Super Mario Maker 2 Update Lets You Play With Friends Online

Super Mario Maker 2 was well-received, but it's gone several months without a promised post-launch feature. That has now changed, as the new 1.1 patch adds online multiplayer modes with your friends, instead of restricting it to random players. The new update adds a few other new features and tweaks as well.

According to the announcement, Version 1.1.0 lets you play with people on your friends list for both versus and co-op modes, for courses uploaded to Course World along with anything saved to Coursebot. The update also adds voice chat support for the mobile app, so you can talk with your friends while running courses too. Nintendo notes that a Switch Online membership is required.

A few other additions were included in the update as well. The "Nearby Play" function now lets you play in co-op mode as well, and if you play a Coursebot stage the host system doesn't need to be connected to the Internet. It also added an Official Makers list so you can more easily find levels made by Nintendo. Finally, it adds a Play Together option directly from courses uploaded to a player's profile, Maker Profiles now include more info, and you can play with a horizontal Joy-Con in all modes.

The word that Mario Maker 2 wouldn't include friends list co-op came out just before the game's release, and fans quickly expressed dissatisfaction. Nintendo responded by promising it would come in a free update at E3, again before the game released, but it didn't give an expected timeline. The news didn't seem to slow down the game's sales, as Nintendo announced it had hit 2 million copies in its first three days.

"The Mario series is worth all the admiration it gets, and Super Mario Maker 2 is an excellent tool for picking it apart by pushing its enemies, mechanisms, and Mario, to their limit," Peter Brown said in GameSpot's review. "I've yet to make a stage of my own that I think is worthy of sending out to other players, but I'm committed to getting there. Whether exploring the full potential of a single element or throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, I've got the itch to join the creator's club. Mario Maker 2 makes the learning process intuitive and enjoyable. Most importantly, it's enabled designers amateur and professional alike to share their creativity with the world. The community is off to a great start, and thankfully, the fun has only just begun."