Meanwhile, the left side of the screen harbors other variables such as the time limit, style, and theme.Īfter creating a level, it’s a quick process to upload it to the online servers. As you drag and drop pieces into your level, the most recently used elements can be easily selected from the top, and you can even pin elements. A taskbar at the top of the screen displays commonly used elements for the style and theme.
I still prefer to use the Switch’s touchscreen with a stylus but designing with a controller lets you create on your TV screen, which in my case, is much larger than the Switch’s screen.Įlements are separated into categories and placed on easy-to-navigate wheels.
The first major question I had about Super Mario Maker 2 going in was: How exactly is designing with a controller going to work? Well, Nintendo worked its magic because creating levels with a controller - Joy-Con or Pro controller - works almost as well as using the touchscreen. Unsurprisingly, the level design suite is intuitive, feature-rich, and includes a variety of new bells and whistles to work with. If you build it…īut how does Super Mario Maker 2 fare as a game design tool? After all, that’s the point of the experience: The ability to create and play your own Super Mario levels. Story Mode may not have an overworld like other Mario games, but it makes up for it with levels that are thoroughly impressive, challenging, and most importantly, incredibly fun. There are still levels that feel as if they could be in a mainline Mario game, but most feature the kind of off-kilter chaos that is distinct to the Super Mario Maker games.
While these levels largely removed the platforming element Super Mario games are known for, it still felt authentic to the series. If you’re successful, then you get a key and progress to the next room. These task you with guiding enemies through a room using On/Off switches. Other novel levels gave me some design ideas that I would never have thought of otherwise, particularly when it came to levels solely focused on puzzle-solving. This initially seemed nearly impossible to achieve, but after some clever manipulation of platforms and enemies, I was able to do it.Īnother level used the Koopa Clown Car, turning Super Mario Maker 2 into an action game as I spewed fireballs at the barrage of enemies and destructible obstacles in my way. In one early level, Nintendo set a clear condition - objectives that must be completed before reaching the goal - that bans Mario from leaving the ground. These jobs vary in difficulty - marked one to four stars - and each one feels positively unique. Over the course of 100-plus levels, Story Mode shines and surprises. What’s more astonishing, however, is how risky it feels. Rather than being confined to traditional 2D Mario progression with worlds and themes, Story Mode jumps around across all five game styles. Over the course of 100-plus jobs, Story Mode both shines and surprises. He has to earn coins to rebuild the entire castle, and he’ll do it by completing jobs (another word for levels) handed out by Toad. Mario plays the hero once again, and he’ll have to do more than just fix the plumbing. Story Mode kicks off after Undo Dog gets a little too rambunctious and presses the reset button, completely obliterating Princess Peach’s castle. Well, at least until Nintendo makes a third entry to the series. The robust Story Mode is worth the price of admission alone, and the massive and constantly growing library of levels created by players around the world could keep you busy forever. Yes, the sequel to the Wii U hit improves the level creation suite in just about every way, but you don’t need to be interested in game design at all to have a rockin’ time with Super Mario Maker 2. For a game ostensibly centered around creation, Super Mario Maker 2’s appeal goes much further than the limits of your own imagination. That’s Super Mario Maker 2 in a nutshell.