[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

The black sheep of the 2D super Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros 2 does a lot right, and some that I don’t mind falling to the wayside forever. For one thing, you now have four different characters to choose from for every level. There’s Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, each with a trait that sets them apart. Mario is your standard fair with no special ability, Luigi is a fluttery fellow with a high jump, Toad is quick as picking things up but has a low jump, and the princess can float horizontally across short distances at the cost of a slow item pickup time. I really like this character selection idea, and question why it took them so long to see a return of this mechanic much later. Naturally, some characters are better suited for certain tasks than others. As a general rule Toadstool and Toad are probably your best bet in most instances, but I love the ability to switch things up, and you’re never screwed by accidentally picking a certain character for any level. Which is good because you don’t really know who’s the best for the level until you play it.

The boss fights are a huge step up from the first game. Each world’s first and penultimate level has a Birdo boss fight that’s actually quite similar to the Bowser fights in the original, just more interesting. Instead of reaching an ax at the back you’re made to catch her eggs and throw them back at her. Like the Bowser fights they can get repetitive, but every fight adds some new modifier to slightly change the encounter, like added fireballs, platforms, or limited items.

The last level of each world has unique boss fights with timeless classics like Mouser, Fryguy, and Clawglip (that can’t possibly be the intended spelling), all never to be seen again. All the fights are throwing based and pretty simple, but a measurable step up from the first game in flavor and strategy. And I’ll forgive them for reusing Mouser for two fights, as he is quite the charismatic mouse and a relic of the game’s original roots, which we’ll talk about soon. The final boss is Wart, a fat frog and the villain of Subcon, the dream-world that the game takes place in. He’s also the only boss I had real trouble with. Having to time the vegetable catching and hitting him 6 times required more than a couple restarts on my part.

To speak more broadly, the source of Super Mario Bros 2’s wild divergence from the first game and the reason many of its mechanics didn’t stick is because of it being a port of another game, Doki Doki Panic. Besides the main characters matching our beautiful Mario world, nearly every other aspect was lifted from the original Japanese game, including our beloved Mouser. The largest change in my opinion is the swap from defeating enemies by stomping on them to having to lift them and throw them at other enemies to kill them, or throw vegetables at them. It was a nice change of pace and once again something I think should have been polished in future titles. Having to pick up every enemy isn’t ideal, but a fusion of the mainline Mario stomp and throw would actually be the best scenario. Having certain enemies be felled by singular stomps while others require throwing either at them or with them would make for some nice variety in such a basic formula.

You also have a health meter instead of a single hitpoint when not powered up by a mushroom in the first game, yet another change I like. The health doesn’t carry over from level to level, but finding health upgrades is so much more rewarding when you do. Of course I miss the iconic upgrades like the fireball and mushroom. For just a single game we can survive without them though. On the gamecrafting side again, I think retaining the powerups system and having health be tied to your reduced size form would be the best combination of the classic style with this new style. Contrarily, one thing I didn’t like was the infinitely respawning enemies. It made some sections downright annoying to get through. For the parts where it was necessary, like when you had to fly on a albatoss to get across gaps that’s fine. When you’re trying to take a breather and the shyguys continue popping out like popcorn it can get a little obnoxious. Not the end of the world but it made it apparent why having an actual health bar can be so clutch at times.

As a last note an underdog blessing for this game was the removal of the awful timer. I forgot to mention it in my review of the first game, but the timer they used in that one was NOT based on seconds, making you feel like you had more time than you really did. Not usually a problem, however certain levels had to be played pretty briskly to not die from running out of time. I’m super glad a timer was nowhere to be seen for this one, even if they added it right back in the next title. To be clear though my problem isn’t with having a timer, it’s just the fact that the timer usually feels unclear in how it’s ticking. If you assume it’s counting in seconds, which who doesn’t, you’re bound to go a lot slower then you could really get away with.

I can understand why Super Mario Bros 2 doesn’t appeal to everyone. The underlying cause for the game’s mechanic changes may not be original or important in retrospect, but I really believe that there was a lot to be learned from it. If anything, with how well the drastic differences from the mainline franchise actually work, this game shows that some tinkering with the template isn’t always sacrilege. Do I think this is the best 2D Mario? Definitely not. What I do think is that it’s a game unfairly maligned that should have been refined.

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.

Esse é o primeiro jogo do mario com um level design que eu gosto de uma certa forma. As mecânicas e controles são decentes, eu amo o high jump, certas partes do level design dão personalidade a certas fases fazendo elas serem bem mais memoráveis que nos jogos anteriores, de explorar cavernas e o atalho na primeira fase, a voadinha da segunda fase, 4-1 e escorregar e essas outras P# cavar coisasem algumas fases diferentes, as duas fases sobre ir de baixo pra cima numa torre, a que você vai pra um final de uma tela e volta no mundo 7. É divertido, é gostoso e os múltiplos personagens são legais e eu usei a maioria o toad pq... fds, próximo