The maker controls feel a bit less fun and a bit more fiddly this time around, and the loss of the dedicated Wii U touch screen/stylus predictably means either wrestling with using your controller as to move a mouse pointer (never loads of fun) or trying to work in handheld mode on a slightly over-crowded screen. Landscape gardening, Super Mario Maker 2 style. It’s incredibly gratifying to receive a notification that someone has played and enjoyed your levels, especially given that the tools on offer this time around allow you to express even more individuality in terms of level design. Super Mario Maker 2 offers statistics around how many of the players who took on your level managed to finish it, and you can even see where they failed so you can make things more forgiving (or punishing) in future creations. Once again, levels you create can be released into the wild, and players can either like, dislike and comment on your creations (although I don’t believe a creator can see the dislikes, this is presumably just to prevent poor levels from being put into rotation). It’s really easy to build a level which closely resembles those seen in classic titles, but it’s simultaneously entirely possible to create terrifying gauntlets, Rube Goldberg machines or even use note blocks to create a musical box-like recreation of the latest Ariana Grande single. As before, levels are constructed on a grid, and a wide variety of blocks, enemies, pipes and obstacles can be placed wherever you want them (within reason). Most of the tools from the original title return here with a number of additions.
Given the level of success, almost in spite of the underperforming console on which it appeared, a sequel was inevitable, and Super Mario Maker 2 was released in June 2019 to almost unanimous praise. It offered a robust toolset which allowed for players to experiment to their hearts’ desires, and the Wii U’s touch screen and stylus meant enjoyable levels could be created in a matter of minutes. The original Super Mario Maker, which released on Wii U back in 2015, was a bolt from the blue, a rare example of Nintendo allowing their fan-base to tinker with the very building blocks of the Mushroom Kingdom to create their own Mario levels.