A lot of level design in this game is very mundane, uninteresting, and forgettable (yes I just used three synonymous adjectives to enhance my point). Regardless it's not a terrible experience. If I didn't know better I would say that this game feels like it was laying the foundation for future Mario games by being fundamentally different than the first in a lot of ways, such as throwing stuff to deal damage or kill enemies. But for some reason, they went straight to the og format in the sequel and for pretty much every 2D Mario afterward. As I said, I think SMB2 is pretty forgettable in many aspects, and even though we only got this style of 2D Mario once, I'm glad they just stuck to the original style.

Este juego es, como decirlo, raro ¿Y como no? Digo, esto es una skin de otro juego, que aunque es entretenido, realmente no tiene mucho que ver con Mario.
Extra:
-Esta versión es un remake en 16bits del juego original.
-Esta versión es la de Switch, la cual está en HD
Juego completo al 100%.

Broke my arm playing this game when I was a kid (combination of the game glitching like MAD, basement's cement floor, and me being an idiot for where I was sitting on the couch) so finally beating it now as an adult feels like I rectified that harrowing/dumbass core moment of my childhood. I will not say where I was in the game when it broke because it's only even more embarrassing lol. This does bring up the question: does breaking a bone while playing a video game make you just the absolute HARDEST gamer out there? The answer to that is don't ever fucking call me a gamer.

Definitely not the best Mario game but definitely up there and maybe the best vibes of all of them? This SNES update is just gorgeous. Totally a-okay not to like this one, of course, but anyone complaining that this isn't a REAL Mario game/Mario 2 is probably anti-art. God Birdo.

Played this in one go on the snes nso.

Short but very sweet game. For a game that was made for an entirely different series, it's amazing to see how many mainstay characters made their debut here. Some of the levels are pretty cleverly designed, especially in comparison to the original Mario Bros.

The music lives in my head rent free because of mario maker

(Part 3 of 5)

I think we can all safely agree that The Lost Levels is a bad, dummy game, and it should feel ashamed of itself, right? Right. Like I said, there is a reason why it was kept in Japan for seven years before being given to us. But, with that being said, if we never got The Lost Levels for a while, what game did we get instead? Well, for those of you who SOMEHOW don’t know this, we got a completely different game instead known as Doki Doki Panic, which was definitely a game that existed at one point. I dunno, I never played the original version, but either way, this game was taken and given a complete makeover, changing all the characters into Mario characters, as well as completely giving it a brand new title and box art so nobody would assume that this was anything more then just another Mario game. It managed to work, and thus, we were then given the PROPER version of Super Mario Bros. 2, if you ask me.

When compared to almost all other Mario games, this game is incredibly different from what you would expect. Sure, it is still a 2D platformer where you get coins, take warps, and beat up big slimy creatures, but it features a set of enemies completely different from the previous game, a bunch of bosses that would never appear in another game ever again, and a main gameplay mechanic that has also never really been seen in any other game after this. Sure, many could consider this to be weird, stupid, and sacreligious for a Mario game, but as any smart person would know, just because something is different, that doesn’t automatically make it bad. In the case of Super Mario Bros. 2, while it may be different, it is still a pretty good game, one that is still fun to revisit, and one that not many other games have been able to replicate. It may have its problems, but at least we can all agree that they aren’t quite on the same level as The Lost Levels, and that is all that one can ask for.

The story is pretty similar to the original game, but instead of saving a girl, you are saving an entire fictional kingdom, which I would say is a little more important, even if it is all a dream (if you didn’t know that at this point, then you should probably wake up as well), the graphics are pretty good, being an improvement over the original game, while also still having the same feel as those graphics, which works out pretty good, the music is pretty good, with the tracks not being as iconic or memorable as the original game, but the selection that we have here are still pretty good, and pretty nostalgic for me at least, the controls are pretty decent, being what you would expect, but also varied depending on the character that you do play as, with it all still working well in general, and the gameplay is pretty similar to the original game, but also different enough to where it feels like a fresh, new, and fun experience.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, or some random-ass Toad, take on a set of seven worlds, with each world containing 2-3 levels each, take out many enemies that stand in your way primarily by… throwing vegetables at them (I mean, hey, if I got hit in the face with a turnip at top speed, I’d probably get really hurt by it as well), gather plenty of cherries, stars, and mushrooms to help you out and increase your health throughout the game, and take on a set of unique and interesting bosses…. even though most of the time you will just be fighting Birdo, but hey, at least there are other ones there. In many ways, it is similar to the original, and in plenty of other ways, it isn’t, and again, while some may not like all of the changes this game implements, I found them to be pretty fun and unique changes, ones that benefit the game overall rather than taking away from it.

There is a lot of different sights to see in this game, not just in terms of the enemies and bosses that you will see, with a lot of them becoming main stays in the franchise to this day, but also all the different levels you will go through, having plenty of different locations and setpieces to make them stand out most of the time, such as with castles, caves, icy plains and even whales at one point. It isn’t really anything mind blowing, but compared to the last game, which just repeated the same four environments over and over again, it is pretty cool to see a lot of variety throughout the game. In addition to this, the game also allows for a lot of experimentation with the characters, as each one plays differently from each other. Obviously, the best of the bunch is Peach, who has a floating jump that she can use throughout the game, and trust me, for a game like this, having that kind of ability is a godsend, so that is why I primarily stick to her when I play through this game.

With this radical change in gameplay and style though does come with it some issues. For one thing, while I do admire a lot of the different ways you traverse through levels, some of the gimmicks that can be found in these levels can be needlessly frustrating and annoying. There is this one level where you have to ride on top of these albatross enemies in order to get to the next part of the screen, but not only do you have to dodge plenty of enemies while you are up here, but you also have to make sure to, at one point, jump on top of another albatross going in the opposite way, and then jump on another albatross going the right way just so that you can reach the top of the ledge. You may say that is fun and challenging, but I say it is tedious and irritating. In addition, while I don’t mind fighting her, you do fight Birdo WAY too much in this game. You fight her at the end of every level aside from the last levels of each world, and while there is always some change made to make the fight slightly different or more difficult, it doesn’t change the fact that you are basically doing the same thing over and over and over and over again. Yeah, Mario games are known for generally being repetitive, but I feel like this one goes that liiiiiiiiitle bit too far.

Overall, despite some annoying levels and an overabundance of Birdo, this is still a pretty solid sequel to the original Mario, even if it was never originally intended to be the sequel to that game, and it is one that I am happy to revisit whenever I decide to do so. I would definitely recommend it for fans of Mario, because even if the game may be different from almost every other Mario game, it still carries the same level of charm, creativity, and fun that most of the other games have, which is really all one can ask for from this series. And before we end off this review, here is a fun fact: this game was actually rereleased in Japan under the title Super Mario Bros. USA, which is cool and all… except for the fact that it is just Doki Doki Panic again, so they basically coaxed people into buying the same game again for full price. Hm……. sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Remake #5

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a weird one because as we all know, it was never really a Mario game, which means that it has some odd mechanical differences compared to the rest. But it’s still a decent game in its own right, albeit one that could use some major balancing tweaks.
The controls feel pretty nice for the most part, and the throwing mechanic can be quite satisfying. However, there are times when things can be a bit too touchy, like how easy it is to slip off of vines and chains, or how small characters still have to duck to avoid enemies.
The level design ranges from really cool to rather irritating. It has a lot more verticality and a few more non-platforming elements, which is a nice change of pace from what 2D Mario usually offers. There’s a decent amount of enemy variety too, and foes are often placed together in interesting ways. However, sometimes enemy placement can be a bit too harsh, and some level features (like the sand you dig through) slow the game to a crawl.
Really though, I thought the game’s biggest issue was its lives and health system. 1-ups and health pickups are pretty sparse, which makes it pretty frustrating that you have to restart a whole world when you get a game over. Even getting hit once can feel like a massive blow. While it adds a bit more tension, and really forces you to learn earlier levels in a world, it just isn’t fun that certain segments can feel impossible to get past and force you to lose significant progress.

The SNES version of this game was much more in line in what I thought this game would be. I think that Super Mario Bros. 2 on the original NES had a good baseline for a great game, but I felt like it needed some polish on the controls and mechanics in order to become something I really liked.

Then here comes the SNES version giving me just that. Almost all of the levels are now really fun to play, I love the fact that you can play as multiple characters (even if objectively Toad is the best character in the game), and I find it really satisfying to be able to pick up and throw objects at enemies This version of the game is just all around loads of fun.

Overall, I respect the original for making a great basis, but if I were to play a version between the two, I'll take the SNES version any day.