Super Mario Maker 2 Hype!

Holy crap it is almost here. Super Mario Maker 2! This weeks post is going to pretty much a Super Mario Maker love fest. I didn’t get to play a ton of the original but there was a solid week of my life that I devoted to just making levels. I was obsessed. It was an immense amount of fun figuring out new ways to create unique and interesting puzzles. I honestly don’t have much to say this week. I’m tired and busy but I am beyond excited for this sequel. So I’m gonna keep this short and sweet.

Here’s the trailer:

In this new game, a sequel to the original Wii U™ game, players can create the Super Mario courses of their dreams, with access to even more tools, items and features, including the new ability to create slopes for the first time. Super Mario Maker 2 launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch this June.

Now go play some freakin’ Mario!

Nintendo Labo - First Impressions

It has finally happened. I turned 30! No that’s not what I’m here to talk about. However, me turning 30 does allow me to discuss this topic! You see my wife got me a Nintendo Labo for my birthday. And now I just sit back wait for the vitriolic response about how Nintendo is just selling us cardboard.

No but in all seriousness I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed my experience so far with the Labo. First thing to note is I have only built 2 of the parts so far, the “RC Car” and the Motorcycle, so I can only comment on those 2 things specifically right now. I do plan on coming back for another post on this topic as I get more experience with it and I would have wanted to tinker with it more but I was busy playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 this week. With all that said lets take a look at the Nintendo Labo.

The first piece I built was the “RC Car”. And I used quotations for that because while it does function kind of as an RC Car it really doesn’t look like one. But that isn’t the important part of this. The important part is that it freaking works. It’s like cardboard physics sorcery and it’s amazing. The game teaches you how to build each of the pieces with an easy to rewind and fast forward video tutorial that is honestly perfect and will definitely help kids with building the toys. Or adults like me who need a step by step breakdown of how to build it cause otherwise they become paranoid they are building it wrong. Thankfully that never happened to me because the instructions we seriously so clear and well done.

The RC car itself is very simple looking.

The openings on the side of the RC Car that you see above are for the Joy Con controllers. You slide them into those spaces until they lock in. Well as much as they can lock into cardboard. You then take the Switch system and use the buttons on the touch screen to control the car! One button vibrates one joy con and the other vibrates the other one. The way it works is when you hit both buttons at the same time it will cause both joy cons to vibrate and steadily push the car forward! To turn you just hit one or the other and the care will turn left or right. It’s a remarkably simple idea but it’s pretty effective! It’s not something you would really expect to work either but physics are a weird thing man.

While I do think the RC Car was cool it’s not something I would really want to play with frequently. The other toy I built, the motor cycle is much more fun to play.

The motorcycle toy is incredibly fun to play. It isn’t the most intuitive at first because you have to hold it up against your stomach/chest to play. It is not meant to sit on a table or anything else. You hold it to your chest and use the handle bars to steer you motor cycle on the screen. You can see there is a nice placeholder for the Nintendo Switch screen in the center while the joy cons fit inside of each handle bar. In the right handle bar there is a rubber band hidden in the main console that allows you to “rev” the engine and it feels pretty good to twist the handle.

So far my experience with the Labo has been a ton of fun. And while I can understand why it got some hate online it still surprises me just HOW MUCH there was. I mean the games tied with the toys are fun so far and the cardboard is a lot sturdier than you would think it would be. But at the same time I understand it is cardboard. But I guess my argument would be that the toys are pretty elaborate and can take up to 3 hours to build depending on the toy so calling it “just cardboard” is a vast over simplification. The board Nintendo provides have a lot of detail in them and can take a while to punch out all the stuff you need. Just trying to imagine how long it would take me to create these pieces without the precut or perforated portions gives me a head ache.

Surprisingly enough I recommend at least trying the Labo. I have had a ton of fun with what I have built so far and I seriously cannot wait till I have some more free time to build that damn piano.