Super Mario Maker 2 is less than 24 hours away from launching. Fans are chomping at the bit to go hands-on with the sequel and create some amazing courses. In an interview with Game Informer, Nintendo's Takashi Tezuka revealed one of the most impressive fan-made creations he saw in the original Super Mario Maker.
"There's actually somebody who made a calculator using Super Mario Maker. That was really surprising. I never imagined that would happen!"
Between Nintendo's own Mario games and fan-made courses in Super Mario Maker, there's no shortage of variety out there. What kind of stage does Tezuka enjoy the most?
"I'm actually a fan of simple courses. Courses, for example, where you have a bridge and cheep cheeps are jumping up one after the other, getting in your way. It was really easy to make."
Fans have obviously come up with content in Super Mario Maker that Nintendo never even dreamed of, and more will come in Super Mario Maker 2. Does Tezuka think that Nintendo's future Mario games might end up being influenced somehow by what fans have created in Super Mario Maker, and the upcoming sequel?
"I do think we've probably been influenced by the things we've seen people making in Super Mario Maker up to this point, but I don't know exactly what sort of concrete form that would take in the Mario games in years to come. With things like that, we'll put the game out, see the reaction from the fans, then make decisions about what we'll decide to include in games going forward."
Super Mario Maker 2 offers even more content for fans to build stages with, as well as the addition of new themes. That said, not all Mario games are represented in Super Mario Maker 2. Why hasn't Nintendo packed even more in there? Tezuka explains that doing so is no easy task.
"It's actually pretty difficult to create a whole new game style or course theme for the game; we have to make sure that when we do that, that they're compatible with the game and its controls. It was actually quite difficult from a technical perspective because with the Super Mario 3D World game style, for the first time we had to take a game that was originally in 3D and try to figure out how to adapt it to a 2D play style. After working on it for a while, we realized there were enough differences that we'd would need to separate it out from the rest of the game styles. Once we realized that, we were able to proceed with adding it."
With all the new content in Super Mario Maker 2, it's clear the team worked their butts off to make this sequel bigger and better in every way. How did the team manage to come up with ideas like the Story Mode, new items, and themes? Tezuka elaborates on the topic.
"It's important when making a development team to put together a team in such a way that it's going to get the best out of everyone who's a part of that team. If you can really get a team inspired or get everyone to be excited about the game they're working on, then you'll get people to contribute good ideas that aren't necessarily pertaining to their specific discipline, and that's really good. The Super Mario Maker 2 team is a good example of that."
Finally, Tezuka is once again asked about the potential for a Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) theme in Super Mario Maker 2, he would only state that he'd like to see it happen. He parlayed that answer into another idea for a theme in Super Mario Maker 2 by saying, "Some new kind of Mario might be good!"
