I liked Super Mario Maker a lot. I’m not one who enjoys making stuff in games, but I did have a great time during the brief stretch where I was into it. However, it fell out of my rotation pretty quickly when my interest in making levels waned and it felt like all of the user-created levels I encountered were awful. Because of this, Super Mario Maker 2 was not on my radar at all.

Then the Super Mario Maker 2 Direct happened. What I saw knocked my socks off! While I expected Nintendo to make improvements over the original, the sheer volume of improvements on display were staggering.

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An insane amount of new stuff to play with

Adding slopes to the mix was just the tip of the iceberg. Nintendo went nuts, adding so many new elements to play with, from snake blocks, to custom forced scrolling, custom win conditions, on/off switches, and more. Even with the original game’s toolset, players were able to create so much. The possibilities with this game seem limitless.

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An actual story mode

Super Mario Maker did have pre-made levels for you to try, but there wasn’t any real structure to them. This time, Mario is tasked with earning coins by beating levels in order to help rebuild the castle. Having a bit of structure and 100+ levels made by Nintendo goes a long way towards giving players something that resembles a traditional Super Mario experience on top of all the creator tools.

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Extra game styles that deviate from the norm

My biggest question about the original Super Mario Maker was, “How do we get Super Mario 2 representation in here?” We never did with the original, but Super Mario Maker 2 has paved the way. Under the “Extra Game Styles” (note the plural) menu, there’s an option for Super Mario 3D World. Because its framework is too different from the others, you can’t switch between art styles on the fly like the others. However, it shows that Nintendo is willing to support different flavours of Mario. On top of that, the menu is written as a plural, and there’s a curiously blank spot for one more style. It HAS to be Super Mario 2, right?!?!?!

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Online versus and co-op multiplayer

This is a game changer.

I’m a fan of multiplayer 2D Super Mario, even if it can get overly chaotic. Having an endless stream of multiplayer levels to enjoy is a huge plus! Going a step further, being able to play online with friends is a phenomenal addition! Even if I’m not building, I can envision myself having a lot of fun battling random players in versus mode, or taking on random levels with friends.

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Nintendo appears to have gone above and beyond with Super Mario Maker 2. With so much new content and so many more ways to play, this appears to be a game that will deliver in spades. Even though I came into this with no expectations to pick this up, the game has launched itself high on my must-play list!

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