Super Mario Maker 2 Review: 6 Ups & 3 Downs

5. New Items, Enemies, Gizmos & More!

Thankfully, Nintendo didn’t take the easy way out here. Instead of just simply calling this Mario Maker Deluxe and calling it a day, they went all out to unchain this from the previous Mario lineage.

Whilst the original Super Mario Maker was trying to be faithful, the second instalment encourages creators to get wired when building levels by offering items and gizmos not available before.

Take the swinging claw for example. On the surface, this seems like nothing more than one of those rip off claw machine grabbers that are by design meant to take your money. But in Super Mario Maker 2, it blows open the level of creativity and customisable options. The claw can be used like one of those machines, used to hold enemies, items, or to carry Mario though a tight space that is only survivable whilst in a Goomba's shoe. This is just one example of how just a few items combined can have very different outcomes.

What might be the best of new big gizmos are the On/Off switch blocks. These can be triggered by Koopa shells, Bob-omb and really anything else thrown at them. Red is on and Blue is off, which simply activates red or blue blocks. Yes, this might sound basic, but adding functionality like this will have Makers perfect levels with puzzle-solving or scripted jump sequences for years to come.