*Played the game on the Nintendo Switch.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is always an enigma as both a game and a product. I grew up with playing Mario 1 over the years and I played lots of Mario 3 (though I never did complete that one yet...). Mario 2 was always the one I only played the first few levels and then moved on to Mario 3. Now that I finally played it, I can say that Mario 2 is just average.
As the story goes, there was an attempt to release Lost Levels (jp Mario 2), however Nintendo of America realized it was dogwater hard for Americans and didn't feel confident it selling it. Thus, Nintendo of Japan used another game Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic as a basis by just taking away its original elements in order to adapt it into a Mario game. A Super Sentai to Power Rangers situation in the form of a game. Though personally, I think it was overall for the best since Lost Levels is a dogwater game due to its difficulty.
Mario 2 despite being a reskin of another game does a lot for building the series. The first big takeaway being the amount of new enemies introduced in this game with Shy Guys, Ninji, Pokey, and Birdo being the stand-outs as they became permanent main-stay enemies in the Mario series. The second is the amount of playable characters introduced. While Mario controls the same and Luigi plays the same way he does in Lost Levels, Mario 2 gives us a playable Blue Toad (who is fast, but has the weakest jump height), and Princess Toadstool (who is the slowest, though has her iconic floating dress). Somehow, this worked so well that they didn't even change it when they did it again in Super Mario 3D World two decades later. Finally, it introduced the climbing mechanics and desert levels which became Mario staples.
As for gameplay, there are in total of 20 levels with seven worlds that end with a specific boss fight. The levels feel more like puzzles since over half of them involve Mario collecting keys in order to unlock doors to complete stages, some having Mario go inside cave dungeons that have him goes through several elevated levels, and a few have Mario rely on using obstacles and enemies to have Mario traverse the levels. The big new element added is the ability to grab items and enemies and throw them. It does as you expect as throwing anything can kill any enemy and damage the bosses. Though to balance it, Mario can't kill enemies with a stump anymore. Despite that, Mario 2 gameplay loop is pretty fun for the most part... if you can get use to the movement.
The big reason why Mario 2 got this score is simply the movement of Mario and the other characters. Mario 1 had Mario feel pretty heavy which made some of the tighter platforms much more difficult. Mario 2 is the opposite as Mario feels much more lighter, but feels way more slippery. This led to me over-jumping where I fell into the pits or I slip off platforms because Mario felt slippery to land. This is even worse with Luigi since he is slippery by design. For that, my enjoyment of levels were hurt by the movement the characters feel though that might be reflexes on my part since I played more Mario 1 and 3 for many years.
To end on a positive note, I like all the music. They are charming and short, with my favorite being the character select theme.
In conclusion, American Mario 2 is definitely the better game than Lost Levels, though I only thought it was an okay game since the movement hurt my enjoyment on it. Still, a pretty decent follow-up to Mario 1, though not a true full-on sequel due to it being a reskin of another game. An overall 3/5.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is always an enigma as both a game and a product. I grew up with playing Mario 1 over the years and I played lots of Mario 3 (though I never did complete that one yet...). Mario 2 was always the one I only played the first few levels and then moved on to Mario 3. Now that I finally played it, I can say that Mario 2 is just average.
As the story goes, there was an attempt to release Lost Levels (jp Mario 2), however Nintendo of America realized it was dogwater hard for Americans and didn't feel confident it selling it. Thus, Nintendo of Japan used another game Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic as a basis by just taking away its original elements in order to adapt it into a Mario game. A Super Sentai to Power Rangers situation in the form of a game. Though personally, I think it was overall for the best since Lost Levels is a dogwater game due to its difficulty.
Mario 2 despite being a reskin of another game does a lot for building the series. The first big takeaway being the amount of new enemies introduced in this game with Shy Guys, Ninji, Pokey, and Birdo being the stand-outs as they became permanent main-stay enemies in the Mario series. The second is the amount of playable characters introduced. While Mario controls the same and Luigi plays the same way he does in Lost Levels, Mario 2 gives us a playable Blue Toad (who is fast, but has the weakest jump height), and Princess Toadstool (who is the slowest, though has her iconic floating dress). Somehow, this worked so well that they didn't even change it when they did it again in Super Mario 3D World two decades later. Finally, it introduced the climbing mechanics and desert levels which became Mario staples.
As for gameplay, there are in total of 20 levels with seven worlds that end with a specific boss fight. The levels feel more like puzzles since over half of them involve Mario collecting keys in order to unlock doors to complete stages, some having Mario go inside cave dungeons that have him goes through several elevated levels, and a few have Mario rely on using obstacles and enemies to have Mario traverse the levels. The big new element added is the ability to grab items and enemies and throw them. It does as you expect as throwing anything can kill any enemy and damage the bosses. Though to balance it, Mario can't kill enemies with a stump anymore. Despite that, Mario 2 gameplay loop is pretty fun for the most part... if you can get use to the movement.
The big reason why Mario 2 got this score is simply the movement of Mario and the other characters. Mario 1 had Mario feel pretty heavy which made some of the tighter platforms much more difficult. Mario 2 is the opposite as Mario feels much more lighter, but feels way more slippery. This led to me over-jumping where I fell into the pits or I slip off platforms because Mario felt slippery to land. This is even worse with Luigi since he is slippery by design. For that, my enjoyment of levels were hurt by the movement the characters feel though that might be reflexes on my part since I played more Mario 1 and 3 for many years.
To end on a positive note, I like all the music. They are charming and short, with my favorite being the character select theme.
In conclusion, American Mario 2 is definitely the better game than Lost Levels, though I only thought it was an okay game since the movement hurt my enjoyment on it. Still, a pretty decent follow-up to Mario 1, though not a true full-on sequel due to it being a reskin of another game. An overall 3/5.