u/Sixfortyfive

Maker ID: 24Y-L7R-2WG

I've been spending the past week filling my coursebot with high quality traditional levels and I feel like I can stop now because I've got to make room for some of these. This was uploaded in the past couple of weeks and absolutely deserves more attention. Don't let the mostly rote world 1 fool you; it gets interesting quickly, and it gets challenging not long after.

The clip I posted doesn't really do it justice, but I don't have the time to cut a whole trailer for somebody else. Great level theming, professional feeling level flow, you name it. Ghost houses that feel like they're straight out of SMW, dark levels and upside down levels that actually feel fair, and satisfying secrets. It's even adept enough to offer the occasional super star that feels substantial without also feeling broken. Quality stuff from top to bottom.

If you've got a keen eye for it, take advantage of the infinite 1-Up opportunity in world 5-2 (unless there's another one that I missed). Unless you're an expert, worlds 7 and 8 will grind you into a paste (laudatory).

Maker ID: 106-GTV-LJF

I've been looking to fill up my coursebot with quality traditional style stages and this user recently uploaded a super world that's full of them. I felt it was worth sharing.

It's all SMB3 style and very well paced. Not too easy or hard, minimal jank or annoying/sloppy stage design, and a good variety of level types. Even has one bonus/miniboss stage per world to break up the action.

Maker ID: NFD-B3N-TXF

The overall idea of this super world was to achieve a mix of SMB1 and NSMB design principles. This is what you can expect to see:

• Every course uses the SMB1 game style.
• Every course theme is used at least once, including night themes, though some are definitely used more frequently than others.
• No course ever scrolls in more than 1 direction at a time. Horizontal areas are always restricted to the bottom half of the map with the locked ground-level camera and never scroll vertically. Vertical sub areas never scroll horizontally.
• NSMB course theming conventions are adhered to as much as possible. Most courses are typically built around a couple of key objects/enemies with escalating challenge. A lot of object variety is found throughout the whole super world, but each individual course tends to be limited to one or two distinct ideas. There is one vertical sub-area per world.
• Almost every course part in SMM2 is used at least once. Not every variation is present (such as giant/winged forms of some enemies), but I think arrow signs, one-way walls, and the Master Sword are the only things that are literally never used at all.
• Collectibles add optional challenge. Three courses in each world have 5 big coins as rewards. One course per world has 3 (always optional) pink coins that unlock a bonus room. Castle/airship courses have one optional 1-Up apiece in typically harder to reach spots.
• Advanced contraptions are not used. An attempt was made to use individual course parts in satisfying ways without combining several of them into single contraptions. Nothing ever gets more complex than a simple on/off shell timer, and even that sort of device is rare.
• Progressive power-ups are always used, and the Fire Flower is the most common power-up. The Big Mushroom and Superball Flower have one dedicated course each, and the SMB2 Mushroom has two, but all other courses are built around the Fire Flower. The Master Sword is the only power-up that is never used at all. In keeping with traditional course design, it's still possible to beat every stage without a power-up; the more exotic power-ups just allow you to overcome obstacles more easily and reach more bonuses.
• Indicators are kept to a minimum. Classic Mario, especially SMB1, tends to not hold the player's hand through visual cues. Platforming solutions are usually straightforward or open-ended enough to not require them, and puzzle solutions are usually meant to be obscured in the first place and left for the player to deduce on their own. There are a few more technical areas where coins are used as a guide, but even that's rare, as coins are typically used throughout courses as small rewards, as SMB1 tends to do. Some NSMB conventions are used to point the player in the direction of secrets, such as traversable warp pipes that extend further into the ground than other pipes, or the occasional hidden item in conspicuous terrain patterns.
• Every course has a 500-second timer. This is something that I'm only really doing for the sake of making every course more palatable in multiplayer, as the timer isn't reset between deaths in multi. Ideally I would have preferred to adjust the timer to a fitting value on a per-course basis, but I think it's more important to prioritize playability, and since none of these courses are designed to be tight speedrun challenges in the first place, I just felt it was better to max out the timer on all of them.
• Every course gives the player the opportunity to collect two or three 1-Ups in a single run. This is done partially to make most levels more palatable for Endless mode, but also for the sake of general Super World pacing, as you start with only 5 lives. (I prefer classic game pacing where game overs actually carry some kind of threat.) Most courses have approximately 50 loose coins scattered throughout (sometimes fewer in castle/airship courses) in addition either five 30-coins (+150), two 50-coins (+100), or a lone 1-Up itself. Every single course except the final one ends with a flagpole, almost all of which have a minor set piece challenge for a final 1-Up. There are also a very small number of instances where you might be able to obtain a few more 1-Ups through bounce or shell kick combos, but unless I missed anything, they're not that common and not very abusable.
• Aesthetics are respected, but aesthetic flourishes are not used at the expense of functionality. The only deliberate visual touches that you'll see are things like semisolids for backgrounds plus the occasional on-ground decorations. You'll never find a vine that isn't meant to be climbed or a platform that isn't meant to either aid or disrupt your movement. That said, steps are also taken to make sure that courses aren't uglier than they have to be; you'll never see a one-way wall, for example.

I've always really liked the original SMB and The Lost Levels for how much they do with the basic fundamentals, so I took a crack at making a whole super world while trying to stick to a "doing more with less" attitude from start to finish. Not sure if this kind of basic level design has wide appeal among those of you who have been actively playing Mario Maker 2 this whole time, but if it sounds like it's up your alley then I'd love to hear feedback.

Any feedback is welcome, but I'm especially interested to know if I missed any softlock cases or any instances of especially egregious cheese. Also if you've seen a concept in one of my courses that has just been flat-out done better in someone else's course then I'd be really interested in checking it out and learning from it. Otherwise I'd just like to know which levels you think play the best and which could use the most work if I ever feel like updating them. I'm uploading this whole set via a 7-day NSO trial, so if you think I really need to fix anything in these courses then I'll probably have to do it within a week. I don't really play Switch online often enough to justify an active subscription.

I'll also be looking to play and fill up my download list with good courses within the next week, so if you've either got some favorites you think I should check out or are looking for feedback on your own work then feel free to link me to any posts of your own or just share your course IDs below as well. My favorite type of courses to play are moderate-to-difficult traditional style, so I'd prefer those if you've got some.