Nintendo Announces New Updates for Mario Maker 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Splatoon 2

As is their penchant, Nintendo released game updates out of nowhere. In a combination of videos and tweets, Nintendo announced updates to Mario Maker 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Splatoon 2.

Mario Maker 2

The fun of Mario Maker 2 comes from the wide variety of level customization options like enemies and power ups. This update brought a bunch of new power ups. Some power ups are from fan favorite games, but others are new to Mario Maker 2. Power ups from previous Mario titles are as follows:

• SMB2 Mushroom. This mushroom turns you into Super Mario Brothers 2 Mario. This Mario lets you stand on enemies, pick them up, and throw them.
• Frog Suit. This power up changes how Mario runs and swims, hopping along on land and having a lot more control in water. Additionally, you can run on water.
• Power Balloon. With this power up, Mario expands and floats in the air.
• Super Acorn. While with the Power Balloon Mario can float and fly, the Super Acorn is more about gliding.
• Boomerang Flower. Using the Boomerang Flower, Mario throws a boomerang weapon. It appears that Mario can jump over the returning boomerang and it’ll continue to go past him.

The new power ups all take the form of “masks” that fit on top of Mario. They are:

• Cannon Box. Mario wears a cannon box and can shoot cannon balls in the direction he is facing.
• Propeller Box. Similar to the propeller suit, the Propeller Box lets Mario propel upwards and spin downwards. The difference is that Mario gets 3 propeller jumps before he has to land.
• Red POW. Wear a POW box, Mario can jump and use the POW effect 3 times.
• Goomba Mask. This mask makes you look like a goomba and enemies do not see Mario as an enemy.
• Bullet Bill Mask. The Bullet Bill Mask lets Mario fly horizontally for a limited amount of time.

While all these power ups add so much game play variety, new enemies and items do as well. The update included adding all the Koopalings in what appears to be all the game styles, a Cursed Key item that brings in a phantom once the key is grabbed, an On/Off enabled trampoline, and mechakoopas with 3 variants (normal, red which shoots homing missiles and blue that shoots lasers).

Likely the biggest update, however, is the addition of World Maker. With World Maker, Mario Maker players can create a Super Mario World style map filled with multiple stages. This gives creators the flexibility to create Mario Maker experiences that expand beyond a singular level. Currently, World Maker allows up to 8 worlds with 40 total courses, as well as bonus stages.

Although fans may be disappointed that Nintendo called this “the final major update,” this update adds a lot of new and free content to the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

With Bunny Day, Animal Crossing has already had new updates to the game even as it is amount a month old. With an Animal Crossing specific showcase, more is coming to the game.

Starting on tomorrow, April 23^rd, new villages will be visiting the island and setting up shop. Specifically, Leif with be bringing its Garden Shop containing shrubs and Jolly Redd its Treasure Trawler with artwork and furniture. The Museum will also be expanded to include an art gallery for artwork and sculpture.

Aside from those more permanent updates, there will be more time sensitive events similar to Bunny Day. They are as follows:

• Nature Day (4/23-5/4), with Nook Miles+ tasks based on nature related activities like planting shrubs
• May Day (5/1-5/7), offering a trip to limited time island
• Museum Day (5/18-5/31), offering events in the museum like a stamp rally
• Wedding Season (6/1-6/30), players can arrange wedding halls and take anniversary pictures

Splatoon 2

Also out of nowhere, Splatoon 2’s Splatfest will be making a brief return with a re-run of Mayo vs. Ketchup. The event will start 5/22 at 3PM Pacific and go until 5/24 at 3PM Pacific. Given that Nintendo had previously announced no new Splatfests would be happening, this sure is a treat.

Update (4/27) – The original post mistakenly wrote that the Splatoon 2 Splatfest would go on from 4/22-4/24 (the day of publishing to Friday of that week). This has been changed to reflect the actual Splatfest days, 5/22-5/24.