For the past couple of months, 2 games have consumed my life. One of those games has been Super Mario Maker 2. My only experience with the previous Super Mario Maker was the version that released on the 3DS and I didn’t get too far into that one so I wouldn’t be able to go much to the difference between the first and second one but anyway let’s begin.

The first thing I did when I got Mario Maker was dive into the Story Mode. In Story Mode, you play as Mario as he helps the toads rebuild Peaches castle. This is done by Mario completed built-in levels to earn coins, then using those coins to order the toads to rebuild a part of the castle and repeating this process until the castle is complete. Now there are side task you can complete to get gear for your Mii profile in the Course World, power ups to use when making levels and add some extra flair around the castle. This did take a bit of time as the price of castle parts would get up above 1000 coins and most of the level payouts were 100-200 coins but the pre-built levels were a good mix of difficulty and even after you complete the story there will still be plenty of levels left for you to play and more unlock after you complete the story. The story mode was a nice addition and added a great amount of offline content and maybe some ideas for levels.

Level creating in Super Mario Maker 2 is pretty good and what I have probably spent the most time doing in this game. Making levels on the Switch’s touch screen is probably the best way though I can’t confirm that since most my time with the game was in handheld mode. The interface is feels easy to navigate especially with the ability to press and hold on a item to make see all the ways to alter it right without having to go grab another item to do so and top bar keeping track of the last items you used and being able to pin the items is also nice. I haven’t used all 5 game styles but it is still super nice that you can switch between the Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. U without extra work and the addition of Super Mario 3D world offers more creative freedom to the game. Uploading levels has in my experience has been good though the only thing I have had issues is re-uploading the level if I made edits but that maybe due to my own impatience. Another nice feature is Yamaura’s Dojo. Not only will go over the basic of the Maker Mode of the game but it provides various lessons on making levels and also allows you to see the move list of all the Mario styles in the game. If making levels isn’t your thing then you probably spend most your time in Course World.

Course World is the main hub for playing user created levels. You can either enter in the level ID or select courses to find levels to play. In Courses, levels are put into three sections of Hot Courses, Popular Courses and New Courses. You can also use the Detail Search, which allows you enter game style, difficulty and tags to find certain levels. You can also follow level creators and all their levels will appear under the Star section in courses. I haven’t tried the Network play of co-op and versus or endless challenge. Endless Challenge replaced the 100 Mario Challenge and also has the different modes of difficulty of easy, normal, expert and super expert. I may try those out one day but at the time of writing this I really don’t have try them yet. I have found and play a lot of good levels and some WTF levels but I have enjoyed my time with both creating and playing.

Overall, I like Super Mario Maker 2 and have really enjoyed the making and sharing levels part of it. I think the story mode was a nice addition to the game and has provide me with a lot of ideas for levels I have created. Worth the price of admission for the time I have put into this game. Also, at the end of this post, I have put the ID’s for levels I have created for you to hopefully enjoy. Thank you for reading this post and Stay tune for more random thoughts around gaming and such and have a great morning/day/evening.

-Mike

Super Mario Maker 2 Level IDs:

Red Shell Panic: B07-K31-FHG

Dry Shell Assassin: 8FL-56P-4WG

Swinging Claw Journey: TGN-853-XYG

Claw Castle Swing: 92J-KWD-TKG

Door to Dorr Salesman: 80M-M9P-CLF

Claw Canyon Swing: VFF-C5Y-WCG