Unless you’ve been living under a rock, everyone should know that Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker 2 comes out today. It is a sequel to the 2015 Wii U game, where you are able to craft your own Mario levels and play others’ contributions. With the Nintendo Switch being far more successful than the Wii U ever was, the power of Mario Maker will be placed in many more hands, along with a whole bunch of new things.

For those that aren’t creatively minded or need some quick inspiration, there is a story mode in the game. Peach’s castle is demolished, so Mario and the Toads get to rebuilding it through raising funds by beating courses. It’s a simple story, but it’s got goofy writing, which I guess is enough to constitute a story. It also has a bizarre anti-union slant, which is weird. From what a few preview videos have shown, levels are short and the story mode isn’t necessarily a full-blown Mario game, but it acts as a showcase for what Super Mario Maker 2 has to offer.

Super Mario Maker 2 reintroduces some old ideas and adds a lot of new things; classic enemies like the Angry Sun and Boom Boom return and slopes are here for more varied terrain. It also adds a whole bunch of new stuff, like on-off switches that can add puzzle elements to levels, equippable Dry Bones shells that lets you ride in lava, and a night mode that shifts the behavior of how levels act.

Of the many new things, Super Mario Maker 2 invokes yet another Wii U classic, Super Mario 3D World. This style reintroduces some elements from that game that can only be used in this play style, like Cat Mario, clear pipes, etc. It should be noted that this play style is under its own sub-header that says “Extra Styles,” so it’s likely that styles for other Mario games will show up in the future. Personally, I’m hoping for the grabbing and throwing style of Super Mario Bros. 2 to make a reappearance.

From a player standpoint, the most significant change is the introduction of online multiplayer. While the feature was praised when first announced, joy turned to disappointment when it turned out that online couldn’t be played with friends. However, at E3, lost amidst the formal game announcements, Nintendo announced that a proper feature to play with friends will be patched in at a later date.

Wanting to start a Megathread of tech that seems to be missing from Mario Maker 2 now that players are streaming it. Reply with any clips to help. So far we know you can’t grab items while spin jumping in the SMW theme pooFail

— GrandPOObear (@GrandPOOBear) June 26, 2019

Super Mario Maker content creators like Grand POObear and CarlSagan42 have given their last hurrahs, posting some final videos before they move on to the sequel. Grand POOBear got his hands on Super Mario Maker 2, documenting the more minute changes that’d be more meaningful to hardcore Mario fans on Twitter. Things like jumping off things sinking in lava have been removed, spin jump grabs are no longer possible and bullet bill blasters can no longer ride on shells and turn them into ride-able platforms; this ruins the conceit of some of the more well-known levels from the first game, such as the infamous Panga Express.

An unfortunate change for creators is that downloaded levels can no longer be viewed through level editor mode. This prevents level creators from learning the techniques that go into more complex levels. Of course, it must be remembered that Super Mario Maker had a lot of things added and changed over patches, so it’s possible that all this stuff could be fixed in the future. As the “Extra Styles” thing mentioned earlier implies, there’s likely more things coming to Super Mario Maker 2 in the future.

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