Super Mario Maker 2 is an endlessly creative game, but things get even crazier when players incorporate glitches into their levels. The latest Mario Maker glitch that players have discovered allows creators to use every item in the game in every style, even if they’re exclusive to the Super Mario 3D World variant.
The key to this glitch is “corrupting” a level—that is, breaking it in such a way that causes Super Mario Maker 2’s glitch-detection system to delete the stage automatically. This involves placing a question mark block, putting a track over the block, and attaching a coin to the track over the block. Removing the track forces the block and the coin to occupy the same space, which normally isn’t possible. Players then need to place an item—the demo video below uses a clown car, but anything should do—so that it is pinned to the right-most space of the item bar at the top of the screen.
Upon saving and loading this corrupted level, it will be auto-deleted and removed from Course Bot. From there, players must repeatedly make a new level until it opens with the Super Mario 3D World style (the Super Mario Maker 2 stage builder randomly starts in one of the five styles). Now, placing the item that was saved on the item bar will turn it into a “converted item,” which will be invisible when placed into the level and take on the appearance of the item to its left in the item bar. All that’s left is to pin a 3D World-exclusive item, like the blinking block, to the item bar in the same way that the clown car was pinned previously, save the level, wait for Course Bot to delete it, and then create a new stage in any style.
If these steps were followed correctly—believe me, it’s a lot easier than it sounds—the active item upon starting a new level will be the one pinned from the Super Mario 3D World style. Depending on the item, it might be fully functional but invisible, crash the game, or simply not work as intended. Furthermore, some can be used but won’t escape the Super Mario Maker 2 glitch-detection system, meaning they can’t be saved or uploaded. It should also be noted that Nintendo has been very diligent about deleting uploaded levels, even those that don’t include glitches, so it’s likely that any levels utilizing this item-swapping method won’t survive online for very long either.
While neat, this doesn’t appear to have many practical applications outside of building frustrating troll levels. One cool idea, however, is to build clear pipes from Super Mario 3D World and overlay inert green pipes over them in other styles, making them appear to function in the same way with a visible indication of where folks will travel upon entering them. That said, the Super Mario Maker 2 community is a creative bunch, especially when they find ways to shrug off Nintendo’s restrictions. Let’s just hope folks can check out any levels created with this glitch before they’re inevitably removed from Nintendo servers.