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How will Super Mario Maker 2 change the game?
With Super Mario Maker 2 on the way, we interviewed one of the scene's best-known level designers to get his take on the hotly anticipated Nintendo sequel.
On June 28, Nintendo will release Super Mario Maker 2 for the Nintendo Switch. The level-design sequel game expands upon the options and mechanics of its predecessor and the community's top level designers can't wait to get their hands on it.
When Nintendo released Super Mario Maker for the Wii U in 2010, it was quintessential Nintendo: simple, yet unbelievably bold and innovative. Granted, for years prior there was a lively ROM hack community surrounding the Mario franchise; level designers would play with the franchise's assets to create unique side-scrolling challenges.
Rather, the boldness came from Nintendo's surrendering of those assets and the official endorsement of the company. Go ahead. Do your best (or worst), seemed to be the prevailing mood. Lesser companies might have worried about being outdone or outclassed by some clever user. Nintendo saw the potential for a thriving online community, which will no doubt expand on June 28.
Most successful user-designed Mario levels would fit into a standard (albeit difficult) mould, but there's a smaller community subset that specialises in 'Kaizo' levels. The word Kaizo literally means 'modification,' but within the community Kaizo Mario levels refer to deliberately fiendish levels, which require juggling multiple shells in midair, shell jumping (in which you ricochet shells, mid-air, to execute an extra long jump) and other frame-reliant stunts.
For Connecticut-based Alex Tan, now a 23-year-old full-time streamer, this was a match made in Coin Heaven.
"My first memories of playing 2D Mario were when I tried to beat Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo as a kid," said Tan. "Growing up, I didn't have many video games. Super Mario World was the first one I played and I instantly fell in love with it."
Tan, better known by his online handle PangaeaPanga, had been creating Super Mario World hacks since 2007 by using a program called Lunar Magic. Super Mario Maker, however, gave Tan's work a wider platform and he quickly became notorious in the community for his Kaizo levels. For Tan, a proper Kaizo Mario level is not hard for the sake of hard; it's a cohesive design, with a decent flow, that leaves the player wanting more.
"A level that's hard just to be hard often implements repetitive or tedious tricks," said Tan. "Of the levels I've designed, I'm most proud of Skyzo and P-Break. Skyzo is a gateway to Kaizo levels. Most of the people involved in the Kaizo community have told me that Skyzo was one of the first 'hard' levels they played and is the reason they're in the community in the first place."
"P-Break is known for influencing people to push level design difficulty to its limit," Tan continued. "Ever since P-Break, countless people have tried to create even more difficult, but rewarding, levels in Mario Maker and I don't expect this to stop any time soon."
The notorious On/Off Switches make a much anticipated debut
© Nintendo
Super Mario Maker 2 offers additional opportunities for creativity. You can now add slopes at different angles and rising water levels. You can add environmental hazards like tornadoes, conveyor belts, and the infamous Angry Sun. You can create custom scrolling and pathing for levels and snake blocks.
At first, Tan was skeptical; would the sequel just be Super Mario Maker with a few more assets tagged on? But based on the previews, Super Mario Maker 2 appears to be far more. Some of the additions are standard Mario fare, which will streamline the online community's current workarounds.
"The On/Off blocks are something I am highly anticipating since it's such a simple block," said Tan. "But it allows you to create simple set-ups in levels, compared to what we had to do in Super Mario Maker with POW blocks and stacked Munchers."
The environment reacts when you decide to switch from day to night
© Nintendo
Others additions are unique to Super Mario Maker 2 and have untold potential. You can, for example, change the day setting of the levels to night. On an ice level, this makes the ice even slippier. Other levels turn the gravity upside down, or get rid of the gravity entirely.
As a more senior member of the Super Mario Maker community, Tan is doing his part to give back. He had a new series on YouTube, Kaizo Kindergarten, which teaches novice players the staple advanced tactics and tricks. These can often be barriers to otherwise enthusiastic newcomers.
Shell jumping is a requirement on the most difficult Kaizo Mario levels
© Nintendo
"The essential ingredients to a healthy online community start with helping people who might struggle with either level design or trying to beat a level, rather than flaming or being toxic," said Tan. "Start with smaller things, like explaining what a player or creator did wrong and how they can fix their mistakes."
"Streamers also play a huge role in this, as viewers often look up to the bigger ones as role models," Tan continued. "Being a positive role model also promotes a positive environment."
