How To Unlock The Superball Flower Power-Up In Super Mario Maker 2

Even by Super Mario standards, Super Mario Land is weird. Mario's first portable adventure, which arrived on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1989, looks like Super Mario Bros., but everything is slightly off. Instead of shells, turtles have bombs on their backs. Mario cruises around in submarines and biplanes. The main villain is an alien, not a Koopa, and while there are power-ups that look similar, Fire Flowers don't exist at all.

Instead, Super Mario Land has "Superball Flowers," which let Mario shoot bouncy spheres that ricochet off of surfaces at 45-degree angles. You can imagine how Superballs might liven up your Super Mario Maker 2 levels. Nintendo clearly did, because Super Mario Maker 2 includes the Superball Flower as a hidden power-up. If you've played through Super Mario Maker 2's story mode, you've probably unlocked the Superball Flower naturally. If not, here's what you need to do.

When you get the opportunity to undertake the Purple Toad's "POW Block Wake-Up Call!" job, do it. That will wake up the lazy Yellow Toad, who doles out a trio of missions of his own: "Buried Stones," "Cat-Scratch Stone," and "Stone from the River." Complete all three. Now, visit Purple Toad again. He should have a new job, called "Spiny Shell Smashers," waiting for you. Finish that, and there should be a question mark box for you to hit. The Superball Flower is inside.

The Superball Flower only works with the Super Mario Maker 2's Super Mario Bros. theme, but it comes with a fun Easter egg (it gives Mario a Game Boy-inspired sprite). People have already found a number of cool ways to use it in puzzle-based levels, too. All in all? Pretty neat.