Super Mario Maker 2

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
North American boxart

Super Mario Maker 2 is a 2D/2.5D platforming/level-editing game that is the sequel to the 2015 Wii U game Super Mario Maker. The game was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2019.

As before, players can design their own 2D Super Mario courses using the Switch controls and touch screen; with a Nintendo Switch Online membership they can share their levels, download others' levels, follow other creators and comment on their levels, and play cooperatively or competitively with friends. Super Mario Maker 2 also expands on its predecessor with several new features:

  • A 2.5D level style based on Super Mario 3D World, which incorporates some gameplay aspects from the 3D platformer, including the Super Bell power-up.
  • New level themes such as desert, snow, sky, and forest, and a nighttime mode that alters many course elements.
  • An actual offline Story Mode featuring over 100 pre-installed courses made by Nintendo.
  • New co-operative and competitive multiplayer modes for level creation and play, available locally or online with up to 4 players.
  • Luigi, Toad, and Toadette are now playable in single-player and multiplayer modes.

In the Story Mode, after Mario, Toadette and a crew of Toads finish building a new version Princess Peach's castle, Undodog accidentally steps on a button that causes a Reset Rocket to erase their work, forcing them all to rebuild it. Mario must complete several courses in the form of "jobs" given by the Taskmaster that have him retrieve materials from these courses and rewards him with coins. After clearing a course, Mario keeps the coins he collected in the course and is also awarded a coin payment - these coins are then used to finish repairing sections of the castle. Along the way, Mario must also help out his fellow workers whenever they encounter trouble.

Course World also sees the addition of a new mode, World Maker - players can now compile different levels from the Coursebot into their own worlds, and then compile multiple worlds to create a Super World. Each world begins with a starting point and ends with a castle representing the final level, and is constructed on a 7×4 grid using a variety of Super Mario World-styled objects, including course icons, 1-Up Toad Houses, and Warp Pipes. Up to five levels, two Warp Pipes and three 1-Up Toad Houses can be placed in a world including the castle level, while each Super World can have up to eight worlds.

Tropes used in Super Mario Maker 2 include:


  • 2½D: The U and 3D World styles. In Story Mode, the main hub is set in and around Peach's castle in the Super Mario 3D World style, and the player can explore more parts of the castle as they progress through the mode.
  • Ability Required to Proceed: Like before, stages can be set up so that the player will have to make use of certain power-ups or items to progress. Clear conditions are a new configurable option that players can add to their levels, and the various power-up forms can be selected - players cannot touch the goal unless they are in the required form or have otherwise cleared the given condition.
  • Abnormal Ammo: As with the first game, Bill Blasters can be loaded with pretty much anything.
  • Action Bomb: Bob-ombs, as in the previous game.
  • Anachronism Stew: As with the first game, newly-added enemies and bosses are given different sprites for styles they didn't appear in, or else have their existing appearances updated to match their current design.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Several optional stages in the Story Mode give players costume parts for their Mii avatar.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: As is somewhat standard in modern 2D Mario games, if you keep dying in the same level during the Story Mode, you'll be offered a guide in the form of Luigi, who will play through the level for you.
  • Airborne Mook: Wings are an applicable trait as usual, as are Lakitu's Cloud and the Clown Cars. "Natural" examples include Lakitu, the Angry Sun, and Boos.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Builder Mario goes from a Mystery Mushroom costume to an actual power-up for the four playable characters. Mario and friends also wear the costume while working on Peach's Castle in the story mode.
    • Similarly, the Frog Suit appeared as a Mystery Mushroom costume in the previous game, and is now available as a power-up for Super Mario Bros. 3-style stages.
    • The Mario Paint icons appear as actual characters in Story Mode, with Undodog kicking off the events by accidentally wiping out a rebuilt Princess Peach's Castle with a stray Reset Rocket. Soundfrog, Mr. Eraser and others also offer sidequests that reward the player with costume parts.
  • Asteroids Monster: Big Goombas return from Super Mario Maker, and big variants of the newly-introduced Goombrat share the same behavior.
  • Automatic Level: More popular and prevalent than ever! ...just hope you don't get one in Multiplayer Mode.
  • Auto-Scrolling Level: Much like the first game, this is present as a level creation option, and the speed can additionally vary.
  • Background Boss: In the 3D World style, Bowser uses his Meowser form and is capable of leaping off-stage to reappear elsewhere, including breathing fire from the background and climbing up the foreground of the stage to swipe at players.
  • Balloon Belly: The Power Balloon returns from Super Mario World and can only be used in levels of that style. It gives whoever picks it up a puffed-up belly as usual, but now allows full control of the angle and direction they float in - it also acts more like other power-ups and lasts until you grab a different powerup or else hit an enemy or obstacle, which reverts you back to Super form.
  • Big Bad: Bowser serves this role in the Story Mode.
  • Bottomless Pits: Naturally.
  • The Bus Came Back: Several enemies and features return after several years since their last appearance, and many are also given additional sprites/models for the game styles they never made appearances in:
    • The Angry Sun finally appears in a platformer for the first time since Super Mario Bros. 3.
    • Phantos and their associated keys make their first appearance since Super Mario Bros. 2.
    • The Power Balloon form returns from Super Mario World with a new function and sprite.
    • Ninjis' last appearance in Mario platformers were the mobile Super Mario Run and the Updated Rerelease of Super Mario World. In this game, they are the stars of the Ninji Speedruns mode, where "Ninji Ghosts" represent other players in speedrun competitions of uploaded levels. Several Ninji Ghosts can also occasionally be seen in the background on the main Course World menu, and Ninji Ghosts also represent other players’ progress in a Super World.
  • Color-Coded Elements: As before, shaking certain enemies and objects lets you change their colors.
  • Combat Stilettos: Stiletto Goombas return from the previous game.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer: Mario and Luigi reprise their traditional Player 1 and 2 roles, with the blue Toad being Player 3 and the pink Toadette as Player 4. All four move and control exactly the same.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: The Angry Sun normally averts this, but it can now melt ice blocks and light Bob-ombs that it passes over.
  • Co-Op Multiplayer: Can be played locally or online with up to four players.
  • Cranium Ride: Winged Buzzy Beetles as always. The SMB2 forms granted from their respective Mushrooms also let players ride many enemies.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Inevitably occurs due to the various game styles possessing varied controls. And then you get into the newer power-ups...
  • Death Throws: Vary based on style - Boom Boom, Bowser Jr., Bowser, and the Koopalings each have different defeat animations to fit the style of stage. The Koopalings in New Super Mario Bros. U also use slightly different screams each time they're defeated.
  • Dem Bones: Dry Bones and Fish Bones are now distinct usable enemies - this allows the latter to be placed on land, where they can not only be stomped on but also fall apart the second they actually touch the ground.
  • Degraded Boss: Can be invoked with Bowser, Boswer Jr., Boom Boom, Pom Pom, and the Koopalings - limited multiples can be placed in stages.
  • Eaten Alive: Porcupuffuers in the 3D World game style mimic Boss Boss from previous games.
  • Excuse Plot: Not nearly as much as the first game, given there's an actual Story Mode now. The Endless Challenge applies, though, with Mario simply setting out on an adventure rather than rescuing Peach or anything of the sort.
  • Fake Difficulty: Sturgeon's Law applies just as much (if not more so) as the first game.
  • Flying Seafood Special: Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers return, and the 3D World style adds Porcupuffers that can leap from water on land-based level to try and eat you, Boss Bass-style.
  • Giant Mook: As with the first game, any Mook can be made into this by applying a Super Mushroom during level creation.
  • Helpful Mook: Lakitus can be set to toss power-ups or coins as in the original.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The Super Star as always.
  • Kaizo Trap: Averted as in the original - once a player touches the goal, they're home free.
  • Law of One Hundred: 100 coins grant you an extra life as standard.
  • Luck-Based Mission: As per usual with player-made levels, basically taken Up to Eleven.
  • Meaningless Lives: Generally averted as with Super Mario Maker, with some added examples and exceptions:
    • In a multiplayer versus session where at least one player has given up on a level (or two for a four-player session), the remaining players are given 5 lives to clear the stage, and restarting the stage or resetting the character to escape from a softlock uses up a life. Extra lives gained during this period don't count.
    • In Story Mode, up to three extra lives can be received per job as with Endless Challenge, but the current number of lives do not carry over between jobs.
    • Zig-Zagged in World Maker, where the amount of lives you start with depends on the creator's whims, and lives carry over between stages.
  • Mission Pack Sequel: It's Super Mario Maker with a lot more features, a Story Mode and actual player interaction.
  • Mook Maker: Like the first game, Bill Blasters and pipes can be used to generate various mooks - the color of the object determines how fast they spawn. Lakitus also retain their role as mook-tossers.
  • One-Hit Kill: Falling into a pit, touching lava, being flattened, getting eaten by a Porcupuffer...
  • Palette Swap: The four playable characters all control the same.
  • Removable Shell: Koopa Troopas in the Super Mario World and 3D World game styles.
  • Save the Princess: Averted - the challenge modes have Mario going on a miscellaneous adventure rather than rescuing Peach, and the Story Mode has Mario and friends repairing her castle while she's away. She even has a few stages of her own for Mario after the main story is completed!
  • Timed Mission: As with the previous game, the timer can be set anywhere from 10 to 500 seconds.
  • Turns Red: As usual, Wigglers literally turn red with anger when stomped and move much faster - while placing enemies during level creation, shaking them will cause them to spawn angry.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: Made possible with various power-ups and objects - you want to turn the level into a shooter suddenly? Add some Fire Koopa Clown Cars. Feeling up to a race that's slightly different from the standard fare? Construct a Power Balloon course, or build something around the Koopa Troopa Car from 3D World!
  • Video Game Settings: In addition to returning styles from the previous game, both they and the 3D World style are given new additional themes. The World Maker added in the April 22, 2020 update also has a world map corresponding to several of the settings.
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