless you’re playing locally). When playing online, you can only match with randoms. Nintendo says this has been done to preserve the integrity of leaderboards, which is a bit… baffling. They could always have non-ranked online play, right? But it’s Nintendo- them making head-scratching decisions has kind of become a given by this point.
NEW MUSIC TRACKS
Super Mario Maker 2 is essentially a love letter to all things Mario, especially the plumber’s platforming adventures- that’s going to be reflected in the game’s music as well. Koji Kondo, longtime legendary composer of the Mario series, is returning to compose new tracks for the title, just as he did for the first Super Mario Maker as well.
FILE SIZE
Super Mario Maker 2 is, as you might have guessed, not going to be a very hefty game, in terms of its file size. It’ll only require 2.8 GB of storage, which is really good for a game that basically requires limitless replay value and endless amounts of content.