In the near future, gamers everywhere will be able to purchase Super Mario Maker 2 and start working on creating their nightmarishly difficult level. The game releases on June 28 for the Nintendo Switch and, on Wednesday, May 15, a roughly 15-minute Nintendo Direct dedicated to the game was broadcast. We learned about the game’s story mode, multiplayer options, online Course World, and more.
The Nintendo Direct essentially served as a full introduction to Super Mario Maker 2. The developers discussed a handful of different things a creator can do, including “stuff that isn’t possible in a regular Super Mario game.” We got a glimpse at different dynamic options players will have at their disposal, like the on/off switches that make different color blocks solid or intangible. We also got a chance to see that water levels and verticle levels are possible. Players can even create secret rooms or change the way sounds play when you jump on a specific monster or platform.
Further into the Nintendo Direct, the developers revealed a story mode for Super Mario Maker 2. The mode features more than 100 original courses created by Nintendo. It plays out over construction of a castle and players unlock new areas as they go along. Another new feature is the addition of the moon. When using the moon for your creation, it changes the level to a nighttime themed creation and that also changes the function of some of the enemies or items. The classic mushroom, for instance, turns into a rotten mushroom.
Those with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription can share their creations online, so you will need the service to get the most out of Super Mario Maker 2. Course World is where players will share all of their creations. You can search by different tags, themes, style, and more. When you complete a course, if the function is enabled, you can leave a comment on the creation. You can download levels to play offline on your Nintendo Switch as well. Each player has a Maker profile that can be customized. Super Mario Maker 2 also supports multiplayer gameplay in Course World. Up to four players play against each other in races on randomly selected courses.
Nintendo also revealed the Super Mario Maker 2 2019 Invitational and the tournament takes place on June 8.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.