Category: Games

One of the more divisive aspects of the original Super Mario Maker is that it gated its tools behind a waiting period, forcing players to gradually unlock them over the course of several days. While the reasoning behind this decision was to ease players into the game’s wealth of customization options, it put up a hurdle in front of those hoping to use specific enemies or items in their levels. Fortunately, Super Mario Maker 2 does away with this restriction.

GameSpot recently went hands-on with Super Mario Maker 2 at a demo event, where we asked a Nintendo representative if the game features a similar waiting period before players could access the entire tool palette. The Nintendo rep confirmed that “almost all” of the game’s tools will be available from the start, so you’ll be able to jump in and tinker around with most of Super Mario Maker 2’s new toys right from the outset.

One option that you will need to unlock is the nighttime theme. Super Mario Maker 2 allows you to change each type of level into a nighttime version, which will not only give it a starry backdrop, but also change some of the course’s properties; nighttime snow stages, for example, are more slippery than their daytime counterparts, while nighttime sky levels have lower gravity. Fortunately, unlocking the theme is very simple; all you need to do is place Super Mario 3‘s angry sun enemy in the level and change it into a moon. Once you’ve unlocked the nighttime theme, you’ll no longer need to place the moon in a level to access it.

Super Mario Maker 2 makes a few other welcome quality-of-life improvements. In the original game, you needed to shake certain enemies or combine items in order to change their form; for instance, shaking a green Koopa Troopa would transform it into a red one, while combining it with a Super Mushroom would supersize it. This time, however, you’ll be able to choose these different variants simply by tapping on the object and selecting them from the menu. The game also automatically populates the top toolbar with the items you most frequently use, and you have the option to pin certain tools there for easy access.

Super Mario Maker 2 launches for Nintendo Switch on June 28. The game features a load of new elements, including a story mode and online multiplayer. To play and share levels online, however, you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but Nintendo is bundling an individual 12-month membership for the service along with a copy of the game for $70–a $10 savings off the typical price of a 12-month subscription. If you already subscribe to the service and spring for this bundle, the 12 months will be stacked on top of your current subscription. You can learn more in our Super Mario Maker 2 pre-order guide.

Much of the allure of the original Super Mario Maker stemmed from the seemingly endless possibilities it afforded, even if that didn’t turn out to be quite true. Robust as that game’s course editor may have been, it didn’t allow players to create certain basic Mario elements, such as sloped terrain, and some of the series’ most iconic enemies were notably missing from its toolbox. Even so, the title proved to be a critical and commercial success, and for its Switch follow-up, Super Mario Maker 2, Nintendo has taken the foundation laid down by the original and embellished it in nearly every conceivable way.

We recently had a chance to attend a Super Mario Maker 2 demo event, where we were able to go hands-on with the game and sample some of the new features Nintendo has introduced. Like its predecessor, the centerpiece of Super Mario Maker 2 is the course editor, which features a wealth of tools with which to build your own Mario levels. Along with the full suite of course parts from the original game, Super Mario Maker 2 offers a variety of new customization options, from new course themes and stage hazards to a greater array of enemies and items. All of the features so conspicuously missing from the first title are present and accounted for here, along with a plethora of other tools you may not have even thought of but which now seem indispensable, such as the ability to customize the trajectory of autoscrolling levels.

One of the most profound new features in Super Mario Maker 2 is the option to impose clear conditions–goals that players must meet before they can complete the level. These can run the gamut from collecting a certain number of coins to more specific objectives, such as defeating a particular enemy or reaching the flagpole without taking damage. The game offers a staggering number of clear conditions to choose from, opening up a whole new dimension of design possibilities; you can, for instance, build a course that must be cleared without jumping, completely upending the traditional rules of the series.

As in the original Super Mario Maker, you can design your stages in the style of several different Mario games: the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. U, and the newly added Super Mario 3D World. The latter boasts its own unique assortment of enemies and tools that makes it distinct from the other game styles, and switching to it from one of the other options while in the course editor will cause the entire level to reset. Between all of the different themes, items, and clear conditions, there’s a mind-reeling array of customization options at your disposal in Super Mario Maker 2, but the process of building stages is remarkably intuitive, thanks to the ease with which you can lay down course parts and immediately test out your creation.

As with the first game, you can edit your stages using either a controller or the Switch’s touch screen. However, whereas the Wii U GamePad’s built-in display allowed you to use the latter method whether you played on the television or in Off-TV mode, you can only use the Switch’s touch screen when playing the console undocked. If you play the game on a television, you’ll have no choice but to build levels using Joy-Cons or a Switch Pro controller, neither of which feels well-suited. Placing terrain and objects with the control stick is much more cumbersome than doing so by tapping on the touch screen, so if you’re interested in Super Mario Maker 2, you’ll want to pick up a Switch-compatible stylus to have the best experience.

Fortunately, Nintendo has implemented a handful of quality-of-life improvements to the course editor that somewhat help mitigate the control issues. This time around, you no longer need to shake enemies or combine them with certain items in order to change their forms; you can simply tap on them and select their different permutations from the menu. As fun as it was to manually discover all of the possible item and enemy combinations in the first game, this change helps streamline the building process. Moreover, tools are now grouped into categories that you navigate using radial menus. The top toolbar is also automatically populated with the tools you most frequently use, and you can pin specific parts to the bar for easy access.

Beyond all of the new toys in the course editor, another significant addition in Super Mario Maker 2 is Story mode, which boasts more than 100 pre-made levels fashioned by Nintendo’s designers. Unlike a traditional Mario platformer, Story mode doesn’t whisk you through eight themed worlds on a quest to rescue Princess Peach; rather, it tasks you with rebuilding the princess’s castle, which involves amassing coins by taking on “jobs” from bulletin boards and other characters. Each of these jobs comes in the form of a different level, and completing them rewards you with the coinage necessary to fund the reconstruction process. It’s not a proper Mario adventure, but it does offer a more structured way to experience the game’s pre-made levels than the original Mario Maker did, and the courses we’ve sampled are as clever as you’d expect from Nintendo.

Rounding out the new features is multiplayer. Whereas the original Super Mario Maker was a decidedly solitary experience (unless you passed the controller around to others gathered in the same room), Super Mario Maker 2 gives you the option not only to build courses with a nearby player, but to play any of the game’s stages in Co-Op or Versus modes, either locally or online. As in New Super Mario Bros. U, up to four players can tackle a course simultaneously, which quickly devolves into a chaotic fight for survival as each person vies to avoid stage hazards and accidentally–or intentionally–knocks each other into pits and enemies. That you can play any stage in multiplayer adds yet another dimension to the experience, making Super Mario Maker 2 as much a party game as it is a level editor.

How well the multiplayer experience holds up online remains to be seen, but between all of the new features and tools Nintendo has introduced, Super Mario Maker 2 certainly has the potential to be, if not quite endless, then certainly one of the most compelling time sinks in the Switch’s library. The game launches on June 28, and as with other online-enabled titles for the console, you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to take advantage of its online features. However, Nintendo is offering a bundle that includes a 12-month membership with a copy of the game for $70, saving you $10 over the regular cost of an individual 12-month subscription. You can read more details about the bundle in our Super Mario Maker 2 pre-order guide.

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Super Mario Maker 2 feels like it could last forever. It’s fully loaded with new game modes and tools to play with on Nintendo Switch. Tony and Kevin talk about how it seems like a game you could basically play forever, thanks to its combination of custom levels, story mode, and online multiplayer–not to mention the scores of new items, enemies, and themes for building custom courses.

The free-to-play MMO DC Universe Online is coming to Nintendo Switch. The game is launching this summer, it was announced on the game’s website recently.

The Switch version will have its own server dedicated to Nintendo Switch. There is no cross-play with the game’s existing PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions, but a FAQ on the game’s website states that the studio “look[s] forward to exploring cross-play options in the future.”

The PC and PS4 editions of DC Universe Online support cross-play.

There are also no account transfers, so players who already have accounts on a different platform will have to start over with a new character if they want to play on Switch. You connect to DC Universe Online through your Nintendo Account.

DC Universe Online launched back in 2011 for PC and PS3, before coming to PS4 in 2013 and Xbox One in 2016. The PS3 edition has been discontinued.

In the game you create a hero or villain and you fight alongside iconic characters from the DC Universe such as Batman, The Joker, Wonder Woman, and Superman.