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This article is about the version of Super Mario Bros. 2 released outside of Japan. For information on the Japanese game with the same name, see Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. Super Mario Bros. 2 is a platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was released in North America in October 1988, in Europe on April 18, 1989 and in Japan on July 14, 1992. Super Mario Bros. 2 did not begin life as a Super Mario Bros. title; it is a remake of the Japanese Famicom Disk System title Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo's own sequel to Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986. However, because of that game's extreme difficulty and its close similarity to the original game, Nintendo decided not to release it in the United States, instead releasing Doki Doki Panic with Mario characters. Japan later saw the modified release under the title of Super Mario USA. Because it was not originally a Mario title, this game differs greatly from the original Super Mario Bros. However, despite its status as the black sheep of the series *, many elements from Super Mario Bros. 2 have become part of the Mario series canon and the repertoire of recurring elements. The game also sold well in its own right and was critically acclaimed at the time.
Gameplay Players choose from four characters each time they start or restart a level: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach (at the time of the game's release in North America, she was known as "Princess Toadstool" or simply "Princess"), and Toad. Each has a special ability: Luigi can jump very high, the Princess can remain temporarily suspended in the air (levitate), Toad can pick up things quickly and is very agile, and Mario is balanced. In future Mario games in which multiple characters were playable, Mario would always be the most balanced character. A unique ability in this game is the "power squat", by holding Down on the control pad for a few seconds, players could build power for higher jumps. Most enemies are defeated by throwing vegetables and other items which the character plucks from the ground. Unlike other Mario games, simply jumping on enemies does not accomplish anything. In fact jumping on an enemy may do more harm than good. Most enemies may also be picked up and thrown. Many enemies which first appeared in this game (such as Shy Guys) would reappear in later sequels and related games. This is the first time that Princess Peach and Toad appear as playable characters. This is the first Mario game to make use of a life meter, which initially has two segments but can be extended to four through the collection of special items. (In Super Mario Advance, the limit was upped to five.) This allows Mario and his friends to be hit more than two times before dying. Many power-ups and items from the original game make appearances here, often serving similar fuctions in slightly different ways. For example, mushroom collected add segments to the life meter, and coins are used to play a slot machine minigame at the ends of levels that grants the player up to five extra lives at a time based on different combinations of symbols. (Later ports of the game increased this number.) New power-ups and items also appear in this game. Potions, which are pulled up from the ground like vegetables, can be dropped to make a door appear. This door leads to a non-scrolling, enemy-free, un-lit "mirror-image" version of the current screen in which any remaining vegetables are replaced by coins when uprooted. (Coins can only be collected on two visits to Sub-Space per stage, after which plants will simply yield vegetables.) In addition, if the door is created in the specific areas within a level, the player will discover mushrooms. Some jars (this game's equivalent to the original's pipes) also become "warp zones" in the negative plane, allowing the player to skip to another world. For each coin collected while in these "door levels," the player will get a chance at the bonus slot machine at the end of each level. The player can only enter these areas for a limited time (time can be extended a bit after picking up a Yoshi egg in Super Mario Advance). These areas are referred to as Sub-Space in the first issue of Nintendo Power. Another aspect that differentiates this game from other contemporary Mario games is the fact that there is no time limit within the stages. In addition to this, players are allowed to back track. The frame will move left and right to follow the player. In previous Super Mario Bros., once the player had passed an object he or she could not return to it. At the end of each level, the player is presented with a slot machine-type game, in which the player is given one chance for each coin collected. Like a real slot machine, depending on what symbols come up, the player can get anywhere from 0 to 5 extra lives for each try. (More extra lives could be gained from the game in the SNES and GBA remakes.) Story The plot for Super Mario Bros. 2, according to the game's manual: One evening, Mario had a strange dream. He dreamt of a long, long stairway leading up to a door. As soon as the door opened, he was confronted with a world he had never seen before, spreading out as far as his eyes could see. When he strained his ears to listen, he heard a faint voice saying "Welcome to 'Subcon', the land of dreams. We have been cursed by Wart and we are completely under his evil spell. We have been awaiting your arrival. Please defeat Wart and return Subcon to its natural state. The curse Wart has put on you in the real world will not have any effect upon you here. Remember, Wart hates vegetables. Please help us!" At the same time this was heard, a bolt of lightning flashed before Mario's eyes. Stunned, Mario lost his footing and tumbled upside down. He awoke with a start to find himself sitting up in his bed. To clear his head, Mario talked to Luigi, Toad and the Princess about the strange dream he had. They decide to go to a nearby mountain for a picnic. After arriving at the picnic area and looking at the scenery, they see a small cave nearby. When they enter this cave, to their great surprise, there's a stairway leading up, up and up. It is exactly like the one Mario saw in his dream. They all walk together up the stairs and at the top, find a door just like the one in Mario's dream. When Mario and his friends, in fear, open the door, to their surprise, the world that he saw in his dream spreads out before them! In the end, Mario and his friends trounce Wart and open a secret room containing one of Subcon's characteristic vases. After pulling a stubborn cork from the mouth of the vase, eight red fairies spring out. The four heroes are lauded for defeating Wart, whose beaten body is passed over the crowd and tossed aside. Immediately after, the screen shows Mario snoring, indicating that the entire adventure had been a dream. Setting The game takes place in a new setting, "Subcon" (derived from Freud's 'subconscious'). This land is inhabited by many denizens that have since become regulars in the Mario series, such as Shy Guys and Snifits. This game also introduces many game-exclusive bosses, such as Tryclyde, Mouser, and most notably Wart. The land apparently (in the game) takes its name from the pixie like inhabitants of this land (also called "Subcon") which have been captured by Wart. Despite being a new, supposedly unrelated land from a game not initially intended to be a Mario game, Subcon is not all that unlike the Mushroom Kingdom. Instead of brick castles and giant mushrooms, however, Subcon is characterized by palm trees and red-and-white vases dotting the landscape. Though it lacks any underwater stages, Super Mario Bros. 2 introduces other concepts to the series — like desert stages complete with quicksand and ice stages. Level 3-1 is notable for taking place against an enormous waterfall which the heroes must ascend. Super Mario Bros. 2 consists of seven "worlds," each one containing three stages except for the last, which only has two. Levels progress in a linear fashion, but for the first time Mario can backtrack — in the original Super Mario Bros, the screen scrolled only to the right, but in Super Mario Bros. 2, the screen can scroll both right and left, as well as vertically from one screen to another — thus, many levels have sequences involving climbing or descending long distances, and the final level in particular is a large and mazelike fortress, in contrast to the linear Castles in Super Mario Bros. This land has never made an appearance since Super Mario Bros. 2, but several enemies appear in other games, such as Birdos and Pidgits. The last reference to Subcon was the Super Smash Bros. Melee stage Mushroom Kingdom II. Playable characters There are four playable characters in the game, each with a score of 1-5 stars for speed, jump and power. Development The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System, a Japan-only disk-based add-on for the Famicom (a.k.a NES), under the name Super Mario Bros. 2. It featured the same gameplay and similar level design as the original Super Mario Bros., with the addition of poison mushrooms and a much higher difficulty level (through trickier jumps, timing challenges, tougher obstacles, etc.) than the first game. Due to the similarity in gameplay to the original and its tremendously increased difficulty, this game was not brought to the West. It was later available, with improved 16-bit graphics, in the Super Nintendo game collection Super Mario All-Stars ("Super Mario Collection" in Japan), under the name Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. In 1999, when Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was released on the Game Boy Color, the levels from the game were an unlockable extra called Super Mario Bros. For Super Players. The reason that the American/PAL version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is so unusual is that it was created by making small changes to a Japanese game called Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic. Various Nintendo of America employees personally disliked the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, which they found to be frustratingly difficult. Believing such a game would likely sell poorly in the United States, they wanted to release a different sequel they thought would be friendlier to American audiences. Although Doki Doki Panic was originally set in a storybook and had an Arabian theme completely unrelated to Mario, it was modified to use sprites and music that would fit with the series. As such, it is sometimes said that the game is not really a 'proper' Mario game at all. The American/PAL version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was eventually released in Japan for the Nintendo Family Computer under the name Super Mario USA. It was also released as part of the Super Mario Collection (in the U.S., Super Mario All-Stars) in Japan. Doki Doki Panic comparison
Musical score The music of this game is reminiscent to basic ragtime with traces of dixieland jazz and March. All music was written by Koji Kondo. Enhanced remake Super Mario Bros. 2 received a graphical, audio, and gameplay upgrade in Super Mario All-Stars (in Japan, Super Mario Collection) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Famicom. In the NES version, in the case of losing the last life, the player can only continue twice. In the Super NES/Super Famicom version, a player can continue any number of times, because he or she can continue from a saved game. As for that slot-machine type game, the icons are bigger in the Super NES/Super Famicom version. The player can get up to 10 extra lives in the Super NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2, compared to getting up to 5 extra lives in the NES/Famicom version. That is because the "7" symbol is an addition to the Super NES/Super Famicom version. In the NES/Famicom version of Super Mario Bros. 2, the player can select a character and must play as that character until the end of that level. In the Super NES/Super Famicom version, the player can select a character at the beginning of each level and after losing a life. There was also a remake similar to the All-Star version for the Satellaview in 1997 titled BS Super Mario USA. Super Mario Bros. 2 received another enhanced remake as Super Mario Advance, the first Super Mario title for the Game Boy Advance. It included several graphic and sound enhancements in the form of enlarged sprites, multiple hit combos, and digital voice acting. Two notable additions are the new character, Robirdo, a robotic Birdo who acts as the boss of the third world, and the Yoshi Challenge, which encourages players to revisit stages and search for Yoshi eggs. Reception Upon release, the game was not as successful as its predecessor and was never bundled with console hardware. In fact, many sales estimates consider it the worst-selling Super Mario Bros. title. * Today, it is often referred to as the "black sheep" of the three Super Mario Bros. games. * Despite this, it was popular in its heyday, and many remember it fondly. Due to its unique style of gameplay and set in a completely different world, Super Mario Bros. 2 has made a continuous impact on the entire Super Mario Bros. series. Notable examples include: Super Mario Bros. 2 has also been referenced in a variety of non-video-game media featuring Mario: Trivia See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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