Super Mario Maker 2 Direct – Information and Reactions

With only fifteen minutes, the information in May 15th’s Direct for Super Mario Maker 2 was fast and full of neat information. Given how much the first game from 2015 benefitted from incremental patches and updates, the presentation showed a number of sizable additions befitting a new game – the biggest of all being an entirely new game theme with its own physics changes. We’ve organized the information into categories below.

Changes to Course Themes and Design:

All four art styles from the first Mario Maker – Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U – return, along with the themes from the game: ground, underground, underwater, ghost house, airship, and castle.
New themes include desert, ice, forest, and sky; when using the latter in the Super Mario World style, it uses that game’s “athletic” theme.
Water is now available for all themes, and its height and rate of movement (if any) can be adjusted. It appears to change to lava for the castle theme
- Levels can also be set to night, which changes them mechanically:
- Ground levels cause Goombas to float in the air
- Underground levels are upside down
- Ghost houses have significantly reduced visibility
- Desert levels suffer a constant sandstorm
- Ice levels are more slippery
- Sky levels have low gravity
- Water in the Forest levels is poison instead
- Some items themselves transform at night; the 1-UP Mushroom turns into a Rotten Mushroom which tracks Mario
Custom scrolling now exists as an option. Players can adjust the direction of the scroll, along with its speed at each juncture. In addition, players can make a line of blocks to stop the scrolling from moving past a certain point (and revealing something hidden)
Sub-levels now have the option of being vertically oriented.
The new tracks in the game have been composed by Koji Kondo.
There are many new sound and visual effects, at least one of which steals from a non-Mario game, The Mysterious Murasame Castle.
Players can set additional win conditions for levels based on power-ups, coins, or defeated enemies

There is also a new game theme: Super Mario 3D World. This one is treated as unique from the other four, to the point where switching to it mid-editing automatically deletes all the level’s content. It contains a number of different, entirely separate elements:

Cat Mario, functioning identically to its use in 3D World and including the ability to also climb up parts of the background like trees and certain walls
Clear Pipes, which can also include items and enemies
Crates have unique physics that allow them to float on water and lava; Mario can grab and throw them to make towers and bridges
Warp Boxes are used to go into sub-levels instead of pipes
Spike Blocks, which can be manipulated via ON / OFF Switches
! Blocks, which can make structures by repeated punching
Skipsqueaks, copying Mario’s jumps and with a Spiny variant
Koopa Troopa Cars act as a Yoshi-esque vehicle; jumping into one causes a Super Famicom logo to appear momentarily on screen
Charvaarghs, who can be positioned to move from the background
Other enemies include Pom Pom (and her shadow clones), Piranha Creepers, Ant Troopers, Peepas, Bullies, Hop-Chops, and Meowser. At least some enemies can be affected by the Super Bell and get cat variants
Other items and terrain elements include Mushroom Trampolines, Track Blocks, Blinking Blocks (called Beep Blocks in 3D World), and ! Blocks
In addition, the space containing the 3D World icon also includes a sizable blank space perfect for a second game, implying that the editor will also have a sixth style for a game (presumably Super Mario Bros. 2 or Yoshi’s Island)

New Items:

Sloped terrain that can be added to existing stepped blocks, with smoother and sharper variants
Angry Sun from Super Mario Bros. 3, which apparently now instantly kills Mario. Until players unlock the ability to freely toggle night, they can make the switch by manually adding and altering the Sun to turn into the less angry Moon, which instantly kills all enemies on screen when Mario touches it.
Snake Blocks, whose trajectory can be traced and controlled. There is also a faster blue variant
ON / OFF Switches for RED / BLUE Blocks and at least some additional objects
Seesaws, which can be placed on their own or on tracks
Swinging Claws that grab and throw any item or character they touch
Banzai Bills can be placed and appear to automatically fire once Mario gets within a certain range. An orange, homing King Bill variant exists, as with standard Bills. In the 3D World theme, they can be placed to fire from the background and destroy some terrain
The Dry Bones Shell carries a similar function to shells in the first Mario Maker, allowing Mario to float on lava and play dead as a Dry Bones body, avoiding some attacks for a time.
10, 30, and 50-Coins do exactly what is said on the tin.
Twisters suck up all non-terrain items in range and shoot them upwards
Icicles can be placed on ceilings as traps
Parachutes can be attached to enemies and items
Boom Boom, who functions identically to his role in the modern Mario games
Additional enemies include Goombrat, Fire Bro (along with a unique variant the size and shape of a Sledge Bro)
For old items, conveyor belts can now be placed diagonally and Yoshi can turn into Red Yoshi

Super Mario Maker 2 additionally has a story mode, succeeding the Nintendo built levels from the first game. It involves Mario helping rebuild Princess Peach’s castle, going through “over” a hundred pre-made courses (all based around highlighting certain items, terrain, or potential design choices) in search of coins to build sections. This also features characters like Undodog and the new Mr. Eraser.

Online features:

The game’s online functionality comes through an interface called “Course World.” It provides a greater array of tags for searching and downloading courses than the first game. Comments for levels are still limited, though; they primarily consist of cute images for generic comments
Player avatars are Miis with a variety of animations taken from Miitomo; additional Mario themed costumes and accessories are earned through not as of yet described challenges
The 100-Mario Challenge appears to have been replaced by Endless Challenge, a run in which players go through as many levels as they can without losing a life (with difficulty chosen beforehand)
Four player co-op is now available, with players choosing between Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Toadette. Matches can be both competitive and co-operative. It’s also available for wireless. Local play also allows two players to build a stage together at the same time.

In promoting the game, Nintendo has launched a promotional offer. From now until July 31, Nintendo Switch Online owners can purchase two vouchers for digital Nintendo Switch games for $99.99 (almost all of which are $60 USD on their own, collectively a $20 deal). One of the purchases can be for pre-purchasing Super Mario Maker 2. The current list of compatible games is here, though it’s not impossible the list will grow somewhat as new games are released. The vouchers themselves are void a year after purchase.

Reactions:

I have to say, this 15 minute Direct completely outdid my expectations. I was already rather excited for Super Mario Maker 2, but with just how much is being added, I think this game is going to be great. While I am incredibly excited for the Super Mario 3D World theme, seeing an empty space next to it in the “extra styles” makes me excited for what we else we could see. The multiplayer also seems really fun, and I look forward to frequently running through challenging levels with my friends! While the original Super Mario Maker was a game I mostly just found interesting, I have to say that the more I hear and see about this sequel, the more excited I become. I look forward to making tons of levels, and experimenting with all sorts of new features!

I liked this quite a bit. In some ways, I do feel that the sequel feels like more of a half step than it should so far – the online functionality is still limited, and a lack of a world editor mode feels like a huge missed opportunity – but it doubles down on the weirdness that was the hallmark of Mario Maker. It’s the details that are paramount here, the goofy changes to the levels at night or new types of enemies and systems. For all of Mario Maker‘s flaws and limitations as a strict level editor, it was an absolute triumph of style and ingenuity, a game that made the process of game development fun in a distinctly tactile way (something that differentiated it from more deep, complex, but painfully staid fan made editors). That’s clearly been not just retained but expanded, with stuff like the grabber claw showing the ways in which this odd spinoff series can be as inventive as other Mario games in its own right.