Common Sense Media Review
By Chad Sapieha
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based on child development research. How do we rate?
Fun, accessible editing tools expose kids to game design.
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Why Age 6+?
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Super Mario Maker 2
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 10 parent reviews
What’s It About?
SUPER MARIO MAKER 2 puts players in the game designer's chair by providing all the tools necessary to create their own side-scrolling Super Mario courses from scratch. The story mode sees Mario working to rebuild the Mushroom Kingdom's castle by earning coins playing through a variety of courses. These courses—set in the visual styles of several classic Super Mario games—are meant to serve as inspiration for what can be done in the course editor, which is where kids are likely to spend the bulk of their time. The course editor lets players place every brick, Goomba, coin, and power-up, making courses as challenging and imaginative as they like. It adds to what was available in the original Super Mario Maker by including a new visual theme (based on Super Mario 3D World); dozens of new items, objects, and enemies; the ability to add special clear conditions for your courses (such as not being allowed to jump); the option to set your stage in either day or night; and the ability to design courses in tandem with a friend on the same system using separate Joy-Con controllers. Completed courses can be uploaded to the game's community, where players can carry out criteria-driven searches for new courses to play, provide feedback to creators, and engage in special challenges, such as seeing how many random courses you can complete with a limited number of lives. Levels can also be downloaded, with up to four players able to play simultaneously and cooperatively.
Is It Any Good?
If you ever thought you could make levels just as well or better than Nintendo's designers, this is the game that will let you prove it—just don't be surprised if it turns out to be tougher than you thought. While Super Mario Maker 2 is just as accessible as its predecessor—you can create and publish a course in a matter of minutes with minimal instruction—making a level that's challenging, fun, and fair takes a lot more patience and practice. The good news, though, is that this sequel adds all sorts of nifty new features to fiddle around with. You can add clear conditions to your course (such as making players collect a certain number of coins or climb a certain number of trees before reaching the finish), insert tricky new enemies such as the angry sun from Super Mario Bros. 3, create sloped terrain so that you can slide through enemies, and drop in gadgets like a swinging claw to create fun new ways to traverse the environment. And working with friends cooperatively to make levels can transform the experience into something much more social, not to mention give rise to ideas that you might not have come up with on your own. And if you get into a disagreement, you can settle it in versus multiplayer mode, where the winner is the fastest player to the flag.
The real challenge, though, may be getting your work recognized and elevated within the community. With potentially millions of players making and publishing levels, players may find it tough to find an audience for their courses. Happily, the community is well designed and easy to navigate, so hopefully kids will be able to find like-minded players who provide positive feedback that helps them improve their design skills. Plus, players can show a little more of their personality by designing a Mii avatar to represent themselves within the community, which might help them gain fans and create a broader base of players willing to try new courses they create. And if kids discover they have a knack for building levels others want to play, it's not inconceivable that this game could inspire them to pursue game design as a career. Super Mario Maker 2 doesn't just satisfy our urge to play and create, it gives us a small but authentic taste of what it's like to make a living making games.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about learning with technology. Do you feel like Super Mario Maker 2 helped you understand what it's like to be a game designer? What do you think is the hardest part of designing challenging but fair levels?
Are there any advantages to working creatively as a team to design levels? Are there advantages to working alone?
Talk about diversity in gaming. For a game with boundless creative options, does it seem strange that Super Mario Maker 2 offers just one playable female character? Or that none of its playable characters have medium or dark skin tones? What sort of character options would you like to see in future games in the series?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Subjects: Language & Reading : reading, Hobbies : building
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning : hypothesis-testing, problem solving, Creativity : making new creations, producing new content, Self-Direction : goal-setting, self-assessment, Collaboration : cooperation, Tech Skills : digital creation, using and applying technology
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Nintendo of America
- Release date: June 28, 2019
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More
- ESRB rating: E for Mild Cartoon Violence
- Last updated: August 1, 2019
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.
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