Eliwood8 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 After the success of the first game on the Wii U it makes sense that Nintendo would put out a sequel to their Mario level creator, but the breadth and depth of new content in Super Mario Maker 2 is definitely a pleasant surprise. New items and themes, a longer Story Mode, multiplayer features—Nintendo pulled out all of the stops to ensure Super Mario Maker 2 would feel like a fresh new experience, and based on the kinds of levels already created by the community, it's safe to say they succeeded. The original Wii U game included a number of levels created by Nintendo that served as a decent but small selection of offline content, but SMM2 ups the ante a bit with a more in-depth story mode. Mario is helping Toadette and her team of construction Toads rebuild Peach's castle, and to raise funds for the project you have to complete a variety of courses. The story itself may not be all that exciting but Story Mode serves as a great introduction to the world of Super Mario Maker. The courses here are each themed around a central concept, such as the new 3D World theme that brings with it clear pipes, the Cat Suit, and other features that are completely unique from the other Mario game themes. If you're not familiar with 3D World, Story Mode provides a perfect way to both learn how to play in this theme and spark ideas for level design concepts. With so many possibilities in SMM2 it can be overwhelming to know where to start, so having a solid source of inspiration like Story Mode is a great addition to Mario Maker. Just like the first game the real heart of SMM2 is in user-generated content, whether you're designing levels yourself or hopping online to take on whatever insane challenges that players the world over have cooked up. The first game had the benefit of the Wii U's Gamepad as a perfect control system for dropping blocks into a level, and although neither a normal controller nor the Switch's touch screen is as perfectly suited to course creation as the Gamepad, they both still get the job done pretty well. With a bit of practice the controller is perfectly manageable, even if it's not as fast as a touch screen, and using the Switch's touch screen undocked sacrifices precision for speed. Ultimately neither is quite ideal but their quirks end up being minor issues when you're focused on creating levels. SMM2 also does away with the tedious unlocking process of the original Wii U game, so players can simply dive in and immediately start making insane challenges out of the wealth of options available. I won't bother touching upon each and every new item available in this game, but suffice it to say the possibilities are even more varied than the first game, including some truly inventive twists like nighttime levels. The game does little hand-holding when creating courses unless you specifically seek out the game's helpful tutorials (or take inspiration from Story Mode) so veterans of the original game should be happy to jump right into the action and simply play in this digital toy box. For many players the most important aspect of SMM2 isn't creating levels but playing other players' creations online. Players can once again enjoy a seemingly never ending stream of courses created by other players the world over, though granted there is quite a range in terms of quality. Still, the chance to see something entirely new every time you load up the game is absolutely wonderful, and although Nintendo's online features are still a bit archaic and stilted (for some reason you can't just see your friend list within SMM2, you'll have to exchange player ID or course ID codes outside of the game) it's still delightfully addictive to see what new courses you can find every day. One of the biggest additions to SMM2 is multiplayer, both locally and online—although to play multiplayer on the same screen you have to download a level (or create it yourself) to enter multiplayer mode. Co-operative multiplayer is as chaotic and goofy as you'd imagine, especially because most courses aren't designed with multiplayer in mind. It's a bit of a shame that there aren't co-op-specific levels available (or a way to make them easily searchable, like a unique tag) because the co-op level seen at the E3 Invitational was brilliantly inventive and specifically designed for two players, but perhaps we'll see a future update that caters to co-op. SMM2 also includes competitive multiplayer levels, and even though there is a unique versus tag it's still hard to find solid multiplayer levels just because we're still in the early days of the game's release. Regardless, competing with three other players to reach the goal first makes an already wacky game even more insane, in a fun and ridiculous way. The only problem is you may be faced with some truly atrocious lag depending on each player's internet connection, and trying to hit precise jumps with a stuttering screen is horrendous. Hopefully this can also be rectified in a future update because right now multiplayer versus is not at its full potential. With five different game themes as well as a wide variety of backgrounds there's quite a spectrum of visual and audio design on display in SMM2, and all of it is just delightful. Whether it's the nostalgic rush of seeing familiar sprite designs from Super Mario World or the surprise of seeing items/enemies rendered into anachronistic game themes, the presentation of SMM2 is a fun reminder of just how much personality and charm Mario's graphics and music have always had. Super Mario Maker 2 adds even more creative possibilities than the first game, and just a week after launch there are already plenty of brilliantly inventive levels available online. Story Mode, a significant expansion over the original game's offline game mode, is a perfect tutorial for not just playing Super Mario levels but creating them as well, and a great starting point for getting acclimated to the new features available. Multiplayer modes, though not as smooth as they ideally ought to be in terms of online connectivity or accessibility, flesh out the game's replay value even more and provide an entirely new way to consider level design. Even if you don't bother spending much time in creation mode, Super Mario Maker 2 is a must-have for Mario fans. Rating: 9 out of 10 ? Blocks Link, the Hero of Dreams, alienboyva, Ithrak Utopia and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment
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