Feature: Things we'd like to see in Super Mario Maker 2 on the switch

The original Wii U game was released in September 2015 and absolutely set the basics, providing an intuitive interface with incredible depth combined with the charm of Nintendo's trademark. Players of all abilities were able to create their own levels of Mario and change at will between four "palettes" of games, covering the illustrious career in 2D of the plumber, from the original Super Mario Bros. for New Super Mario Bros. U.

Although it was an absolute treat for Wii U owners (and then for 3DS players), there were some issues that players encountered, and wish lists soon began to appear full of potential features to add to the game . Nintendo has implemented some of them – checkpoint flags, for example – but anyone expecting new "palettes" or clues to slide down was disappointed.

Advancing to 2019, it seems that many of the players' prayers have been answered. The first few seconds of the release of Mario Maker 2 highlighted the most requested feature of all: frickin & # 39; slopes. He went into much more detail, including a Super Mario 3D World "Skin" plus associated elements, desert, snow and jungle levels, Angry Sun's face … the list goes on.

Of course we Nintendo gamers are a picky group, and seeing all those new additions just made our imagination even more exciting. So let's feed the oven a bit and talk about what we most expect to see revealed in the next game; things that will make you look like royal sequel and not something that could have been DLC or included in the "Deluxe" port of Wii U that many people expected.

We split our list into three sections: "probable," "possible," and "not-on-a-month-on-Sundays." This last section presents some really strange ideas, but let's dream!

Forward!

Likely

Frog and Toadette as playable characters

Thanks to the promotional image above, it is a very safe bet that we can play as Toad and Toadette. Although we have not yet seen Luigi in the game, his prominent placement in promotional art makes him and his guess also jump. It will be very interesting to see if its different characteristics affect the ability of each character to complete a level. Maybe there are sets of levels that can only be completed using Luigi and his special jump, for example. While we confess that we are not bigger fans of frogs out of a Mario Karting or Treasure Tracking context, variety is never a bad thing. Perhaps Toadette's special abilities New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe will also be in evidence here.

Multiplayer

The focus of the switch in the local multiplayer mode means that it would fit nicely and open up all sorts of potential for cooperative or competitive gaming. Imagine a simple level with switches that you should hit to let your partner go through, or alternatively, obstruct your progress. Whether this will extend to four players is another matter, but if the original game taught us anything, it's that people can build some amazing contraptions from the tools they're given. The thought of the four-player levels showing the kind of ingenuity we've seen on user-created levels since the last game is tempting.

Additional Powerups

The Mario series has always been filled with incredible power-ups, but can often be quite difficult to find. Think back to Super Mario Bros. 3 – Frog Suit and Hammer Suit were found quite rare, and most of the time we came across a goomba and missed it the moment we found it, so it would be great to have access to them in Mario Maker. Later game items would also be great; the Tiny Mushroom would fit into an intricate labyrinth, though it probably would need a series of miniaturized elements to accompany it, and the Giant Mushroom could cause a lot of chaos. Double Cherries from Super Mario 3D World would be a riot, and we'd like to see, say, Bumblebee Suit from Galaxy games. Who knows? If Toadette appears in the game, maybe the Super Crown is also among the new power-ups.

Moving quickly, let's take a look at the things we think possible, although less certain than the above …

Possible

New skins / styles / palettes / themes / whatever you want to call them

Dreaming about SMB2 …

The four skins of the game in the first Mario Maker gave an excellent overview of the plumber's career, but almost immediately we began to imagine other styles. Super Mario Bros. 2 (or Super Mario Bros. USA as it is known in Japan) is the obvious missing link for players in the west, and although we appreciate that it was a mechanically different game, these mechanics are not strictly necessary if we only wanted the "skin." Of course, implementing vegetable digging and throwing Doki Doki Panic would be amazing, but we would have an SMB2 palette if that was the only option.

Elsewhere, how about a Game Boy theme Super Mario Land or Super Mario Land 2: 6 Gold Coins? The latter would probably be easier to implement, and we are not sure if really wants an accurate reproduction of the "interesting" physics of Super Mario Land. For now, it was an incredible approach to the original NES game in the diminutive Game Boy, but the sequel did a much better job of capturing the look and feel of the series on the handheld. We have the beautiful Plane Mario outfit in the original game, but a full palette would be great.

Finally, a Super Mario 64 skin would certainly be a winner. Yes, it is a 3D game, but Super Mario 3D World is already here! The three-dimensional 3D polygonal style of the mid 90's is back in style and would be a wonderful nostalgic trip to jump over small angular goombas and watch them disappear with a wisp of smoke, perhaps while the Bob-omb Battlefield music plays in the background .

Gravity Switches / Zones

We saw gravity switches and zones in Mario's previous games, and we thought they would fit nicely into Mario Maker. Zones can be "painted" in the background and there is every kind of potential in only the right angle to negotiate a demonic gravity well, push a button and open a door or something.

Worlds and maps

Oh, that's the biggie. After clues, that's what people were clamoring for in the original game – the ability to form four levels together and create an appropriate "world." Without this, levels are individual curiosities, but the inclusion of this would mean that people could actually do – and to share – your own Mario games. Adding a map of the world would be the icing on the cake; add multiple routes, secret exits, Toad Houses encounters, Hammer Bros. and these card games would be a dream come true. Possibly all This is too much to expect, but it would be wonderful.

Text Boxes

If we can unite the levels to form "Worlds," it would be nice to add a micro-narrative to our creations. The free-form text opens a Pandora's box of unpleasant possibilities, so we doubt that this will happen – but why not Dark soulsStyle set of words and phrases that can be connected and assigned to NPCs or "?" Blocks?

Importing Wii U Levels

After the countless hours we invested in the original game, it would be great to save our creations and import them into the new game. While some people may still have their Wii U readily available, many more will probably have packed the console. Technically, connecting to a former Nintendo Network account should be fairly easy and, although the mechanism might have changed substantially, it would certainly not be impossible to convert those old files to run in the new game, even if it was necessary to recompile the old ones. stages to authenticate them.

Without knowing more technical details behind the scenes, it's hard to know, but Wii U players would be very grateful to be able to access their previous masterpieces on the Switch.

Music Creation Tools

Finally, expanded tools for creating music would be something special. The original game had limited functionality, allowing you to assign tones to note boxes at the level that led to some impressive automatic musical creations. We would see this taking a step further and being able to create our own themes in a Mario Paintstyle editor. Of course, we're not suggesting that we could create something close the level of Nintendo's composition wizards – we're not Koji Kondo, for sure – but we've practiced with our Cross between animals theme of the city and we are ready for a wider palette. Who could resist a crossover of Mario X Daft Punk?

So this is the end of the credible ideas. Now it's time to go to the bottom of the pit and plunge into pure speculative madness. There is practically no chance of seeing any of this, but we can dream.

The Completely Outlandish

Let's start this last little section with some "skin" or palette ideas. Yoshi Island still stands out as one of the most beautiful platforms of Nintendo; we love the look of it, and would be a wonderful addition to the line-up. Of course, this would probably mean we'd need the egg mechanics and whining Baby Mario too; maybe too much of a price to pay, but it would be beautiful.

The last style of our list is a Paper Mario palette. Even more than Yoshi Island and Super Mario Bros. 2, the gameplay here would not be transferred in any way, but the 2D aesthetic of Paper Mario is beautiful and we adjusted it.

While we are on the topic of Paper Mario (and while we are really entering the cuckoo territory of the cloud), can you imagine rotating the whole world 90 ° around the Y-axis? We still remember the first time it happened in Super Paper Mario and it was an incredible time. The implications of the gameplay would make it almost impossible here, but let's just think about it for a moment …

Ufa! Is this for our far-reaching (and increasingly bizarre) accumulation of expectations for Super Mario Maker 2. Which of these do you see in the standings in the last game? What do we miss that you think would make a great addition? Let us know in the comments below.