Super Mario Maker 2
by Nerd House
Since I was a young gamer, Mario has always been an integral part of my gaming career. I was always surprised by what Nintendo did with the Mario brothers with each game. Honestly, Mario probably has the most extensive resume of any video game character! He’s done it all — plumber, doctor, hero, golfer, racer, tennis player, and many more. His mission was always the same, but how he got to his objective was always different. Many seemingly insurmountable obstacles always lay before him, and he always found a way to conquer them.
With each new entry to the Mario series came new characters, new mechanics, new worlds, new enemies, new power-ups, and more. It seemed like Nintendo was a wellspring of new content that would never dry up! For many years people wanted to create their own Mario levels, and finally, in 2015, we received Super Mario Maker on the Wii U. This gave players the opportunity to flex their creative muscles and create their own Mario courses for hours on end. The Mario Maker community exploded with stages, some tailored for the more casual audience, and others were more intricately crafted for the kaizo/hardcore audience. Either way, we had THOUSANDS of new Mario levels to check out! The tools available were astonishing, and the amount of creative freedom available was simply brilliant. I’m not much of a creator/builder myself, but I spent dozens of hours checking out other people’s creations. The amount of detail and intricacies in their stages was uttering mindblowing and really proved that giving players the Mario toolbox was the right move.
Fast forward to June 2019. Super Mario Maker 2 hit the Nintendo Switch, and added a slew of new features to the game — further expanding the possibilities for course creation. This time I actually tried my hand at course creation and have so far uploaded 3 different courses. I know that’s a very tiny amount for how long the game has been out at this point….but I am not a creative person. However, ss I made each new course, I actually felt myself become a better creator. Each stage I made was a slight improvement from the last, and that’s what creation is all about. I even made a themed stage revolving around the moles from Super Mario World that I thought was pretty great!
While I haven’t made any new stages in a while, I am still checking out other people’s creations and every new course I try out leaves me in absolute awe with what Nintendo gave us the capability to do. All kinds of things are possible with the Mario Maker toolkit. Why they haven’t pushed a Metroid or Zelda Maker title yet is a mystery, as the talent showcased by the Mario Maker community has proven that players have what it takes to create some truly spectacular stages.
Wahoo! You are a Super Reader! But the adventure doesn’t stop here… There’s more of this project in another castle! This article is just one level in an entire Super Mario Multiverse, a galactic collaboration between writers around the world sharing a bit of our hearts and memories about our favorite Mario games. Visit the Center of the Multiverse to see more:
