VideoGame I like Super Mario Maker 2.
I’d say that “pretty good” is the perfect way to describe how I feel about ‘’Super Mario Maker 2’’. It’s not amazing and I really don’t know if I should’ve sunk as much time into it as I did, but it’s definitely a fun time. Maybe my opinion has lowered because it’s worn me down, but I think my 900+ hours (yes, really) of playtime will allow me to talk about it.
Let’s start with Story Mode. I guess it’s interesting enough. The dialogue and course descriptions are pretty funny, and the courses are well-designed enough. I don’t know why Toadette is a narcissistic, mad-with-power Jerkass, but I don’t even care because it’s amazing.
Onto Course Maker. Making courses is pretty fun. Seeing your grand visions come to life is actually quite satisfying. The UI works fine enough, I suppose. I just don’t know about some of the baffling restrictions they place (game style exclusives, theme exclusives, etc.), but that hasn’t even been as annoying as I thought it would be, though I’m sure other people beg to differ.
Yamamura’s Dojo is new, teaching you about course making. It’s alright, but I feel like it’s more for the little kids who don’t know what makes games fun.
Heading into Course World, well, let’s address the elephant in the room. The primary content of this game (as well as uploading one’s creations) IS locked behind having a Nintendo Switch Online membership. Now, whether or not Nintendo Switch Online sucks is a whole other debate, so just know that I don’t have any strong opinions on it.
You can play courses made by creators all over the world! Some are even good! However, I do find that most of the top rated courses feel like they focused more on being gimmicky than being fun, though they can be both.
There’s Online Play. I find the multiplayer fun, despite its infamous lag issues. But hey, in Multiplayer Versus, get to a high enough rank and you’ll mostly be playing against people with good connections! Oh, and after the 1.1.0 update, you can have online play with friends, so that’s pretty cool.
You’ve got Leaderboards for checking out top players in certain categories, official Nintendo accounts, and people you’re following. Okay.
Endless Challenge! Choose a difficulty, try to beat courses, keep your life count high, and it’s not too shabby. They did take away the 100 Mario Challenge from the previous game (this is the first time I’ve even mentioned that game, surprisingly!), so there’s no ending. I’ve no problem with that, but some other people definitely miss it.
Overall, many other things didn’t return. The biggest is probably Mystery Mushroom costumes, which I’ve heard variously attributed to copyright issues and color differentiation in multiplayer. That’s probably one of the biggest things I wish were still in. Weird Mario also didn’t come back, but he was an abomination anyway, so it’s whatever.
They also removed customizable pre-set toolbars, the 10 Mario Challenge, and a whole bunch of other stuff I don’t feel strongly about. I feel like I should mention that I never played the first game, though I did watch quite a few videos of it.
Updates! 1.1.0 added online multiplayer with friends.
2.0.0! Lots of new editions, people only really care about the two I’ll be discussing. Link is playable now, and his move set is so interesting and makes for some great courses. Ninji Speedruns are here, they are courses made by Nintendo where players must complete them as fast as possible and temporarily get some number of stars surrounding their Mii depending on how well they did.
3.0.0. They finally did it. A World Maker, where you can make your own Super World with up to 8 worlds and 40 courses, WEIRD MARIO MAKES A CAMEO, THE GAME IS NOW GOOD. Oh yeah, and it added some course parts too, I guess. The SMB 2 Mushroom lets you become SMB 2 Mario and pick up enemies. They have the Super Acorn and Power Balloon now, and Balloon Mario’s controls are now much more tolerable than in his source game.
And that is, for the most part, ‘’Super Mario Maker 2’’! I feel like this review has been more summary than opinion, so I will reiterate that this is a fun game. I have to stress, though, that this game will not blow you away, It’s more like an effectively infinite version of a ‘’New Super Mario Bros.’’ game, though both better and worse in several ways. Actually, a lot of the fun was in making courses myself; it was a feeling similar to painting along with Bob Ross, if you know what that means.
I feel like this game has flown pretty under the radar, and I think that’s because despite there being drastic differences, people see this as “just another 2D Mario game”, and I can’t fault them for that. The 2D Mario series as a whole has kinda started to fall by the cultural wayside. I mean, remember when ‘’New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe’’ was a thing and the most anyone cared to do was to start trying to put the Super Crown in weird places?
Maybe it’s just because of its competition. ‘’Super Mario Odyssey’’ and ‘’The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’’ are both games on the same console heralded as masterpieces of gaming, and at the same price to boot. Maybe this game just didn’t look too awful impressive to Nintendo Switch owners. And maybe, since I might’ve sold the game as a little underwhelming, they’re right.
Anyway, maybe I’m going off-topic. Give ‘’Super Mario Maker 2’’ a shot if you want; you’ll probably get your ~60 bucks’ worth. I give this game 8 laggy multiplayer matches out of 10.
VideoGame It ruined my evening and my S.O. blamed himself for it when he did nothing wrong.
I was never all that interested in the Mario Maker series. I only got this game because I wanted to try something my boyfriend made in it. I was promptly driven to murderous rage because of the numerous godawful design choices that ruined his levels because of stuff he had no control over. But that, I will get into detail about later. For now, let's start from the beginning.
The level creation tools are incredibly limited and clunky. There is no option to make your brush bigger, you can't connect existing pipes as warp pipes, slopes have to be implemented as objects instead of simply being able to draw them, you can only have one checkpoint per map, and two maps per level, you can't mouse over the objects to select them- you have to use the touch screen, and dragging something to make it larger has an annoying tendency to bring your finger to the edge of the screen, making it start scrolling and meaning you accidentally make the object bigger or smaller than you wanted.
The search feature, while a step up from the first game, is still garbage. Still no option to search for level or user names, and the tags are user-defined, meaning they can be quite nebulous.
The gameplay itself is littered with infuriating aspects that really have no place in a platformer. Builder Mario picks up his own boxes if you run over one empty handed, so using them to plug gaps is almost useless, and trying to do so is incredibly difficult, since you can't drop them at your feet and there's no throwing arc for precision. Also, his hammer makes him slide to a stop, leaving him vulnerable to attacks for a long time, and has a tiny attack range that makes it a pain to use in any capacity. If you die after collecting five Key Coins, you lose all of them, even if you hit a checkpoint with four. In addition, the styles have been stripped of most of the power-ups the games they're based on- leaving just one unique power-up per style, meaning no Ice Flowers, Penguin Suits, Mini Mushrooms or Super Acorns. Finally, a minor point- you cannot skip cutscenes, and the cutscenes take forever.
Final assessment: 2/10. Garbage. Not even worth $10. I don't care if Nintendo doesn't do refunds, it has no right to refuse a refund on this piece of crap!