Top 10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do in Super Mario Maker 2

Night Mode is one of the coolest new additions to “Mario Maker 2”! it doesn’t just change the background of your level; it also alters some of the mechanics. For Ghost & Underwater levels, it makes them pitch black with Mario, enemies and items giving off illumination. But did you know you can reduce the illumination radious? By dropping an On/Off Switch onto the course, if the switch is set to “Off” the amount of light that Mario and objects give off is reduced. This can add a greater sense of tension into your level as the player progresses deeper into your level.

If you haven’t played either of the “Mario Maker” games yet, each theme replicates the movesets Mario has in their respective titles. Despite being on a 2D plane, “3D World” Mario still retains his moves from the 3D iterations. If you make Mario jump while crouching, he will perform a backflip. And when you press ZL or ZR while running he will perform a long jump. In his Super Mario form; Mario can crawl … or waddle, so he can now clear one space wide gaps without needing to take a hit.

We may not have the amiibo costumes to provide “playable characters”, but this time around, Mario has brought a few friends to help us test our levels. Within the Options menu, you can choose to play as Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad, or Toadette. However, this is only available in the Course Maker & Course World. In Story mode, you’ll have to stick with our plumber-gone-builder pal. Remember, this IS “Super MARIO Maker 2”, not “Super Mushroom Kingdom Best Friends Club Maker 2”. Still, it gives us hope that the game could get additional playable characters as DLC.

Progressive power-ups WERE a feature in the first game, but it wasn’t implemented until AFTER launch. Plus, there are still a heck of a lot of levels that aren’t using these. These will allow your course to recognize which one to spawn judging from the player’s condition. For example, if Small Mario hits a Question Block, a Super Mushroom will appear. Although, if Super Mario hits it, a Fire Flower will appear. Hey, just like a real Mario level! It’s pretty simple too; Tap any 2nd level Power-up and add a Super Mushroom to turn it into a progressive powerup.

In the first “Mario Maker” checkpoints automatically turned Small Mario into Super Mario, even if the maker didn’t want that. This time around, the course maker has more flexibility on how the Checkpoints affect players. You can place any Power-Up or a Star onto the checkpoint and Mario will automatically achieve that form upon hitting the flag. Not only does this further allow Makers to make their courses more complex, (like say using them to force change the player) but it helps mix up the gameplay and let players design levels centered around more than one gimmick.

We’ve seen this happen far too often, a different theme from “Super Mario Kart” “Mario 64” Sunshine or Galaxy starts playing right at the start of the level, only to revert back to the stage’s default theme after moving a few steps. That’s because the game will only have that theme playing so long as the tile holding music track is on screen. If you want to keep the music playing for the duration of your stage though, simply drag that music track onto Mario in the Course Maker to hear it untinterupted. You can also use the “Peaceful, Horror or Heartbeat” soundtrack for the duration of your stage too if you want to get really creative.

Clear pipes have made it into “Super Mario Maker 2”, but they aren’t as flexible as Nintendo has lead us to believe. (Seriously, why can’t they intersect?) Still, they offer some potential opportunities in creating complex levels. For example, did you know that clear pipes can pass through lava in the Castle theme? At first, it doesn’t sound like much. On the contrary, this can be fun in its own way. What if you had multiple pipes running through the lava? It’s a good way to hide your pipe tracks if you don’t want the player to see them, adding an extra layer of intruigue to your course.

Feeling a little mischievous? Well, this entry may entice you to leave a nasty surprise for players! Boo Rings can be a little tricky to avoid at times, but what about when they’re carpet-bombing the course? Yep, you can do that! When you attach a parachute to a Boo Ring, you can create what we’ll call a “Boo Bomb”. It starts off as a regular sized Boo, but once it hits the floor, it’ll spring up a sizeable Boo Ring to catch players off-guard! And yes, you can certainly have Lakitus chuck as many as they can! This is one of the more ghastly surprises in “Mario Maker 2”, and we can already hear plenty of Joy-Cons being broken out of anger.

The Skinny Mushroom from the first “Super Mario Maker” may be gone and Skinny Mario may longer be playable, but he’s still hidden within the game. Head over to the Course Maker and drop a door into your stage, then repeatedly tap on the door with either your finger in Handheld mode, or the A button in docked mode; and a Skinny Mario will open the door for a brief second. But that’s not all, sometimes he’ll be decked out in a power-up form depending on which game mode your using, including some forms that don’t appear in “Super Mario Maker 2”.


Before we get to what is the most important thing to know, here’s a few Honourable Mentions.

Honorable Mentions


Use Sideways Thwomps to Give Extra Momentum


Use The Angry Sun to Unlock Night Mode


Unlock the “Superball Flower” Here
(Shows where the Superball flower is hidden in Story Mode)

Drag Assets to the Right Side of the Screen for a Quick Delete
(Use the On Camera segment)

It can be a very disheartening sight: You’ve spent hours making your amazing course (or courses), but are disgruntled to find that after many days have passed; no one has played them. That’s because in order for your level to be added into the Endless Mode rotation, it needs to be sorted into a difficulty category, and that is arranged based on your course clear rate. That means if you want more people to play your level; at least one other user needs boot up your level manually and clear it. You may get lucky and have your level appear in the New Courses tab, but with dozens of courses getting uploaded every second, your chances are very rare. So if your levels aren’t being played; share your Course ID on Social Media to clear that first hurdle.