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Super Mario Maker 2 will support four-player multiplayer, which means more playable characters will join the game: Luigi, Toad and Toadette.
This evening’s Nintendo Direct showed those three and Mario barreling through created levels in a four-way race to demonstrate the Nintendo Switch game’s new multiplayer features. Fans had already expected an expanded playable roster, thanks to a (somewhat) leaked Japanese poster for the game featuring those characters.
Super Mario Maker on Wii U allowed players to go through levels as different characters if they had a corresponding amiibo. Super Mario Maker 2 lets users play as Luigi, Toad and Toadette out of the box. The Nintendo Direct showed competitors racing through traps and hazards to be the first to complete a level — but also teaming up to take down a boss when that suited their mutual interests, too.
There is also a completely co-operative mode in online play where all players get credit for finishing the course once someone completes it. The goal there is to get them to team up to solve even more complex puzzles and more challenging bosses.
The Nintendo Direct said the players will be assigned their avatars at random, so it doesn’t sound like the characters have different abilities, physics or other characteristics. Super Mario Maker 2 will also offer Nearby Play, a local multiplayer format in which up to four players (each with a Switch and a copy of the game) may participate in an offline private room created by a host.
Other features teased in the April artwork were shown during today’s direct — among them Yoshi tooling around in a go-kart, Bullet Bills and Thwomps with new behaviors, and new themes and environments.
Separately, Nintendo announced two offers with Super Mario Maker 2’s June 28 launch on Nintendo Switch. One is a $69.99 bundle that packages the game and 12 months of Nintendo Switch Online membership (which will stack onto an existing membership). Another offer are two vouchers, at a cost of $99.99, that can be redeemable in the next year for full size titles in the eShop. Assuming they buy full $59.99 titles, that would be a savings of $19.99.
