In a world where most video game sequels are some of the best games in the series, Super Mario Bros. 2 boldly abandons nearly everything about the game that came before it. With many quirky enemies, level aesthetics, and game mechanics, Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the strangest Super Mario games in the series.

The game is also tough; newcomers will have a very rough time beating the game if they don't know several tricks and warps, or what characters to use on what levels (hint: it's never Mario).

Unlike many games that require multiple playthoughs to truly appreciate, Super Mario Bros. 2 is just too long, too many secrets are obscure, and it's overall not worth beating the game warpless more than once or twice.

This is easily the weakest of the original 4 Super Mario Bros. series. Technically, this isn't a Mario game. It's just a repackage of Doki Doki. But, it still is a Mario game. It feels way different from the other 3 in the original SMB series because to beat the enemies, you don't jump on them. You stand on them, pick them up and throw them into another enemy which takes way more time. This also doesn't have a timer, points, or Bowser! This game has a bunch of random bosses like a mouse with bombs and a crab that throws rocks, but not the most famous video game villain, Bowser. This game is still playable though. It has a lot of cool level designs and the boss fights are pretty fun. I also really like the look of the game. The mechanics are also really good. Those are really the only good things I can say about this game. It's pretty slow and boring to get through. I did play a lot of it at once, but the worlds are so short where I don't want to do just one or two per day, but it feels so long. It's tedious to get through and I hate how you kill the enemies, but it's still playable and I would say that all die hard Mario fans should give this a shot, even if it's just an American release of a different game but repackaging it for Mario.

GRADE
C+

Did my first warpless playthough of this game, still really like it! Fun to just play in between work stuff on the Switch, and damn it I just really like this game and how different it is from the rest of the series. I know WHY it's different, but that doesn't mean I can't think it's fun that the Mario series tried something like this, and maybe I kind of wish they did it a couple more times. The way throwing works is kind of awkward at first, but as soon as I understood how to throw things far from you vs throwing them right in front of you it was never an issue. I like the boss fights, the variety in levels, though some of them definitely aren't great, love the music, the ability to select a character, and a lot of the best Mario enemy designs are introduced in this game. I'm glad I enjoyed it just as much as I did when I played it the first time.

Super Mario USA is really weird for me. It used to be a game I loved the most out of the first three games because of its unique gameplay, but as the years went on, I started seeing more and more flaws that makes this my least favorite game in the SMB quadrilogy.

Levels can drag on for too long and setpieces tend. Some levels can also be tedious, such as World 6-1, which forces you to search inside 20+ vases in order to find the key to progress, or another example being any desert underground section that forces you to dig below, which is long and boring (this is one of the few reasons why Toad is my main in this game). Sometimes, stage themes can get really repetitive like the usage of two desert worlds.

Enemy & stage hazard placement can also be pretty devious for first time players, such as snifits sniping you once you enter a new room, or falling into a pit of unseen spikes.

You can give the excuse that it's because it's not a Mario game and a reskin of Doki Doki Panic, but I ain't falling for that. Nintendo brought it over to the United States as a Mario game, and I will review it as such.

It's not a bad game by any means, but I've heard people say this game is overlooked or underrated, and I don't see how that is. If anything, the Super Mario Land games are more underrated and underappreciated than SMB2.