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Super Mario Maker 2 – An endless ‘?’ block of fun
We managed to get hands on with a pre-release build of Super Mario Maker 2 for Nintendo Switch. And it's looking well worth the coins already...
Super Mario Maker 2 feels wonderful in my hands even when it shouldn't. I'm playing multiplayer, and I'm on 'the bad controller'. Anybody who's had to clip off and use the right Joy-Con on the Nintendo Switch knows where I'm coming from. That's the one that has the analogue stick sitting smack bang in the centre. My thumb is stretched out further than a hitch-hiker trying to get to the other side of the country, and this game still feels like magic.
Mercifully, my demo started off with story mode. I didn't get to see the usual exposition scenes in the intro, though, as they were embargoed like state secrets. If I was a gambling man, I'd put my money on somebody or something being taken away from somebody by somebody with a penchant for wearing spiky turtlenecks. A castle perhaps. I say this because my chief concern is rebuilding a conspicuously absent spot where one should be.
The latter lets me select which parts of the castle to build with the moolah I earn from buttstomping like a champion...
In order to get construction under way I have to speak with Toad the taskmaster and Toadette the chief. The former has a bulletin board of jobs to do (read: levels to play and beat) and the latter lets me select which parts of the castle to build with the moolah I earn from buttstomping like a champion. I can't help but get visions of a Tom Nook from Animal Crossing mortgage scenario – this is most surely going to become Mushroom Kingdom Millennial Mortgage: The Videogame.
Feels like this series should have been available all the way back on NES
© Nintendo
Interestingly, however, just clicking on “build the East wing” doesn't make it manifest immediately, I'm given a two hammer icon indicator that tells me I'll have to smash through two levels before the work will be done in my absence. Pro tip: building multiple installations at the same time will let you double up on your level completions. You can tick renovations off all the quicker.
To begin with and as you'd expect, the levels are as easy as pie. In the contemporary visual style of Super Mario Bros. U, I eliminate goombas, avoid pitfalls and stylishly slide down flagpoles. Victory earns me stars for building stuff, but I'm told that while I can replay the finished level ad nauseam I can't grind it for more stars. Coins, however, can be harvested through reattempts.
I also notice that these early story missions are highlighting some new concepts that have been brought to the editor as a whole. Installing your own slopes, for example, is an old wrinkle made new again, and I happily grass burn Mario's dungarees when I hold down to slide through foes. I'm also quickly introduced to the potentially infuriating concept of on/off blocks.
Old-school mode
© Nintendo
For example, precious items slide beneath the platform I'm on and the only way to make it collectable is to quickly bash my head on a switch to make platforms appear and deny the abyss its green mushroom meal. Later this mechanic expands to quickly making platforms manifest on top of jumping enemies to effectively spawn kill them on the blocks. Satisfying stuff, but it requires expert timing that may thwart older gamers (heretofore known as “dry bones”).
I also notice that the levels in story mode are conspicuously untimed. My instinct to speed-run through for bonuses – and because Super Mario Bros. 3 always conditioned me to chase that twinkle toes sound effect that comes with a full speed sprint. In this game, however, story mode is a stop and smell the Piranha Plants affair. The structured parts of SMM2 lean heavily towards collect-a-thon.
In general the levels on offer feel a mite shorter than what you'd see in a mainstream Mario title, but the level of creativity in the level designs is much more devious...
And so that's how it goes for a while. SMM2 effortlessly sucks me into the addictive loop that is platforming to unlock extensions on my medieval digs. Three or four news levels appear after every successful clear and the cycle keeps going. In general the levels on offer feel a mite shorter than what you'd see in a mainstream Mario title, but the level of creativity in the level designs is much more devious.
Pimp my castle
© Nintendo
I copped a few restarts because I didn't cotton on quick enough to a very specific solution to an impassable problem. For example, scoring an invincibility star and using it to plough through a tight tunnel of enemies. Delaying my assault on them even for a second would make said power-up run out prematurely. Sometimes that just happens. It's nothing to be ashamed of...
Other times I got wrong-footed because I couldn't change "Mario mechanics” in my brain. SMM2 will schizophrenically hand you levels in the theme of either Super Mario Bros. (1984), Super Mario World (1990), New Super Mario Bros. U (2012) and Super Mario 3D World (2013). I find myself momentarily forgetting I have that lateral leap button in 3D world. How to use a cape properly in Super Mario World stumps me once or twice, too. I even get wrecked because I mistakenly think I can still scoop up a turtle shell or wall jump in the OG flavoured levels.
Far and away the biggest SMM2 features worth shouting from the rooftops (or an end level flagpole) are the four-player cooperative and competitive multiplayer options. The original title was a staunchly solo experience, though it had a tremendous sense of community due to the ability to share your custom-built courses with other enthusiasts (read: sadists). This time around you can team up or battle with friends, both locally and over the internet. Duking it out with four Joy-Cons controlling Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Toadette is utter chaos and I doubt the foulplay between frenemies will ever get old. Even my two-player hands-on was frenetic as it was.
Mario Kart invades Super Mario
© Nintendo
That being said, I found myself having a riot while playing SMM2 in a way that, sadly, has gone out of vogue. At one point we played swap the controller, or “play until you die or win” level attempts with a room of people. Diving into Course World (the mecca of player-made levels) my crew and I took on the most devilish designs built and shared by Nintendo's worldwide offices. Let me tell you, they've got some machiavellian level builders in their employ.
I was lured into some by simple level descriptions like “kill one Goomba” only to be tormented by a secret pipe room full of moving pieces and lethal enemies that had been “embiggened with mushrooms” and stacked higher than my max leap. The controller got passed back and forth a ton on that one, my friends. The player who nailed it was king for a day. It was like being teleported back to 1984 where my siblings and I would take turns to bash our heads against a section of a level in World 8. The good stuff.
When you couple that raw form of nostalgia with an incredibly fun to use and comprehensive level editor, this game has the (Super Mario) makings of greatness in it. In an era where tight-fisted publishers are holding back content for DLC and squeezing us with micro-transactions, SMM2 feels like an overwhelmingly generous proposition. It's the gift that'll keep on giving to Switch owners. A never-ending question mark block that spits out fun as you happily bash your head against it again and again.
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