Super Mario Maker 2
Super Mario Maker 2
» System: Switch » Buy it from: Retail, online » Buy it for: £49.99
It was inevitable that we’d see a sequel to Super Mario Maker, as it was one of the highlights of the often barren Wii U release schedule – and fittingly, this brand-new version incorporates the gameplay of another one of the machine’s standout games. The biggest new addition to the game is a Super Mario 3D World theme, giving players the option for power-ups like Cat Mario and level features like glass pipes. There are plenty of new tools for creators, too, from seesaws and swinging claws to surprisingly basic things like slopes, allowing players to create stages with the features of Nintendo’s own.
Without experience of designing stages, it can be difficult to know how to use these features, so Nintendo has helpfully provided over 100 of its own stages in a neat little story mode, many of which demonstrate the new inclusions in action. These are as well designed as you’d expect from any Mario game, and they ensure that you’ll have a good time with the game even if you never create a
stage. There’s no overarching theme though, so it’s best if you think of it as an expansion pack for past 2D Mario games.
Of course, games like this live and die on their community content, and the fact that this is a sequel gives this an enormous head start – players have already migrated from the original game, and brought their best ideas along with them. It’s still harder than we’d like to sort the wheat from the chaff, and few players can design a standard Mario stage as well as Nintendo. But there’s plenty of fun to be had in the stages that would never fly in an official game – near-impossible super expert courses, tricky little confined space puzzles, bizarre storytelling exercises and the popular ‘Auto-mario’ exhibitions. Combined with the more conventional Nintendo-designed stages and the ability to make your own if you’re still unsatisfied, Super Mario Maker 2 presents itself as a great package for any fan of 2D platform games.