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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Mario to be had on the NES, May 29, 2003
Super Mario Bros 2 has been ridiculed and criticized since its release for being so "different" and "un-Mario". I never understood that, is the game not fantastic? So what if it's different, when did different become bad?The actual Super Mario Bros 2 that was released in Japan was a straight sequel to Super Mario Bros. Basically the same game but with different levels, Mario and Luigi having different traits, and it was much harder (in America this game is commonly known as the "lost levels" found on Super Mario All Stars on the SNES). Nintendo of America wisely decided this wouldn't fly in America, it was just too similiar to the original. So instead they took another Japanese game, Doki Doki Panic, threw Mario and the gang into it and called it Super Mario Bros 2. Thank you Nintendo, because Doki Doki Panic/SMB2 is a great game! One of the best platformers ever. The game revolves entirely around the idea you can pick things up, either pulling vegetables out of the ground, enemies, or various other objects. This is all put to good use throughout the game providing interesting obstacles and tasks to complete. Things like having to throw the eggs back at the bird that just launched at you, having to lift creatures off their flying carpets so you can go for a ride, lift keys protected by magic masks, etc etc. Not to mention one of the best final boss encounters on the NES. It's all really cool. So get over how "different" this game is and just play it! All pretty amazing considering this was all the work of Fuji TV (developer of DDP). Weird, eh?
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
my favorite Mario on the NES, May 2, 2003
While many consider this the black sheep of the Super Mario Bros series on the NES, this game is actually my favorite on the bunch. The world is nothing like the world of the other Mario games, and the enemies and bosses and goal is different. This is a quest to defeat Boss Wart (instead of Bowser) and you have the options of playing as one of four characters (with the ability to switch every level): Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad. Each of these characters have different play characteristics. Toad can pick up any object with no difficulty but is the worst jumper. Princess is the opposite (no strength, but can float). Luigi has the best jump (no float), but that becomes its own problem. Mario is perfectly average. These strengths and weaknesses come into play in choosing who to use for each level and some are clearly better than others on any given level. Even though I found this game to be the easiest of the bunch, for me it was also the most fun. This is still a side-scrolling game, but some levels scroll up and down on the screen (keeping the side-scrolling viewpoint, though) depending on if you are climbing or dropping down. There are shortcuts in many levels and different ways to warp, get extra lives (including an odd cheat for extra lives), or to shorten the game. In the end, there are a couple of difficult levels, but this may be the easiest of the three on the NES. Even so, this is my favorite of all of the Super Mario games on the NES.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sweet Incense of Childhood!, October 4, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
When Super Mario Brothers 2 was released in the US in 1988, the game became an instant hit with gamers. What makes SMB2 so strange is how utterly and drastically different the game really is from its predecessor, SMB, which is one of the pivotal cornerstones of the gaming industry. The game is expertly crafted (little surprise in that regard given it is a Miyamoto title), and just a great platformer with Mario quality, if not exactly Mario gameplay, written all over it.
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Like most Nintendo franchises that began in the 1980s, the second installment in the series was incredibly weird and very different from the original. Case in point. Castlevania II:Simon's Quest. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Super Mario Brothers 2. Mega Man 2. (Okay, I'm kidding about Mega Man 2. Mega Man is the one series that DOES NOT CHANGE AT ALL. Capcom remade Mega Man five times, and then moved it to the X series and remade that a bunch more times). Instead of jumping on turtles and goombas, trying to reach high scores, timed levels, SUPER MARIO 2 had absolutely nothing to do with the original game. It's like Mario is on a bad acid trip. There's transgendered, sexually confused birds shooting eggs (Birdo), mice that throw bombs and sport sunglasses, a weird, occultic, socially inept brotherhood that wears masks and robes, demonic phantos guarding keys, and a giant lizard who styles himself as a king takes control of people's dreams (Freddy Krueger anyone?). Given the previous game, SUPER MARIO 2 is easily the weirdest of the main Mario series, make no mistake. The gameplay from SMB2, other than platforming, has absolutely nothing in common with the original SMB. You throw enemies at one another, throw vegetables, fight weird enemies, blow up walls with bombs, etc.
Although the Americans didn't know it at the time, Nintendo wasn't really releasing SMB2. By now this game's origins in well known, but back in the 1980s most gamers would have been shocked to realise that Nintendo took a preexisting game called DOKI DOKI PANIC, replaced the vaguely Arabian characters (one who was visibly pregnant) with Mario sprites, changed a few other sprites, rework the ending some, but otherwise leaving the game mechanics and the levels alone.
Nintendo had already released a SUPER MARIO BROTHERS 2 in Japan, but that game was much like the second quest of Zelda, a much harder version of what is ultimately the same game. When it came time to release a SMB2 in America, the upper management bulked because of the Japanese title's extreme difficulty and remarkable similarity to the first SMB. Howard Lincoln, at the time in charge of the North America division of Nintendo (and for you oldschool Nintendo Power readers, he's one half of the title characters comic strip "Howard and Nestor") also hated the Japanese SUPER MARIO 2. So they opted to release another game in its stead.
Enter YUME Kôjô: DOKI DOKI PANIC (rough translation: "Dream Factory: Heart Pounding Panic"). Developed in cooperation with Fuji Television in promotion of Dream Factory '87, an event promoting Fuji's new television shows and other projects, DOKI DOKI PANIC, the game features a family of four characters who had to rescue these two lost children. In the game's intro, two children are reading from a book, when a giant hand grabs the children's faces and drags them into the book. The children's pet monkey, Chim Chim, runs and grabs the Arabian family, who also just happened to be the mascots of the Dream Factory '87 promotional event. Convenient, that. The family was Imagin (the son, replaced by Mario), Lina (Imajin's little sister, replaced by Princess Toadstool), Mama (who is clearly pregnant, with one of her hands clearly protecting her belly during gameplay; she was replaced by Luigi), and Papa (replaced by Toad). The family enters into the world of Subcon to beat Wart (Mamu, as he is known in Japan, as well as the 1993 gameboy Zelda title LINK'S AWAKENING, his only other appearance in a Nintendo game). Other than the family, all game characters were developed by Nintendo.
Now, what are the differences? I won't list them all here (google Doki Doki Panic and you'll find plenty of sites detailing the differences between SMB2 and Doki). Actually, other than some graphical changes, none of the changes really effects gameplay with two major exception. All four main characters are identical to their Doki counterparts. The B-button super speed run was added to SMB2. Nintendo replaced the storyline of having two kids kidnapped to Wart capturing Subcon people and Mario having to free them. Still, the replacement storyline fits in with the original dreamworld association that was associated with Doki Doki (which, after all, means Dream Factory).
The first of the two major differences between Doki Doki is that to see the end of the game, you must beat it with all four characters. The four characters have savable progress, and when you clear the game with all four then the ending displays. The second major difference is the replacement of Mouser in World 5-3 (his third appearance as the world end boss) with Clawgrip, a character exclusive too SMB2.
What does this all have to do with our perception of SMB2 today? As SMB2's origins have become common knowledge to video game enthusiasts and Nintendo fans (I found out in the late 1990s), a lot of people have put down this game due to it not being a Mario game to begin with. But back in the 1980s and 1990s, before DOKI DOKI became well known, the general critical consensus was SMB2, though a vast departure from the original, was a very fun, well-executed game on its own right. The game is among the highest selling Nintendo games of all time, with only SMB and SMB3 outselling the title on the original NES. When they reissued SMB2 in 2001 as SUPER MARIO ADVANCE, the title sold very well also, and is the highest selling title in the ADVANCED series.
There is another factor to consider. Despite what the purists say, Shigeru Miyamoto was heavily involved in the development of this game, and actually had nothing to do with the Japanese SMB2. As DOKI DOKI was to be a one-off promotional item for Fuji's Dream Factory, there has been some well-founded speculation Nintendo was planning this to be a Mario title the whole time and wanted to test the game by releasing it in Japan first. The packaging on DOKI has a picture of Mario and Imagin together.
While it is true SMB3, this game's sequel, reneged on most of SMB2 game mechanics, opting to return to the original SMB for its primary inspiration, most of SMB2's enemy characters became permanent cast members in the Mario echelon.
Overall, though not originally released as a Mario title, for all gamers outside of Japan, this is what we think of as SMB2. Playing thru the LOST LEVELS, which we finally got on the Virtual Console on October 1, 2007 (21 years after the fact), I'm glad Nintendo did what it did. And since Nintendo did release a separate SMB2, we know have four NES Mario titles. Mea culpa. Fortunate accident.
For my money, SMB2 is one of my all time favorite games. I have distinct memories of trying to get SMB2 for the NES but couldn't because it was selling out so fast. This was the big game of Christmas 1988, and you were a lucky kid indeed that had this game under their Christmas tree
For me, it is the one game, even more than SMB, that brings back the sweet incense of childhood and long bygone days I often times wish I could return too. I have played and beaten the game countless times, but every time I go thru it I just feel transported back to my childhood.
And for that mere fact, SUPER MARIO BROTHERS 2 is a truly priceless game.
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