Mario fans of the world, unite! Now you can play, create, and share the side-scrolling Super Mario courses of your dreams in the Super Mario Maker 2 game, available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch system! Dive into the single-player Story Mode and play built-in courses to rebuild Princess Peach's castle, and make and play your own courses, alone or together.

Power-up the fun even further with a Nintendo Switch Online membership, which gives you access to Course World and its wealth of online content and functionality. Track your rankings, share your creations, and leave comments after you've played courses. With a Nintendo Switch Online membership, you can also tackle the Endless Challenge, save online courses locally for later offline play, enjoy online multiplayer with players both near and far, and customize how you appear to others by dressing your Mii character with fun accessories!

On Dec. 5, a free update to Super Mario Maker 2 for the Nintendo Switch adds Link from the Legend of Zelda series as a playable character, new course parts and a new gameplay mode.

After downloading the Ver. 2.0.0 update, the new Master Sword item will be available to use exclusively in the 8-bit Super Mario Bros. style. When this new course part is picked up, Mario will transform into Link, equipped with a new set of moves like attacking with a sword, shooting arrows and dropping bombs.

Transforming into Link using the Master Sword opens up a whole new world of design possibilities for creators. Using his arrows, Link can shoot far off switches that Mario would normally not be able to hit. His new down thrust move with the sword will defeat usually protected enemies like spike-covered Spinies. And with bombs, some walls that would normally be impassable by Mario and friends can easily be blown up.

In addition to Link, the update also adds more course parts and enemies, as well as a new Ninji Speedruns mode, perfect for players looking for a challenge.

• Dash Block: Available in the Super Mario 3D World style, the Dash Block course part gives Mario a major speed burst when stepped on.
• Frozen Coin: These coins are surrounded by a block of ice and can only be released if melted by fireballs or other fire elements, including a certain angry sun.
• P Block: When a P Switch is hit in the course, invisible P Blocks temporarily turn into hard platforms, or vice-versa.
• Spike: This classic enemy coughs up massive spike balls and launches them at Mario. If used in the snow environment, Spike will toss snowballs instead!
• Pokey: The iconic stacked cactus from multiple Super Mario games joins Super Mario Maker 2 for the first time. Players can even edit the height of each Pokey.

In the new Ninji Speedruns mode, players can take on a timed challenge in courses created by Nintendo exclusively for this mode. Other players’ Ninji Ghosts will run alongside players as they compete against rivals from around the world. The Ninji Ghosts that appear are selected from player data at a similar performance level, so players can gradually improve their performance by running the course alongside other players’ Ninji Ghosts. Players can also collect stamps by clearing courses and redeem them in-game to get special Mii costumes.

Each Ninji Speedrun event will run for about one week, with new courses distributed periodically. During the event, players will be ranked by their play time in that course. Players can still run the course alongside Ninji Ghosts and collect stamps even after the event period has ended.

Key Features:

• Play a nearly limitless number of side-scrolling Super Mario courses anytime, anywhere, starting with the 100+ built-in courses in the single-player Story Mode, a new Mario adventure that unleashes the creative potential of Super Mario Maker 2
• Break the rules as you use a wide range of parts, tools, and customization options to create the side-scrolling Super Mario courses of your dreams alone—or together by passing a Joy-Con controller to a partner
• Intuitive button and touch-screen controls, plus optional tutorials, make designing courses a snap for new and veteran makers alike
• Courses saved to Coursebot — both those you've created and those you've saved locally from Course World — can be played cooperatively by up to four players on a single system
• With a Nintendo Switch Online membership, power-up the fun even further in Course World as part of the vibrant Super Mario Maker 2 community: share your courses, access a near-endless supply made by others, enjoy online multiplayer, and more

Super Mario Maker 2 is available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.