Super Mario Maker 2 – Review

Special thanks to Nintendo UK for providing us with this review copy.

Nearly 4 years ago the world was introduced to Super Mario Maker back on the Wii U. The 2D Mario level editor attracted all sorts of players and creators alike in an experience never before seen from Nintendo: giving the players all the power. It’s no doubt this was considered one of the best titles on the Wii U. Now, Nintendo does it again with the sequel on the Nintendo Switch. With plenty of new content on a far more successful system, just how good is Super Mario Maker 2? Is this the Mario Maker experience that everyone should try, or should the Undo Dog hit that reset button on this? My name is Tris, and let’s find out in this review.

Story
The story opens up with Mario, Toadette, and several Toads marveling over a newly completed Peach Castle. A reset button is unfortunately left out, and is pressed by an excited Undodog. In order to yet again build the castle, this time better than before, Mario must earn coins by completing jobs. It’s a quirky little plot that has some well-written lines that earned some laughs. I think it’s a great way to integrate the Nintendo employee-made levels as well. It’s all pretty straightforward, but I think the only problem I have with it is that some levels seem to have exclusive features, but that could always be fixed with updates. Overall the story mode of the game is executed rather well and does a great job and introducing the player to different gameplay elements.

Gameplay
Just like the title screen, I’ll be dividing this into two sections: Make, and Play. Let’s start with Make.

It’s easy for some people to spend countless hours making courses in Mario Maker. Like the original game, players can choose between four main styles of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U. In this sequel, players can also use the brand new Super Mario 3D World style, but since it’s an “extra” style, it isn’t interchangeable with the main four. Extra styles have their own exclusive parts, and also lack some from the main styles. There’s plenty of new things here beyond the 3D World style though. We finally have slopes, more level themes such as sky and snow, new special items like the Dry Bones Shell, and enemies like Boom Boom and the Angry Sun (which looks horrifying in the New Super Mario Bros. U style). I’m not too creative with original level designs in 2D Mario, so I spent most of my time recreating other Mario levels, such as Champion’s Road from 3D World. Overall the level creator is very intuitive, however, I found it much easier to make levels when playing in handheld mode. This way, the touch screen can be utilized, and the overall interface is much easier to utilize. When using the maker in docked mode, it becomes more difficult to use. While it wasn’t much of a problem after taking some time to adjust and figure out menu navigation, I definitely think the Maker mode is best played in handheld mode. Ultimately the level editor is very interesting to use, and I think it will get better over time with updates as the original game did.
As we transition into Play mode, I want to start with addressing the gameplay of the five styles. The main four play great, exactly like their original games, and fantastically incorporate the new elements. I’m still rather fond of spinning in Super Mario World, so definitely point out fun “spin-to-win” levels to me. The new Super Mario 3D World style is very interesting, on the other hand. Nintendo took the 3D platformer and managed to make it fit in a 2D environment rather well. Many of the mechanics of 3D World are here, and I’m happy to say it translates very nicely. While it’s a bit upsetting that 3D Word is treated separately from the rest of the styles, it’s still great to have.
In terms of playing levels, there’s plenty of options. Jumping into the Endless Challenge gives players the choice of randomly chosen Easy, Normal, Expert, or Super Expert levels. I’m really not that good at 2D Mario admittedly, so I can’t say I’ve been able to clear any Super Expert levels yet. I’m personally more comfortable playing through Normal. I’ve seen and tried a large variety of player levels through Endless Challenge, and it’s been a pleasant experience. Players can also jump into the Courses menu to easily gain access to tons of levels sorted by Hot Courses, Popular Courses, New Courses, or detailed search. Additionally, players can search for specific levels by ID in the course world main menu.
Jumping into Network Play is where the main multiplayer modes come in. At the time of this review the update to play online with friends hasn’t come out, so currently, players can choose to play online co-op or versus with random players. From my experience, other players don’t seem to have the patience to play through co-op levels, especially if they involve puzzles. Therefore, the focus falls to versus. Players are quickly matched with 3 others and assigned their character. Overall, the race-to-the-finish approach to multiplayer versus is pretty fun, albeit hectic when everyone decides to mess with each other as best they can. There’s one big problem with the gameplay to multiplayer though… And that’s the internet itself. Rather often I’d be playing in a somewhat laggy match, with inputs being delayed or significant frame drops. It also hasn’t been a rare occurrence for the game to play at less than 1 frame per second, playing impossibly slow. Ultimately this seems to be more of a player issue, but I sincerely hope this is something they try to address in future updates as I lose all motivation to play multiplayer whenever this happens. It isn’t easy to simply quit out when this happens either, as even trying to pause the game gets horribly delayed.
Overall the gameplay to Super Mario Maker 2 is really solid and fun. As long as Nintendo attempts to address the online issues as well as the few soft locking glitches people have discovered over time, there shouldn’t be any issues. It’s an enjoyable experience both to make levels and play them. Where things stand at the moment though, online multiplayer may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Presentation
I want to quickly open this section with the big question of why, a year after it’s end, was Miitomo brought into the Mii profiles of this game? It’s definitely interesting to see, but it certainly confuses me. The Mii profile is pretty nice, and there’s a nice variety of outfits and costume customization options.
While it may be upsetting that the surplus of amiibo costumes from the original game didn’t make it to this sequel, I personally don’t believe it ruins the experience at all.
When it comes to the rest of the presentation of the game, I’m a big fan of how most of it is handled. The interface of maker mode is rather well organized and pretty easy to work with, especially in handheld mode. The game definitely feels as though it was designed to have Maker mode in handheld specifically, while Play mode can be best enjoyed in either docked or handheld equally. The organization of level sorting and searching is nicely executed as well, though some more tags and options certainly wouldn’t hurt. Maybe the ability to like or boo levels you’ve downloaded too. Overall, I don’t have many complaints about the presentation. It’s incredibly clean and well executed on all fronts except for online play, which hopefully can be fixed upon updates to be a more smooth experience. Once the update to play with friends online comes out, I’m sure it will be even better.

Verdict
Super Mario Maker 2 gives Mario fans the power to bring their levels to life on the Nintendo Switch. Although I personally don’t believe the game is significantly better than the original Super Mario Maker, it certainly has the potential to be. If the problems with online multiplayer are addressed, and the games gets continued updates, I think it will be better. If you’re a fan of 2D Mario games, I think it’s definitely worth giving this game a try. If you’re worried about the online like I mentioned, however, maybe wait it out a couple of months, I wouldn’t say there’s a rush to get this game.