Are 1-Ups any good as rewards in Super Mario Maker 2?

I'm looking to reward the players of levels I make in Super Mario Maker 2 for finding secret areas, getting past difficult sections, etc.

In the original Super Mario Brothers series (Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World, etc) the subjectively "best" reward was a 1-Up Mushroom, granting an extra life. Coins might be a second best as they granted points, and 100 coins would be a 1-Up.

In Super Mario Maker 2, from what I can tell, 1-Up Mushrooms have no value: When I play courses locally through the "Play" option I haven't seen any counter for lives, and so getting an extra life seems to have no value (they're effectively infinite)

Do 1-Up mushrooms have any value in in Super Mario Maker 2? If not, what are good "rewards" to place in secret / difficult to find areas? What do players value and try to find?

Solution 1:

It depends.

If you have a somewhat challenging level it might end up in endless mode. There 1-Ups are at least a little bit of value, since you can collect 3 per level to add to your total live counter. Especially for every mode past easy it is helpful to have your live counter stocked up for stages that require a few more tries.

In normal mode, where you can choose levels as you wish 1-ups are really not worth your time, as long as you did not set the win condition to collecting enough.

It may be better to reward your players with a mushroom or a fire flower here, since those are more versatile usable if you value normal play over endless modes.

But I personally would refrain from giving the player a movement improving item (like propeller mushroom, cape or tanookie leaf), since that is usually a way to break a level and get through it really fast without really admiring it.

Another way to reward a player for finding a secret area might be, that you set a win condition. If the player has to get a set amount of a special Item and he finds one or two of them in your secret area they don't have to look for them later on. That does work pretty good with 1-Up Mushrooms.