Die Story ist selbst für Mario-Verhältnisse hanebüchener Blödsinn, aber das Gameplay ist wenigstens originell. Leider ist das ganze Spiel derart unmenschlich schwer, dass ich ab Welt 4 nur noch mit Savestates weitergekommen bin, da ich sonst ständig das gesamte Spiel von vorne hätte beginnen müssen.

Das Leveldesign ist stellenweise sehr fragwürdig, man muss aber dazu sagen, dass dies kein wirkliches Super-Mario-Spiel, sondern ein Reskin des japanischen Doki Doki Panic ist. Insgesamt ohne Nostalgiegefühl also keine Empfehlung.

Achievements: 50 %

Mario 2's kind of like the odd duck of the series, a well made game that improves over its predecessor in several ways, but also kinda obvious that it wasn't originally a Mario game.

It kinda brings to mind one of the scrapped Mario 1 concepts, where Mario was originally meant to wield a gun of some sorts. That made its way into Mario 1 with the fire flower, but that's an optional powerup. Mario 2 on the other hand, makes projectile aiming its main draw, chucking shit at enemies and bosses and picking the right angles to do it from.

It's genuinely surprising just how well all of this comes together into a satisfying package. It's simple to grasp, fast-paced all throughout, and with more refined controls to boot. There's more mid-air control this time which is essential for this type of game, and a total of 4 playable characters to choose from, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Honestly though, not sure why you would ever pick Mario and Toad, when Luigi has a high jump and Peach can float. They're way more broken as characters, while Mario and Toad seem like challenges to impose on yourself.

Levels are also much more exploration-oriented with a small touch of puzzles. Still relatively linear and intuitive to traverse, but sending you in all sorts of directions and not just to the right all the time. The removal of a timer is much appreciated, letting you take your time to uncover some of the more hidden pathways.

There are some complaints. I still wish there were more 1-ups around. There's a roulette minigame that seems to want to answer this problem, but it is too difficult to line up the slots, and I have no idea if there's a trick to it. I wish the game didn't use epilepsy lights everytime a bomb-omb exploded, even if I may not be photosensitive myself. And I wish Phanto would get off my fucking case. When he starts chasing you around as you pick up keys, I've found him pretty difficult to predict. The times where I thought I needed to jump, or duck under, did not work out for me 70% of the time as he proceeded to swerve in a way I couldn't anticipate. He's a pretty aggressive douche, I don't like him and I want him out of my house.

There are some gripes I have with the game's difficulty, and I tend to not look forward to certain rooms. But, I think there's more here to enjoy than there isn't. It's a classic, to be sure. But is it a "real" Mario game, though? I think that's up to debate, I kinda consider it like a weird little spinoff, but one that's still memorable and worth beating at least once.

The Mario game that dared to ask, "What if we had two desert worlds?"

In all honesty though, I really loved this one. First the presentation is excellent, with really clean and expressive spritework. The environments are all very simple, but there are a lot of little odd details that fill it with life. The whales are my new favorite Mario characters. The sound is fine; the music is iconic (I love the character select theme) but the sound effects are a bit grating, especially when climbing. Tying together the look and feel is the near-complete lack of a HUD. I adore games with minimal UI, it really makes the world that much more immersive and in this instance it emphasizes that dreamlike feel.

On the flip side are the mechanics, and I must say that no matter how you personally feel about the plucking mechanics, the game does a beautiful job integrating them into the world. You can pull vegetables out of the ground to use as ammo, and you can also pick up enemies to throw them at each other. Over time, the game will iterate on this in fascinating ways. At first, you'll only be avoiding enemies and tossing vegetable to get them out of the way. The levels will often line enemies up in such a way that you can take out several in one chain shot if you aim precisely. Eventually, however, the game takes advantage of your ability to stand on top of enemies to create tougher platforming. The first boss you face, Birdo, tests your skills by forcing you to jump on top of her own projectiles and chuck them back at her. She appears numerous times throughout, in different variations and arenas. Later, I was jumpscared by her appearance near the beginning of a level, only to realize with a start that I was meant to hitch a ride on one of her eggs to the other side of a large gap. In World 1, you time your jumps to avoid the leaping Trouters. In World 5, you time your jumps to land on top of the leaping Trouters. These moments of discovery and realization were an absolute delight. Almost every challenge is built on the core mechanic, and as such the game creates a cohesive, satisfying world.

Finally, the last element that cemented this as a classic to me were the secrets. There's a lot more to discover than I was expecting, starting with the subworld. You can pluck potions out of the ground which will spawn a door when thrown. Entering leads to a subworld which creates a dark mirror image of the current screen centered on the door. Any pluckable objects in the mirror world become coins that give chances for more lives, and hidden at certain points in the level are mushrooms that give you more HP. The game begins playing with this concept almost immediately, hiding mushrooms in difficult or secret locations forcing you to choose carefully where to place the door. I know there's a mushroom here, but I could get a big patch of coins over there. Do I need to survive now or can I take a chance at more lives? Discovering where the mushrooms were was quite enjoyable, but there's even more to the subworld than meets the eye. The first time I discovered a secret warp, my jaw dropped. Outside of the subworld, there are some levels where a little exploration will allow you to skip ahead, as early as the first level.

Though I did visit every level, I am absolutely certain that there is plenty I didn't see in this world, and I am sure that I will be revisiting it many times.

Very Janky game, lot of the levels feel very rushed and confusing, the layouts are nowhere near as tight as other entries in the mario series. The best way I've heard Mario bros 2 described is Bizzaro Mario. Obviously it was a different game (doki doki) and it really shows.

There is things I like from this game, the last world in particular is pretty stellar from a gameplay perspective. The ending screen is iconic and Wart was a great big bad. Wart is one of my favorite characters from any video game honestly he just has a very funny and great design for an NES title.

Cant say I hate it, although I cant really say I like it. Dont think I'd ever seek out playing this again besides the GBA Version which I think handles much better.

[Played on Retron 5 with original cartridge]

Super Mario Bros. 2 is strange to compare against the original Super Mario Bros. and the other following Super Mario titles considering its origin. As far as I know, that Doki Doki Panic game wasn't supposed to ever be a Mario game, so that can make it hard to view this game as an "evolution". However, this is a platformer, and pretty much every platformer released after Super Mario Bros. should be considered against it, as it was essentially the best and most advanced platformer to be released at its time.

I will say, the origins of this game have always been intriguing. Compared to 1 and 3, Super Mario Bros. 2 always had that unique and wacky flair to it that made it stand out. The gameplay of picking things up and throwing them was also rather entertaining, but it was never so different that it made the game NOT feel like Mario. Despite the differences, the core running and jumping felt Mario-esque enough for this game to not feel too far off. And about those controls, they're a lot lighter than the previous title. In Super Mario Bros., there was more of weight to jumps and your acceleration. It took longer for you to reach top speed and you had less control over your jump arch (though you had far more control than in previous titles, you would have more control over correcting jumps in later titles). None of this was bad, but it was something you really had to get used to. Here, everything feels much cleaner and easier to control. You generally have more control over the moves you make.

On the controls, there's also the consideration of the many different characters you can play as. You have your basic, all-rounder Mario, but you also have characters like Luigi who have much higher jumps, Peach with her floaty jump, and Toad with his smaller jump but faster top speed. And that's just a brief recollection from me of what made each character different. I assure you there's more to them then that. So, you have this really solid general control which can be altered and played with by selecting different characters for different missions. I really love this addition to the game (though I usually just go with toad for all 20 levels). My only issue is that you're locked in for that stage after your first selection. If you die, you can't change characters again.

Another welcome addition is limited continues. The lack of continues never bothered me in Super Mario Bros. considering you had a continue code and the various warp zones to get you back where you were, but adding continues nevertheless is a good choice.

There's definitely much much more worth talking about, but I'd rather just level it at that for now. There's just so much her that makes this game unique and interesting compared to Super Mario Bros. However, I still end up feeling like I prefer Super Mario Bros. despite that. It's not really something I can explain with words, it's just how I feel. I don't think it's nostalgia, because I grew up with both of these games (I had the original carts and a Retro Duo growing up). I just kinda like it more because I do.

7/10 - Good