Nintendo recently announced that Super Mario Maker 2 would feature a multiplayer mode with up to four players, but it has now been revealed that players can't play the game online with their friends.

Super Mario Maker 2 is one of the Nintendo Switch's biggest upcoming titles of the summer. The most recent Nintendo Direct focused on Super Mario Maker 2, where some of the new content that is appearing in the game was revealed, including an expansive story mode, special clear conditions for individual courses, and new effects that can be added by switching stages to nighttime. The biggest new addition to the game is the multiplayer mode, which allows up to four players to take on stages in either competitive or co-operative formats.

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It seems that the online multiplayer in Super Mario Maker 2 is a lot more limited than anyone realized, as it has been revealed that people cannot play the multiplayer mode with their friends online. According to Nintendo World Reportthe online multiplayer in Super Mario Maker 2 can only be played with random people online. This was confirmed with representatives at Nintendo Treehouse. The reason given for this decision is to stop players from cheating the online leaderboard, even though there isn't one for the co-operative multiplayer mode. The only way to play the multiplayer mode with friends in Super Mario Maker 2 is on a single system (which would require more controllers for more than two players) or through local play with several Nintendo Switch units & copies of the game in the same room.

Super Mario Maker 2 Nintendo Switch promo image

The restricted online multiplayer isn't the only thing missing from Super Mario Maker 2, as the people at the GameXplain YouTube channel have confirmed that the game won't feature amiibo support and that the Mystery Mushroom items won't be in the game. The loss of the Mystery Mushroom means that the 150+ costumes from the first Super Mario Maker won't be present in the sequel, which is a huge step down from the content of the original game.

The addition of online multiplayer in Super Mario Maker 2 was a huge selling point for the game and took up a large portion of the last Nintendo Direct. It's just a shame that the newly revealed restrictions have made the mode a whole lot less appealing. The ability for players to try difficult stages in Super Mario Maker 2 while being able to grief their friends would have been an amazing addition to the game, but Nintendo has once again decided to take a backward approach to the online functionality in its games. The only hope now is if Nintendo sees the error of its ways and allows players to tackle the online modes with their friends in a future patch for the game.

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Source: Nintendo World ReportGameXplain