There are 2 types of people in this world: those who say Super Mario Bros. 2 has two playable characters and those who say it has four. And then there is the third type of person who lives under a rock. The one who is unaware of the story of how the version of Super Mario Bros. 2 that the rest of the world got was not the Super Mario Bros. 2 that was released in Japan. Thankfully this review is for all three of you. So before we dive too deep into my thoughts on Super Mario Bros. 2, let’s go over the game’s interesting history.
The new game, Super Mario Bros. 2, was a hit on the Famicom Disk System, selling 2.5 million copies and was the best selling game for the add-on. But when it came time to localize the game for the US, Nintendo of America had a different take on the sequel. It was considered too hard for US gamers.
Howard Phillips, game tester, warehouse manager, and do-everything-man for Nintendo of America said this about it: “As I continued to play, I found that Super Mario Bros. 2 asked me again and again to take a leap of faith, and each of those leaps resulted in my immediate death. This was not a fun game to play. It was punishment – undeserved punishment. I put down my controller, astonished that Mr. Miyamoto had chosen to design such a painful game.” Nintendo of America passed on releasing this version of Super Mario Bros. 2 and this is where our story begins.
Our version of Super Mario Bros. 2 began as a prototype by Nintendo newcomer Kensuke Tanabe; exploring the concept of a Super Mario Bros style platformer with vertical scrolling levels instead of side-scrolling. The concept was designed with the help of Shigeru Miyamoto and focused on simultaneous cooperative play; grabbing, throwing, and stacking items, blocks, and even the other player. The concept was a bit too complicated for the Famicom to be able to run and so Miyamoto suggested that they cut the second player and add horizontally scrolling sections to make it a bit more Mario-like. Instead of throwing the other player, the concept was reworked into throwing enemies instead.
Tanabe was handed a list of mascot characters for the Japanese media company, Fuji TV, and was asked to create a game for Fuji’s upcoming Summer 1987 Yume Kōjō expo. And thus, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was born. The game was never released outside of Japan. When Nintendo of America needed a replacement for Super Mario Bros. 2, Doki Doki Panic, with its origins so firmly rooted in the gameplay elements of the original Super Mario Bros., was an easy choice for conversion into a Mario sequel.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was released October 9th, 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it was a smash hit. It was the top selling game for the NES for 14 straight months and garnered high praise from critics of the time. Computer and Video Games magazine, in their July 1989 issue gave the game a 97% score and called it “a game so addictive, each copy should come with a government health warning”. Super Mario Bros. 2 was the best selling NES game to never be a pack in title. It was so popular that, in 1990, Nintendo decided to release our version of Mario 2 titled Super Mario USA for the Famicom in Japan. Doki Doki Panic had come full circle. The game was rereleased for the Super Nintendo in 1993 as a part of Super Mario Allstars, receiving upgraded 16 bit graphics and music. It was reworked and rereleased a second time for Game Boy Advance as Super Mario Advance in 2001.
When I was a kid, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World had already come out. Super Mario Bros. 2 felt like a black sheep of the family as it didn’t really follow the formula of the other games of the series. I definitely put more hours into Mario 1 and 3 but as a part of this review series I decided to revisit good old Mario 2 and see if it really deserved the neglect that I gave it.
Unique Gameplay
The controls are pretty standard Mario fare. B runs and A jumps. You can charge up a super jump by ducking down for a few seconds. The jump and momentum physics are more in line with what veterans of the later Mario titles would expect rather than the weighty and slow physics of the first game. This is where the standard Mario gameplay ends however and something else takes shape instead. The usual stomp is not effective against the enemies in this game, instead you can ride on them and pick them up by pressing the B button. Enemies, blocks, vegetables, and more can be thrown this way to destroy foes, create a platform, or unlock secrets.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is well-known for having 4 playable characters, each with their own range of abilities. Mario is all-around balanced, with decent run speed, jump height, and strength. Luigi has a high-jump with crazy legs action but is slightly more slippery to control. Princess Peach (or Toadstool as she was known at this point in time in the USA) can float while jumping making her ideal for less skilled players but she is the slowest and weakest of the 4 characters. Toad has the most pitiful jump height but he’s fast, strong, and even faster when carrying an enemy. The level design complements the foursome’s unique attributes well.
In the NES original you can select your character before each level but you can’t switch until you either beat the level or get game over and use a continue. In the later releases for SNES and GBA you can select a character each time you attempt a level.The expanded character selection, cleaned up control compared to Super Mario Bros., and addition of the ability to carry and throw enemies and objects make a very intriguing gameplay loop for a simple NES game. There aren’t many games on the NES that are more fun to play than Super Mario Bros 2.
Intelligent Game Design
Super Mario Bros. 2 has a unique setting and plot further cementing it as an enigma in the Mario series. A lot of this is because of its origin as a non-Mario title that was converted into a Mario game for the US market. But being a black sheep allowed it to have its own legacy compared to the “real” Japanese sequel to Super Mario Bros. Unlike in other Super Mario games, Super Mario Bros. 2 has a health meter rather than a power up system. With 2 hearts or more, Mario and friends will be in “Super” state while their small forms serve as a warning that the next bit of damage will cost a life. Hearts on the health meter can be restored by grabbing a floating heart that appears after defeating enough enemies. (Static hearts can also be found in the level or dug up in the GBA version). Potions can be found and when thrown they unlock a door to the bonus dimension called “subspace”. For a few seconds, coins can be plucked during this time and can be redeemed for chances to play the slot game for extra lives after finishing a level. Mushrooms also appear in certain locations in subspace, if collected they add another heart to your health meter. You’ll want to maximize your time in subspace as you only start with 3 lives and get 2 continues to beat the adventure. Limited resources to replenish HP and extra lives means that Super Mario Bros. 2 is a pretty tough game. You’ll likely need to start from the beginning a time or two before you beat the entire game. A few warp zones are hidden within the game; if you can discover them, you can skip ahead to the final world.
I found myself preferring horizontally scrolling levels. These levels play smoother as the screen scrolls normally instead of in sections. The vertical scrolling sections, only being able to scroll up or down, are much weaker in terms of design. Oftentimes they may have a leap of faith as the screen won’t scroll down until you’ve already committed to a blind jump. Vertical sections can be very punishing as a missed timed jump will have you scrambling to find a foothold as the screen slowly descends. Some levels I just found boring but speeding through them isn’t really recommended because you need all the bonus chances you can get after beating a level.
Each level ends with a giant bird’s head (uh what?). To enter the bird’s mouth and clear the level you need a crystal ball. The first two levels of a world typically conclude with a showdown with Birdo, a gender confused dinosaur that shoots projectiles from its snout. Birdo comes in three varieties; one that only shoots eggs, one that shoots both eggs and fireballs, and one that only shoots fire. Three hits from her (his?) own eggs or another projectile and Birdo gives up his (her?) crystal ball so that you can clear the level. The final level of each world instead leaves the crystal ball out in the open. After entering the bird’s mouth, you will have to defeat the world end boss. Unlike the typical 2D Mario fare, these bosses are more than the cliche “stomp three times” to defeat. Mouser throws bombs that must be returned to him. Clawgrip throws rocks at you before they ricochet off into a ravine. Triclyde and Fryguy need their fire put out with a mushroom block, and the final boss, Wart, will have to be choked out with vegetables while you dodge his toxic belches. The bosses vary slightly between versions. In the original and in Allstars; you fight Mouser and Triclyde twice each. (In Doki Doki Panic you fought Mouser 3 times even!) In Super Mario Advance, the bosses’ order is changed and a new boss, Robo-Birdo is added. You still rematch Mouser in this version but this time in World 6 instead of World 3. Compared to other Mario games, the bosses in this game are greatly improved by the unique mechanics of Mario 2.
Superb Sights and Sounds
Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the best looking games on the NES. The green hills and blue waterfalls pop against the backdrops of the landscape. The playable characters are colorful. Enemies typically come in a pair of different colors. Super Mario Bros. 2 is colorful but avoids the trap of looking washed out like the NES version of Super Mario Bros 3.
For the Super Nintendo the game was given a glow up in Super Mario Allstars. The colors don’t pop quite as much as in the NES version but the new backgrounds are much more detailed and feature parallax scrolling. The character and enemy sprites feature more color and detail. The Gameboy Advance version keeps the Allstars graphics and adds some additional animation and details to the sprites. But because of the GBA’s non-lit screen and limited resolution, the colors are washed out and your view is more narrow due to the screen crunch. Allstars is definitely my preferred version as far as graphics are concerned.
Koji Kondo, composer of Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda, also composed the music for Doki Doki Panic. Despite not initially being a Mario game, Super Mario Bros. 2 already has the sound and feel of a Mario game and has an excellent soundtrack as well. The character select screen features a bright and cheerful melody to match the bright colors of the game’s graphics. The end credits theme is a great cap to a fun adventure. The main overworld theme is an absolute ear worm and my immature self can not hear it without singing the lyrics to Brentalfloss’ “The Truth about Toad” video in my head.
Like all the games in Super Mario Allstars, the music in Super Mario Bros. 2 has upgraded instruments to take advantage of the Super Nintendo’s much better sound chip. For the Gameboy Advance, Super Mario Advance adds a new song for bonus areas as well as a new song for the boss room at the end of each world. The inferior sound chip of the GBA is evident as the songs are a bit more compressed and tinny sounding. The GBA version also adds voice clips for the characters when getting items, taking damage, or clearing a level. The characters are notoriously chatty in this version. Whether that is a positive or negative depends on your perspective. There isn’t a huge variety of lines and so I find it gets old real fast. Overall, the Super Mario Allstars version wins on sound.
The So What
Super Mario Bros. 2 is truly a black sheep in the Mario franchise. While it didn’t satisfy the same itch that Mario would later become known for, it really is a fun, colorful, beautiful, great sounding but challenging game. Each version has a justification for why you should play it. The Super Mario Allstars version looks and sounds the best and has been made a little easier by the addition of saves and unlimited continues. (And it comes with 3 other Mario classics to boot!) The original has one of the most interesting development stories of a game on the NES and it is simply one of the best games on the system as well. Meanwhile Super Mario Advance, comes with some additions and slight changes that makes the game more playable to those with modern sensibilities, it’s portable, and it adds “Yoshi’s Challenge” to give you a reason to revisit the game after beating it to find the hidden Yoshi Eggs. (Oh and it comes with the GBA port of Mario Bros. on the cartridge as well) If I had to recommend a version, I’d choose Super Mario Advance for the extra content and challenges, but you can’t go wrong with any version on your preferred console. Overall, I give Super Mario Bros. 2, 4 ⭐s out of 5