After the Nintendo Direct focused on Super Mario Maker 2 announced several new features, one of the additions that excited fans most was online multiplayer, a first for the franchise, allowing people to play a variety of courses competitively or cooperatively with other players around the world.
However, what seemed obvious to many was not so obvious to Nintendo: playing with friends is possible only locally. In fact, nothing confirming that option had been shown in any video of the game at the time.
Competitive matches will be ranked, while cooperative matches will not.
The news emerged onNintendo World Report, which said the company had contacted it. After the story spread, the GameXplain channel checked with Nintendo itself, which confirmed the feature's absence:
That is true. As the game stands now, you will not be able to create lobbies with online friends. You will only be able to play online with random people. You can still gather friends locally and play with up to four players on the same Nintendo Switch. You can also challenge your friends with your creations and play their courses through Course IDs and by following their Maker profiles.
Super Mario Maker 2 local multiplayer mode
Nintendo additionally said that playing with friends would affect the ranking system, which evaluates players based on their performance in courses. Many games work around this problem by not applying such a system to online matches with friends.
GameXplain also asked whether it would be possible to play locally and online with friends at the same time, but that apparently will not be possible either.
The news has not been well received by fans, who criticize the online functionality of this and other games. The reaction may become large enough to reverse the situation, since the game had not yet launched and could still receive updates.
This was not the day's only piece of negative confirmation, as other restrictions were announced for Super Mario Maker 2: there will be no Amiibo compatibility, and consequently no Mystery Costumes, and it will not be possible to transfer courses from the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions of Super Mario Maker, although that was already expected.
