Topic: Super Mario Maker 2 Level Sharing

I just finished the super world @Not_Soos made:

LT6-LN9-5PG .

Super fun traditional super world. There were a couple difficulty jumps on certain levels in the middle but overall most of the later levels stuck nicely to harder normal or easier expert levels. I admit I almost quit the super world during the later dark level because I hate dark levels 😆 But for dark levels, yours wasn't too bad. Also... I think it was an optional level but 5-2 where you get pummeled with huge snowballs constantly was hilarious but slightly diabolical 😆

Overall, really impressive; a lot of the levels had the feel of real Nintendo levels and there was a good variety.

Thank you for making it @Not_Soos; I enjoyed my time. I hope others play it even though mario maker 2 is kind of in its twilight era.

I realize this thread doesn't get used much but there have been some really talented mario makers creators still hanging out on NL.

@FishyS

Hey, thanks so much for the positive feedback, and for spreading the word about my Super World! I really appreciate it, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

I actually considered making that dark ghost house level optional as well and sort of regret that I didn't. The idea behind it was to try to make a "horror" level with jumpscares that would leave the player feeling anxious around every corner, but in execution, it's a bit cheap/troll-ish. I feel like the mark of a good level is one that can be successfully cleared on the first try by a skilled enough player, but this level sort of goes against my own ethos of level design, as the only way to win is to die a handful of times until you learn the pattern. When I look back at all the levels I made, I think this is the one I'm least satisfied with.

Yeah, 5-2 was a fun one to make, and one that even I die on several times when I play it, haha! I realized early on that this one would have to be optional. For one thing, I highly doubted my brother (who is a big reason I made these levels but isn't the most skilled Mario player) would be able to make it through. It was initially going to appear in World 7 as a "star world" level, but that was before I got the idea to make the special world levels themed around other Mario games.

By the way, I've still been obsessively playing Mario Maker levels since wrapping up my Super Mario World "sequel" game. So, you'll be pleased to know I've almost finished a Super Mario Bros. 3 successor! I only have about 7 unfinished levels to go. I feel like these levels are shaping up to be even better, as I've been able to learn from my experience working on the Super Mario World ones. It also helps that I'm doing this all at the same time and not revisiting a project I started three years ago, as was the case with the SMW ones. The SMB3 levels will be shorter and generally won't have checkpoints, as was the case with the original SMB3 back in the day. Most of my SMW levels used an entire sub area to get as much content out of it as possible, but that won't be the case here.

I'm not entirely sure how I'll be able to go about posting them online, as I believe you're only allowed to have one Super World uploaded at a time, is that right? There's slots to make 6 of them, though, so I'm a little confused how that works. Maybe I should have created them under an alternate account or something so both level packs can exist concurrently.

I'd be eager to know if there were any other stand-out levels in your mind that were memorable like 5-2. I have a handful of favorites that I'm really proud of, but I'll reserve saying which ones until I've heard from you, lol. Also, if you recall specific instances of difficulty spikes, I'll try to keep that in mind as I work on this Mario 3 level pack. It's hard to balance because I generally want to keep snow levels together in the snow world, desert levels together in the desert world, etc. and don't want to buck that trend. But, I may have an idea for a snow level or desert level that's significantly harder than the rest of the snow levels, especially if it uses the night theme.

For this SMB3 pack, I'm trying to not stick to as rigid of a structure and be okay with the idea of having a late-game desert level even if the desert world was a few worlds ago. Hopefully, that makes sense, lol. I'll be sure to update you whenever those levels are playable!

Since I don't know when else I'll get the opportunity to talk about my levels (although I did do a video about them on my YouTube channel), I guess one other thing I'll say real quick is that I really enjoyed naming them, haha. I gave every level a food-based name similar to how they're named in Super Mario World, with the exception of the Special World and also the final world. For the Special World in SMW, it uses 70's lingo like "Funky," "Groovy," "Gnarly," etc. I thought it would be fun to modernize that a bit and pull from 90's lingo, so my Special levels are named stuff like "Fresh," "All That," "Dope," and "Fly" haha.

Unfortunately, Grape Soda Lagoon had to be renamed to just Soda Lagoon, because Nintendo banned the word "grape..."

Also--were you able to find most of the 3 giant coins hidden in every level? I realized after uploading my Super World that there may have been a couple levels where I mistakenly only placed 2 coins instead of 3, or where I placed two 50-coins when there's supposed to be one of each (10, 30, and 50 in that order). 🤦🏼 A couple levels also had secret shortcuts to the end. The first shmup level, "Sunnyside Uptown," (which I think was 3-2) requires a pixel-perfect jump past the pipe at the first checkpoint. If done properly, you can skip the entire autoscroll segment and will get a victory fanfare, but again, it has to be super precise. I doubt many players would discover it on their own because it requires a leap of faith into what appears to be certain death.

Also, in the nighttime desert level where the sand blows you around, there's a part where three winged blocks fly by, the middle one having a cape feather. If you don't hit the blocks but instead hop on and ride them, it will take you to a "secret exit" where you can snag some free 1-ups. The exit pipe on this route will also dump you out at the top of the goal post, giving you a 1-up, whereas if you beat the level the regular way, you automatically miss the top of the goal post. Not sure if you noticed the two pipes at the end of the level and wondered if you missed a secret, but my levels are filled with a lot of little things like that!

I feel like I'm spending a lot of time here bragging on the levels I made, and maybe there's nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments. I'm just excited to finally have the opportunity to talk about it now that my labor of love that took probably a combined total of 200 hours of work is finally done. Just knowing that somebody out there actually took the time to play my levels and also really enjoyed them and thinks that in many cases they feel Nintendo-esque is incredibly honoring! So, hopefully I don't sound overly obnoxious talking about the levels I made, lol. I'm always really paranoid about coming across as boastful. They're by no means perfect, but I sure put a lot of heart into them.

They really need to fix this in super mario maker 3; it's so stupid you can only have one uploaded/active super world at a time. Alternate accounts aren't a great option either because then you would need NSO on both.

Basically the best (if somewhat unsatisfying) option is simply to upload them in order with names like 'Floof World 5-2 (optional level)'. Another not ideal option is to take down your current super world (but not the levels) and put a new one up... but if anyone is currently in the middle of your super world that would mess them up so probably not a great idea unless there is a time gap. That said, I look forward to playing them.

You may want to say which levels 😅 I would have been happy to have commented on them at the time but because it's been two weeks for most of the levels I don't recall all of them. Ironically I remember levels more clearly if they were frustrating or very unusual so your good non-frustrating traditional levels are a little harder to remember.

One frustrating moment for me is one that is Nintendo's fault rather than yours. You had a boss arena with vines in the background and various projectiles (2-5 maybe? I forget). I tried playing that with my pro controller and could not beat it because the janky d-pad kept getting me stuck on vines when I jumped. When I finally caved in and used joycons it was fairly easy 😆

If I have the time and remember I'll look back at the levels and try to recall ones I especially liked.

As for difficulty jumps, none of them were especially bad, just slightly surprising. Near the start (2-4) it was all pretty easy levels before (25% clear rate) and then suddenly a level around 6% clear rate. 4-1 was also hard purely because it was hard to fit through the last gap in time in the elevator section- somehow it was just hard to line up and it was easy to take damage twice or fall and die.

Will respond to the rest of this later, gotta go to work.

Edit:

Since the game doesn't really let you track that (without a clear condition) I definitely didn't find them all. I did enjoy finding a lot of big coins in fun places though. There were a couple levels where I was having fun exploring but hadn't died and realized I was running out of time so just sprinted the last third of the level. 😅 I don't think I found the hidden exits you mentioned above but I was very curious about that extra pipe you mentioned. I thought I found a shortcut in one level but I forget which. Well... plus you had lakitu clouds in a couple places which are semi-shortcuts (I was thankful for the cloud in 5-2).

Edit 2: Just glancing over the levels, I really enjoyed 8-3 just because balloon mario levels are often either easy or insanely hard and I thought you had a good balance of not too hard but interesting maneuvering. In a similar vein, I really enjoyed 3-2. Of the earlier worlds, world 3 stood out as having just a lot of pure fun levels. Other levels which stand out in my memory (I am definitely forgetting some) - 5-4 was very cute. Oh and 5-5 was fun because ice lava castles are unusual and the lava rising part was actually a bit surprisingly challenging. Oh and I was impressed by 6-3.. usually I'm not a fan of upside down levels but I thought that one was done well and I've never really seen the sliding down a hill upside down thing be used well before. 6-5 may have been my favorite castle - just cute and fun and I like that you get to fly in a couple parts. I enjoyed 8-5 also — room 3 took a bit of figuring out but the red coins were fun and I thought you were going to make the final boss awful but was kind of happy they were fairly chill and traditional at the end.

Howdy! I made a level you guys might like, it’s based off the mechanic of having mushroom trampolines behind blocks: SMX-98H-KYF

@Benjikoopa great level; I love the aesthetics and that bizarre mechanic. Also, really creative use of the goomba costume.

I got this game some time ago, havent'y played it yet. You said about community shrinking - but there are tons of levels of many difficulties I can find that have been made by fans for all these years, right?

Basically I wanted to have some mario2d fun create some levels play some of others'/ And my question is- was it a good choice?

@yoshi420 It was a fairly good choice because it's a great game, but the clock is ticking so I wouldn't sit on it too long before starting. Since it's a largely online game, not all features will last forever.

Story mode you can play whenever. If you want to make levels and share them with friends or family locally that can also be done whenever/offline.

If you want random people online to play your levels, you should be able to get some plays by posting places like this. That will start drying up quickly whenever mario maker 3 comes out but we have no idea when that will be — could be 2026, could be 2027, could technically be never.

If you want to play lots of excellent levels (and by lots I mean 10s of thousands ) made by other players? I assume Nintendo will keep up the servers for a few more years so you have time.

@FishyS Makes sense. Yeah I read somewhere about "endless content" and some stages are top tier nintendo quality almost. The story itself I hear is lame that true? Guess it must be very short since SMM2 mailny a multiplayer game.

@yoshi420 Story mode is cute and silly but is
also basically just a 10 hour tutorial. Lots of fun little levels (120 I think) but nothing super amazing. I enjoyed it but never had the urge to replay. Also, Toadette is the most important character which gives it bonus points.

Aww, I'm sorry to see you go. I've been pretty lucky with my interactions on this site, but it's certainly not perfect; sad to see people pulled down by garbage. I was hoping I would see your eventual levels in Mario Maker 3, but thank you for all the fun levels in mm2. Take care. ❤️

@FishyS

Did they delete their profile or get banned? I don't see their comment for me anymore, nor can I access their profile. I wanted to thank them for their kind words of support. For context, I had commented previously under a Nintendo Life article about the Trump tariffs that I would be stepping away from this site indefinitely due to the issues SGE highlighted. There's not really any other Nintendo news sites where I post regularly, but I do have a YouTube channel, "Nintentrovert," where I frequently upload content. I'm on X under the same username, but I seldom use it anymore.

Sorry I never responded to your last reply about my levels, btw! I intended to but kept getting sidetracked. I really appreciate your thorough feedback though! I did end up finishing a Mario 3 "sequel," which is a bit easier and I think more polished. I haven't compiled them into a Course World yet though as I never added a couple finishing touches, but I may try to go back and do that soon just for you! If I do, I'll be sure to let you know, as I'm not deleting my account entirely or anything.

I also completed maybe 80% or more of a NSMBU "sequel," which is even easier--closer in difficulty to an actual NSMB game. A very casual experience. I don't know if I'll find the time to go back and finish that one anytime soon, though. I sorta burned myself out on Mario Maker by making so many levels in such a short time, plus I've been busy with other projects like my YouTube channel and taking a course on television scriptwriting. But the Mario 3 one is like 99% done, so I may as well just knock it out and put it out there for people like you to play.

@Not_Soos Sadly, I think SGE2000 deleted their account. I actually forgot that deletes all your previous comments.

Sorry to hear you've had issues on the site also... the Internet sucks sometimes.

No worries about not responding before; I had lots of fun playing a world you probably spent zillions of hours creating so I very much appreciate it. Great levels and it's always especially fun to play levels from creators you have semi met. Understandable you've gotten tired of making levels, but I'll definitely play the smb3 levels if you release them. The game turning 6 soon kind of shocks me.

I have 5 levels, including one First Clear to be claimed!

No doubt a lot of you have already played some of these, but I'm almost up to 6,000 maker points, and would love to hit 7,000 for the Fried Chicken Hat.

So, if you show any of my levels some love this weekend, I will play and Like TWO of your levels for each one of mine - leave your codes below! Maker ID is TVN-YBD-WWF

Thanks

cute new level!

Well, I'm gonna have to watch here.
Someone who at least used to be my friend made a trend of making levels with the intent being they would be so hard nobody could clear them.
Mostly on SMM1, he does have one or two on Switch I could post.

Also, good to know NotSoos makes stages! Might be a good reason to get into the game again.