Super Mario Maker 2 10 Levels Your Kids Will Make & You ll Have to Play

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Super Mario Maker 2 10 Levels Your Kids Will Make & You ll Have to Play

Super Mario Maker 2 can open up a world of wonder for kids, but here are 10 ways they'll make levels that turn their dreams into your nightmares. is an incredible game, because it puts you in charge of , drawing off from almost all the tools and tricks in every Mario game ever. In the hands of a skilled creator, it can be used to build levels as good as or better than any in the games by . But when you put this tool in the hands of kids, their combination of curiosity, inventiveness, and just a smidge of innocent sadism can be excruciating. Make no mistake: this is a delightful game for kids (and adults), but the odds are good that you'll have to suffer through an array of painful levels, such as these. Hey, at least it's quality time, right? THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY

The One Where You Have to Wait

Super Mario Maker has a number of tools that let kids timed events. Dispensers might produce a mushroom, for example, that then drops onto a conveyor belt, which slowly--oh, so slowly--brings the mushroom to you. There is no solution but to wait until the mushroom reaches you and gives you the power to finally jump high enough to escape the starting area. This is endlessly entertaining for kids. They will make you play it over and over again. Especially if you're not fast enough for the mad dash to get to the end.

The One Where You Have to Run

It's true, many Mario levels are just a run from beginning to end. But there's also usually a little moment at the beginning for you to assess your surroundings. Then you can see you have to run before you have to actually do it. Kids don't have the experience (or the desire) to give you this moment to orient yourself. It's more fun for them to set up a level that is going to kill you if you're too slow. Which means you'll have to die quite a few times before you are able to finally get moving fast enough.

The One with All the Bosses

Bowser is one of the great bosses in video game history. Over the years, he has also assembled quite a selection of minions, mostly his (adopted?) family. And in Super Mario Maker 2, a kid gets access to almost all of them. How could they possibly resist the temptation to put as many of them as possible in the same level. They also don't have to settle for the standard Bowser set up: they can put the minions in flying cars or make them invulnerable. Expect a chaotic mass of moving shapes that is almost impossible to dodge!

The One with All the Sound Effects

Super Mario Maker 2 is a truly versatile toolbox full of fun things that kids love to pull out. One of the craziest tools is the ability to add sound effects to the level. Many of the sound effects are standard Mario sounds, but others are strange: weird laughter, screams, oinks, odd music, farts (of course) and more. To increase the mayhem, many of these sound effects come with visual effects that fill the screen with additional chaos. Once your kids discover these effects, they will have endless fun adding them to levels, including one level that's all about the sound.

The One with All the Pipes

Mario is ostensibly a plumber, so it (sort of) makes sense that he should occasionally travel down pipes. But with Super Mario Maker 2, the ability to connect the world with pipes is virtually unlimited, and kids will want to experiment with just how much they can push this mechanism. Inevitably, this will mean levels where you have to go down this pipe, come back by that pipe, and detour through the other pipe. And did we mention doors? Yes, there are doors, too. So many doors.

The One Where You Have to Drive

Another cool feature of Super Mario Maker 2 is the ability to make levels where you have to drive karts, after stealing them from Koopa Troopas. The cars are fun and exciting because you can move much faster than usual, and you can run over (most) enemies without taking damage. Unfortunately, what is cool at first can become a real drag after a little while. The car level will probably require you to make it to the end in a car after being stuck in a virtual rush hour with dozens of Koopa Troopas. Since the cars go kaput after three crashes, you'll likely be doing this one a lot before you can master it.

The One Where You re a Cat

Imagine the writer's room for Cat Mario. "Kids love cats. They would love Mario more if he could be a cat." "Didn't we do that for Super Mario 3?" "That's a tanuki. This is completely different." And, y'know, they're mostly right. Kids love Cat Mario. And, to be fair, Cat Mario has cool abilities like swiping at enemies and being able to climb background features. So there's going to be at least one level where you have to be Cat Mario and use all those special abilities to get through. But if you get hit, you lose your cat suit and have to start over.

The One with a Crazy Goal

In the first Mario games, all you had to do was make it to the end. Anything else was gravy, like picking up 100 coins for an extra life. Great if you can do it, but not necessary. Well, in Super Mario Maker 2, you can define dozens of goals. Maybe it's like the ones above, where you have to make it to the end with a particular trait. Or maybe it's that you have to collect an ungodly amount of coins. Or maybe you have to kill a certain number of enemies (the carnage!) Expect that there's going to be at least one level where the goal is outlandish.

The One Where You Can t Die

Actually, there are two kinds of levels where you can't die. First, there's the one where you're invulnerable and make it to the end without any trouble (yay!). But then there's the other kind, where you get stuck in a box or something without any hazards around. You either have to wait out the clock or quit. , and it's common for them to design levels where this happens (as well as levels where you can't win!)

The One with the Epic Story Cycle

In its original form, Mario is a game without a (real) story. It's a clean slate. Over the years, different games have written different stories on this clean slate. So kids, given access to the Mario toolkit, will also come up with stories. Big stories, often involving characters that are in the background or even off-screen. Bad news: you might have to play the entire cycle. Good news: it can be fun. This is where you get to see painted on the electronic canvas. It's an exciting, interactive way to engage your kids' natural tendency for storytelling. It's rewarding for you to engage these creations, and rewarding for them to see you appreciating what they've made. This is what makes going through all those other levels worthwhile.