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How to play co-op in Super Mario Maker 2

Steven Petite
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Super Mario Maker 2 is all about the communal experience of making and sharing levels. As a multiplayer experience, Mario Maker 2 is mostly centered on online play, but you can still play local co-op with family and friends on one Nintendo Switch console. It’s not made readily apparent in the menus, but we’ve got you covered. Here’s how to play Super Mario Maker 2 with two or more players.

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Difficulty

Moderate

Duration

20 minutes

What You Need

  • Nintendo Switch

  • Super Mario Maker 2

Further reading

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Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to play local co-op

Sadly, you cannot play local co-op directly through Course World, which makes the process somewhat confusing. Courses must be downloaded first and then viewed in the Coursebot menu to play local co-op. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start playing local co-op.

Step 1: In Course World, find a course you want to play cooperatively, select Download, and choose an open slot to save the course. You can have up to 60 courses downloaded at one time. That figure doesn’t include the 32 slots for courses you create.

Step 2: Head over to Coursebot and choose the course.

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Step 3: See the four little alienesque heads on the right side of the screen? If you move the analog stick to the right, you’ll find the option Play Together. Select it.

Step 4: Activate your Joy-Con/Pro Controllers to join. You can play local co-op with up to four players (Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Toadette). Single Joy-Con controllers are all you need, but you can also use the dual Joy-Con setup. Player one will always be Mario, while players two through four will be Luigi, Toad, and Toadette, respectively.

It’s unfortunate that you are restrained to co-op since versus mode is an option in both online and local wireless play via Course World. For now, at least, that’s all you get for local co-op play.

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Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to make levels with a friend

In addition to playing courses with up to four players on one Switch console, you can also make courses with a friend. Creating levels is confined to two players, which is good because it can get chaotic.

Step 1: To make courses with friends, navigate to the alien heads on the lower-left side of the design screen. Making courses with friends requires you to each use a single Joy-Con, with player one being Mario and player two set as Luigi.

Step 2: Mario can use the multigrab copy function, access the menu, and erase parts. Luigi, however, can only select parts using a confined menu and erase.

How to play online multiplayer

As mentioned above, you can also play online or via local wireless with multiple Switch consoles. There are a few different options for playing multiplayer online. When you select Network Play within the Course World menu, you’ll see the option for Multiplayer co-op and Versus, as well as the options to play with friends via the internet or locally with separate systems. Playing with friends allows you to create your own private room to ensure unwanted visitors can’t join.

Alternatively, you can play with strangers online. This option will match you up with four random players and give you a chance to select, as a team, one of four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Expert, and Super Expert.

Does Story Mode have co-op?

There isn’t an option to play with friends if you’re in Story Mode on Super Mario Maker 2. Co-op is just available when you’re playing custom levels you’ve created or playing maps you’ve downloaded from the Coursebot menu.

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Image used with permission by copyright holder

World Maker

With Super Mario Maker 2’s latest update, you’re able to expand upon your creations with the new World Maker feature. This means that any stage you’ve created can be linked by overworlds so you’re almost crafting your own entire game. You can play through the worlds you’ve made in co-op, but, unlike the regular level creator, only one player can make a world at a time.

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Steven Petite
Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
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