Super Mario Bros. 2
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Super Mario Bros. 2 (known as Super Mario USA in Japan) is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. After Nintendo deemed the original Super Mario Bros. 2 too difficult and too similar to the first game for Western audiences, they received this game instead, which is a reskin of a game called Doki Doki Panic that was released only on the Family Computer Disk System a year prior.
The game would later get remade twice, once as part of the compilation game Super Mario All-Stars for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and again as Super Mario Advance for the Game Boy Advance, which also served as one of the handheld's launch titles.
Plot
One night Mario had a dream where a giant, tyrannical frog called Wart had taken over a world known as Subcon. The next day, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach go on a picnic together and discover a cave that leads to Subcon, the very same place that Mario went to during his dream. After discovering that Subcon was taken over by Wart, just like in his dream, Mario, along with Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach set out to defeat him and and free Subcon from his rule.
Why It's-a New Ookie-Dookie
- The gameplay is very different compared to other Mario games, which makes it stand out from them.
- When you jump on an enemy, you'll stand on top of them and ride them instead of simply defeating them.
- You can also pick up vegetables from the ground, and enemies themselves, which you can use to throw at other enemies to defeat them.
- The fact that the plot involves going up against Wart and his army, instead of Bowser and his army, also makes the game stand out from most other Mario games.
- The graphics are very good for 1988 standards, with the visuals looking much livelier than the first game and the player and enemy sprites having more detail.
- Starting from this game, the worlds are much more easily distinguishable due to the different environments such as grassy plains, deserts, or the sky instead of brick paths like the previous game.
- The game is less difficult than the first, in contrast to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 which is far harder than both. This also applies for later versions: All-Stars is a lot easier compared to the original version as you have infinite continues and can save, and Advance is even easier due to the numerous floating hearts, random large enemies that drop hearts when you throw them, and you can still save. The levels themselves aren't any easier, though.
- A bunch of iconic enemies in the Mario franchise are introduced here, such as Pokeys, Bob-Ombs, and Shy Guys.
- Birdo also makes her debut in this game as a recurring boss.
- The boss fights are great, and unlike the previous Mario games, the bosses and the fights are different from each other.
- Levels are less linear and have lots of hidden areas to explore.
- The screen now scrolls backwards, allowing for backtracking.
- There is no time limit, so players can take all the time they want during levels.
- This was the first Mario game where you can play as Toad and Peach. In addition, this is the first Mario game where Luigi isn't a mere palette swap of Mario. They also don't control the same:
- Mario is the most balanced character.
- Luigi is able to jump high, and his scuttling makes him fall slower.
- Toad picks up objects faster and runs the fastest.
- Peach is able to float for around a second.
- Lots of new items added most of which only show up in this entry.
- Magic Potion: Creates a door depending where the players toss them. This door leads to Sub-space.
- Cherries: If players collect five, a Starman appears.
- Stop Watch: Stops all enemy movements for a brief time.
- Rocket: If found automatically transports players to the next part of the level.
- Small heart: For every eight enemies defeated, a small heart will appear. Small hearts restore any HP a player has lost. If the player is in small form, the heart grows the player to Super form.
- Bomb: Can destroy breakable blocks.
- At the end of each level, players can play a slot machine minigame to earn extra lives (provided they have coins).
- Although not as good as other Mario games, the soundtrack is good.
- This is the first Mario game to have a fully animated cutscene.
- Unlike its predecessor, it has continues as an actual game mechanic instead of a cheat.
Bad Qualities
- The game itself is not an original Mario game, since it is a re-skin of Doki Doki Panic.
- Less levels than in the other NES Mario games, with only twenty (despite them being more expansive).
- For some players, the gameplay can be unfairly hard, the reasons are difficuly spikes, a few bad level design choisrs and some annoying enemies that can result in some cheap deaths.
- Depending on whether or not 3-3 is difficult for you, this either happens there or in 4-2, a level with a very hard to find fourth mushroom (rush Beezos BEFORE you get to the third mushroom) and some annoying platforming involving an Autobomb, not to mention fighting Birdo on ice.
- The difficulty spikes again in 5-3 with an area overflowing with enemies plus a tough climb up inside a tree. Then you have to fight Clawgrip, who is one of the toughest bosses.
- Phantos are very annoying to avoid as they constantly follow you in an erratic pattern while you have a key.
- Flurries are also annoying as they move very fast and since most of World 4 is slippery, players have very little time to react to them approaching.
- The ending is pretty cliché as the whole adventure was revealed to be just a dream Mario was having.
- Also, considering the world he and his friends were in fighting various enemies like mask henchmen, frog kings and dinosaurs spitting eggs, that is considered a nightmare. Not a dream.
- Speaking of ending, in both All Stars and Advance versions of the game, Wart has bleeding eyes which is very inappropiate for a Mario game. Thankfully there are ROM hacks that removes blood in both All Stars and Advance versions to make it family friendly.
- The Wart's boss fight is relatively straightforward, in contrast to the previous end-world bosses encountered. His projectile pattern is very easy to figure out, and all you need to do is hit him with a turnip a few times when his mouth is opened. Said turnips are helpfully provided by a machine in the same room. He's even more pathetic in the original game, as he only has 4 HP instead of 6.
- Some enemies in the end credits including Clawgrip and Hoopster's names are misspelled as "Clawglip" and "Hoopstar". However, in Clawgrip's case, the misspelling is due to the fact that the Japanese "R" sound is more equivalent to the "L" sound in other languages. Also, Ostro and Birdo's names are swapped in the credits and manual (thankfully, in All-Stars version it was fixed)
- In Super Mario Advance, the low-resolution voices can be annoying (although the voice acting is still good).
Trivia
- As part of a running gag, YouTuber videogamedunkey considers Super Mario Bros. 2 to be the best game ever made (along with Knack and Knack II), and always lists it as number 1 in his best of lists.
Reception
Super Mario Bros. 2 was met with positive reception, with many praising its uniqueness to other Mario games. It is often considered to be one of the best games on the NES. On GameRankings, the game has a ranking of 81.25%.[1] On GameFAQs, the game has a user rating of 3.81/5.[2]
The game sold around 7.46 million copies, making it the fourth best-selling NES game.
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