It looks like you won’t be able to play with friends online in Super Mario Maker 2. The sequel to the hit Wii U title, a month away, features a bizarre limitation.
Super Mario Maker 2 was originally announced during Nintendo’s February Direct. It was a grand reveal, teasing a ton of new content. From slopes to a brand new game style in the form of Super Mario 3D World, the game appeared to be the definition of a followup. Earlier this month, Nintendo released a Mario Maker 2-focused direct. Here, we learned about the new features, such as the new objects, enemies, and the unique night theme. The online features were also unveiled, featuring a versus and cooperative mode. However, as we’re about to see, online play appears a bit more restrictive than previously thought.
Nintendo World Report reported that a Nintendo Treehouse representative stated friends would not be able to play together online. Apparently, the reasoning given was that playing with friends could potentially negatively affect the leaderboard system. GameXplain asked for verification from Nintendo, and indeed, online multiplayer with friends is not a feature. Below is the statement given to GameXplain.
“This is true. As the game is now, you cannot create friend lobbies online. You can only play online with randoms. You can still get friends together and play with local play, and you’re free to play with four players on one Nintendo Switch system. You can also still challenge your friends to your creations and take on their designs through Course IDs and having them follow your Maker profile.”
To summarize, the only way to play with friends is through local play. Unlike games like Splatoon 2 or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you cannot create online lobbies for friends in Super Mario Maker 2. (It also appears you can’t mix local play with online according to GameXplain.) So, if you live in New Jersey and have cousins who live in New York City, you could only play together if it’s local. Many are understandably baffled. On Nintendo’s latest Mario Maker video, most of the comments are bashing the company’s decision of not including online multiplayer with friends. Nintendo expects players to pay for Nintendo Switch Online, so it’s strange to feature such a restriction.
There should be nothing but excitement surrounding the release of Super Mario Maker 2. But, now there is a wave of disappointment affecting the game’s pre-hype. There is honestly no way to justify Nintendo’s reasoning. If the company is worried about leaderboards, all it has to do is implement online multiplayer with friends as casual play. Maybe there’s hope. The Nintendo representative did say, “As the game is now…” The first Super Mario Maker had free updates, so perhaps once Nintendo realizes online play with friends is very important to a lot of people, it could be implemented as an update.
Super Mario Maker 2 will be released on June 28 for Nintendo Switch.
