Many Super Mario Maker 2 players get sick of seeing the same so-so courses in the Popular Courses section. At the same time, the New Courses section only seems to offer a minefield of oddball and poorly constructed courses that do nothing but waste players' time. While not all courses can aim to recreate Duck Hunt in Super Mario Maker 2, many great ones go unseen due to the course overload.
Each week, the round-up aims to show off some of the better courses in Super Mario Maker 2 that may have otherwise gone unnoticed by browsing the New Courses tab and picking out ones that are worth Mario's time.
Here are ten great Mario Maker 2 courses uploaded this week.
10 B-4 smb all Diego GonzArg by Diego♂️♂️
Course ID: P0H-VN1-9SF
Theme: Super Mario 3D World
This course takes Mario through a lava-filled castle and features some challenging jumps and dangerous maneuvers. The course truly shines in the beginning with some heart-pounding moments that might take Mario a few tries to overcome. The course then gets a bit more straight-forward as Mario avoids ghosts and piranha plants in order to collect some keys.
This course gets points for sticking to a theme and for ending with a Cat Bowser that doesn't annoy Mario too much.
9 6-1 by chuyito2$9
Course ID: 33H-KCM-JDF
Theme: Super Mario Bros.
Putting together a weekly course round up means learning how to single out potential gems just based on the course thumbnail and name. When a course name features Mario-like naming conventions, chances get much higher that it will prove to be worth Mario's time. Most likely because a Mario super-fan made it.
This course doesn't offer too many challenges, but the initial section feels very much akin to a Super Mario Bros. Course. The underwater sections add a twist to the formula in that they balance enemy placement with thin corridors that funnel Mario through precarious yet passable situations.
8 tuyauterie en foil by killeurnin
Course ID: F0Y-JVG-J4G
Theme: Super Mario Bros. 3
Each week, it seems a pipe-themed course makes the list. Pipes don't have the ease of duplication that terrain has, which means that if a Maker uses a ton of them to make a course, they probably understand how to stick to a theme and how to work deliberately on a course.
This pipe course features some tricky jumps and a ton of goombas. The course exemplifies perfectly how to use goombas in a way that makes them challenging to avoid, yet not overly annoying. The course has some weird twists and turns, but for the most part sticks the landing.
7 airship mayhem by HUNTER623
Course ID: MTG-FYJ-3KG
Theme: Super Mario World
airship mayhem has all of the trappings of a standard airship course. The auto-scroll camera, the gophers, and the cannons. The level feels so much like a classic Mario Bros. 3 airship stage, it might seem a little off-putting for fans of that game to see this style of level rendered so faithfully in a theme that never had airships.
Mario will jump from ship to ship, dodging bullets and cannon balls, collecting coins, and trading power-ups. The level has the difficulty balance of an airship stage which means it shouldn't challenge Mario too much, but it might trip him up here and there. The one major regret is that this airship does not end in a boss battle as most airships should.
6 Super Mexislang World 4-1 by Mexislang
Course ID: 1VH-TNR-GJF
Theme: Super Mario World
This course has a lot of air time which makes it challenging. Mario will use vines, claws, and thwomps to make his way through. The course requires Mario to react quickly to some of the things it throws at him which will keep him on his toes. He'll suffer a few deaths, but will progress further each time. With a lot of variety and challenging jumps that never seem unfair, this course will leave players on the edge of their seats.
PROTIP: Mario shouldn't worry himself with going out of his way to beat this course's goal. The goal to collect 300 coins will happen naturally along the way.
5 Hammer Bros Valley by Joshua77
Course ID: TNX-273-4YF
Theme: Super Mario World
This straight-forward course feels cohesive and fun. The course doesn't last long, but the numerous stacked hammer bros make it tough enough. This course truly feels plucked from a mid-game level of Super Mario Wold. The course has some great secret areas and it does a terrific job providing Mario with plenty of beetles to help combat all of the hammer bros. Tossing those beetle shells at the hammer bros makes the level fun, especially when a hammer bro stands on a platform above Mario allowing him to toss the shell in mid-air.
4 The Cloudland Invaders by Derlinwall
Course ID: 7TT-PW0-4BG
Theme: Super Mario Bros.
Normally, it would seem off-putting to have an airship without auto-scroll. This one, however, with its though-as-nails platforming, would just become way too difficult. This course has a great level of difficulty that always makes Mario feel like he could get through if he just tries one more time. The course balances tilting platforms, goombas, and skewers to make Mario's every jump feel perilous but manageable.
3 Jumping Jungle Journey by Starla Zar
Course ID: TNJ-SRQ-FRF
Theme: Super Mario World
This jungle themed course puts Mario on a Yoshi and asks him to jump around pits of water and avoid turtles of varying sizes. The course features some fun secret areas to find, including a key hidden through some pipes that unlocks a door. Mario can finish the course without unlocking the door, but it leads to some fun surprises.
Jumping Jungle Journey has a great theme and sticks to it. The course won't challenge Mario at every turn, but it does have some tricky jumps and surprises that feel fair but might catch Mario off gauge if he stops paying attention.
2 IT Chapter 3! By Pepito P R
Course ID: CHF-G5X-NYG
Theme: Super Mario Bros. 3
Form the name, this course seems like it simply wants to make something extra weird to tie-in to the release of last weekend's IT Chapter 2. Once Mario gets into it, however, he will find some creative ideas from a Maker that knows how to run with a theme.
The course begins "outside" with trees and balloons made from some clever block stacking. It then goes underground. It features some creepy appearances from a clown balloon and a decently executed jump scare. It then moves on to a challenging chase that has the player avoiding a giant clown and some ghosts. The whole thing culminates in a creative boss battle.
With good checkpoints, a tight theme, and challenging-but-fair design, IT Chapter 3! Takes cues from the films to make a Mario Maker 2 course that Mario can enjoy whether he likes the IT films or not.
1 COURSE OF THE WEEK - One Screen Puzzle by PhillyBill
Course ID: 1VM-5KK-WTF
Theme: Super Mario World
Mario might spend a lot of time on this one. The maddening little puzzle but contained within this course packs a seemingly impossible amount of depth into one Super Mario Maker 2 screen. Mario must figure out the proper way to interact with each of the course's different parts in the correct order while simultaneously avoiding a bunch of different wild obstacles.
This diabolical little puzzle room only takes a minute or two to execute once figure out. But the depth of design at play here means that Mario might spend hours trying to figure out all of the different pieces and make them work together to finally unlock the goal.
Super Mario Maker 2 is out now on Switch.