Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 2
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Composer(s)	Koji Kondo
Series	Mario
Platform(s)	NES, SNES (Super Mario All-Stars), Game Boy Advance (Super Mario Advance), Virtual Console
Release date(s)	September 1, 1988 NES NA September 1, 1988 EU April 28, 1989 AUS May 1989 JP September 16, 1992 Game Boy Advance JP March 21, 2001 NA June 10, 2001 EU June 22, 2001 Virtual Console AUS May 25, 2007 EU May 25, 2007 NA July 2, 2007 JP August 10, 2007
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (VC) PEGI: 3+ (VC)
Media	2-megabit cartridge
System requirements Nintendo Entertainment Software

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Also known as Super Mario USA in Japan; often abbreviated SMB2) is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console as the successor to the original Super Mario Bros. The game was also remade as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), released on August 1, 1993 in North America and December 16, 1993 in Europe. It was rereleased on the Wii's Virtual Console in Europe, Australia and New Zealand on May 25, 2007 and the U.S. on July 2, 2007.

Unlike the majority of other Mario titles, SMB2 was not developed from an independent point; rather, it is a redesign of the Japanese Family Computer Disk System game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo's original sequel to Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986; however, because of that game's difficulty and its close similarities to the original game, Nintendo decided not to release it in the West at that time. The redesigned Western version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan in 1992 under the title Super Mario USA (スーパーマリオUSA, Sūpā Mario Yū Esu Ē^?), and in 1993 a 16-bit remake of the original Japanese version was released to the rest of the world as "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels" (part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the SNES).

Because SMB2 is a redesign of a non-Mario game, the game differs greatly from the original Super Mario Bros.. Many elements from Super Mario Bros. 2 have since become part of the Mario series canon and the repertoire of recurring elements.

Gameplay

Mario, on top of a plateau

Princess Toadstool, Luigi, Mario and Toad, the four playable characters in Super Mario Bros. 2. They are shown in order of speed when running and picking up objects.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a side-scrolling platform game. At the beginning of each stage, the player is given a choice of four protagonists to control: Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, credited in the game as merely "Princess." Each character has different strengths; Mario is a well-rounded character; Luigi can jump the highest of the four; Toad can run and pluck vegetables the fastest but can't jump well; and Peach can jump the farthest, due to her ability to hover for a short time, though she is the slowest runner. All characters have the ability to increase the height of their jump by ducking briefly before they jump.

Unlike the previous and following Mario games, no enemies can be defeated by jumping on them. Instead, the player character must throw objects at enemies, such as vegetables plucked from the ground. Certain opponents can be picked up and thrown as well, and several levels feature blocks marked with the word "POW", which when picked up and thrown kill all the enemies on screen at impact, similar to the one in Mario Bros.

The game features a life meter, a then-unique feature in the series. The player begins each stage with two points of health, represented by red diamonds, and can increase the number of health points in the meter by collecting mushrooms. Health can be replenished by floating hearts, which appear after a certain number of opponents have been defeated. The invincibility star from the previous game appears, with a player needing to collect five cherries to acquire it.

Each stage contains one or more hidden flasks of potion. When plucked and thrown, a potion creates a door to Sub-Space, an alternate world in which coins are collected instead of vegetables when plucked. The mushrooms used to increase the health meter can also be found here. The player automatically leaves Sub-Space after a short time. The coins collected are used in a slot machine mini-game played between stages. This mini-game is the chief means of obtaining additional lives. In addition to the mushrooms and slot machine coins, several Sub-Spaces are also used as warp zones; these involve the use of vases as pipes.^[1]

Development

The original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is known in America as Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. The Japanese version was directed by Takashi Tezuka and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and The Legend of Zelda. Visually, it looked like Super Mario Bros. with the same objective but with a higher level of difficulty.^[1] Miyamoto did not participate as much in the production of The Lost Levels as he did in Super Mario Bros..^[1] The American Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally released in the U.S. in October 1988, the same month Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Japan.^[1]

Nintendo of America disliked the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, which they found to be frustratingly difficult and otherwise little more than a modification of Super Mario Bros.. As they did not want to risk the franchise's popularity, they canceled its stateside release and looked for an alternative. They found one in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic), a game Miyamoto actually put more time on than The Lost Levels.^[1]

Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was a platforming game that followed family of four, each with different abilities, on a quest to rescue kidnapped kids in a strange fantasy land. Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad were built on Brother (Imajin), Mama, Sister (Lina) and Papa's models, respectively, marking the first time that Mario and Luigi had noticeably different heights.^[1] Some elements from the Mario universe already existed in Doki Doki Panic, such as Starmen, coin and jumping sound effects, the POW blocks and level warping. Also, the game's soundtrack was already composed by Koji Kondo, the original Super Mario composer, and upon the conversion needed only a few alterations such as removing most of the Arabian elements, replacing them with original Mario tunes.^[1]

Re-releases

In 1993,^[2] Nintendo released an enhanced SNES compilation titled Super Mario All-Stars. It included all of the Super Mario Bros. games released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom. The version of Super Mario Bros. 2 included in the compilation had improved graphics and sound to match the SNES's 16-bit gameplay capabilities, as well as minor alterations in some collision mechanics. Among other enhancements, it was also possible to change the character after losing a single life, while the original version allowed to change it only after the player lost all its lives and choose "Continue", making the game much more forgiving when choosing a character not adapted for some specific level. Also, the player began with 5 lives instead of 3, and the slot game gained an additional character : if he could get three "7", the player could win ten lives.

In March-April 1996, Nintendo (in collaboration with the St.GIGA satellite radio station) released an ura- or gaiden-version of the game for the Satellaview system featuring graphical enhancements similar to Super Mario All-Stars. This new game was entitled BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge (ＢＳスーパーマリオＵＳＡ パワーチャレンジ^?), and like all Satellaview titles it was released episodically in a number of weekly volumes.^[3] BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge was never released outside of Japan and as with all other Satellaview titles it has never been re-released as a stand-alone title. The game exists today solely in ROM-format and is traded online by Satellaview emulation enthusiasts.^[3]

In 2001, Super Mario Bros. 2 received another release (this time based on the All-Stars remake) as part of Super Mario Advance (which also contained a remake of Mario Bros.). Super Mario Advance was developed by Nintendo R&D2,^[4] and was the first Mario title for the Game Boy Advance. The Super Mario Advance version of Super Mario Bros. 2 includes several new features such as the addition of the enemy Robirdo (a robotic Birdo acting as the boss of world three), the addition of the Yoshi Challenge (in which players may revisit stages to search for Yoshi eggs), and an all-new point-scoring system (a first for the game). Graphical and audio enhancements were also added in the form of enlarged sprites, multiple hit combos, digital voice acting, and such minor stylistic and aesthetic changes as an altered default health-meter level, boss-order, backgrounds, the size of hearts, Princess Toadstool being renamed to the now-standard "Princess Peach," and the inclusion of a chime to announce starmen were also added.^[5]

Reception

Upon release, Super Mario Bros. 2 was highly successful, and it is the third highest-selling game ever released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with ten million copies sold.^[6] Nintendo Power listed Super Mario Bros. 2 as the eighth best Nintendo Entertainment System video game, mentioning that in spite of not being originally a Mario game, it was able to stand on its own merits and its unique takes on the series' trademark gameplay.^[7] Super Mario Bros. 2 was ranked 108th out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time" by Electronic Gaming Monthly.

When it was re-released in 2001 as Super Mario Advance it received generally positive reviews, garnering an aggregate score of 84% on Metacritic.^[8] One reviewer concluded "all nostalgia and historical influence aside, Super Mario Bros. 2 is still a game worth playing on the merits of its gameplay alone", also saying that "the only reason you may not want to pick it up is if ... you already own it in another form."^[9] However, GameSpot thought that Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World would have been a better choice for a launch game considering their respective popularity;^[10] both titles were eventually also remade as part of the Super Mario Advance series. Conversely, IGN praised the choice, calling it "one of the most polished and creative platformers of the era".^[5] The game was named one of the NES best games ever by IGN, saying that the game offers greater diversity in graphics and gameplay than the original, making it a great bridge game between the other NES Mario titles.^[11] The game was ranked as the ninth worst game in the Mario game series by ScrewAttack; they said that while it was a good game, it felt like a lie because they weren't playing the real Super Mario Bros. 2.^[12] They also named the music played in the battle against the final boss Wart the eight best 8-Bit Boss Themes.^[13]

Legacy

Many elements in Super Mario Bros. 2 stayed for the game's sequels and related games in the series. The game added the ability to pick up and toss enemies and objects, a move that has become part of Mario's permanent repertoire, appearing in other Mario games including Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and New Super Mario Bros.^{[14][15][16][9]} Other elements of Super Mario Bros. 2 have been assimilated into the greater Mario universe as well -– Shy Guys, Birdo, and Bob-ombs are notable examples.^[9] This is the first game in which Princess Peach and Toad are featured as playable characters. Princess Peach herself has gone on to star in other Mario games such as Super Princess Peach^[9] while Toad has received supporting roles in later Mario games and has starred in games like Wario's Woods. This is also the first game where Luigi received the appearance he has today (notably, he is taller than Mario).^[9][1]

See also

• List of best-selling video games

References

External links

• Super Mario Bros. 2 guide at StrategyWiki
• TGWTG video feature on the story behind Super Mario 2 and Doki Doki Panic
• Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic-The strange truth behind Super Mario Bros. 2
• BS Super Mario US
• Super Mario Bros. 2 at NinDB
• Official Super Mario Advance site