The story of this game has been documented by a lot of people, starting originally as a prototype for a new Mario game with vertical levels and simultaneous multiplayer, to becoming Doki-Doki Panic in Japan, to becoming an actual Mario game in the West, because The Lost Levels was bullshit hard.
In hindsight, it's weird that Nintendo of America didn't allow Lost Levels to come over because of its difficulty, but allowed stuff like Zelda 2, but I digress.

Super Mario Bros. 2 plays very differently to the 1st game.
Instead of jumping on enemies, you pick up vegetables and throw them at the enemies.
Instead of saving Peach from Bowser, she's a playable character alongside Mario, Luigi & Toad, and you fight against a new villain called Wart.
Instead of defeating Goombas, Koopas and Lakitus, you defeat Shy Guys, Ostros, and Pokeys.

Of course, a lot of these changes come from its Doki-Doki Panic origin, but what I find so interesting is not only does this game expand the Mario universe ten-fold (even if this game is a dream, some of these elements carried over for future games), this game is a joy-ride from beginning to end!

I may be a bit alone on this, but I actually prefer this game over the original.
I have fun with both, and I do have some criticisms with this installment, but I just really like a lot of the stuff that Mario 2 offers.

While it may be a bit overdone nowadays, this title introduced the level themes we would see in future Mario games, like the Desert World, the Water World, the Ice World, you get it.

The characters all have their own unique attributes, and are really fun to play around with, and also add some extra replay value, and offer playstyles for either beginner players or more hardcore ones.

Yes, always fighting Birdo at the end of most levels can get tiring, and yes, some of the levels can get a bit long, but I had a lot of fun with this entry, and I'm really glad that it became a Mario game, even with many of its changes to the Mario formula.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a good game, and I had a lot of fun with it! :D

First GOTM finished for April 2024. Branching narrative paths and player choice sound compelling and interesting, but the short run time and somewhat aimlessness of the story beats leaves this one ultimately feeling uninteresting and without any meaningful depth. Lots of replayability, and spending time wandering around and finding different dialogue and story options would've tickled my fancy as a one-game-a-year kiddo, but as an adult with much better games around the lack of compelling narrative drivers and the short run time ultimately left this one feeling like an ambitious idea dragged down by poor execution.

One of the weirder games I've played. You're thrown in a village and you're left to figure out what's happening. There are multiple endings and paths, but when you have no idea what to do, where to go, who to talk to, feels like you're just wandering around hoping something will happen.
There is no voice acting, only text.
It's pretty funny at times.
In a way, it feels like playing through a gintama episode. It's fairly light hearted.
I didn't really enjoy the combat, it felt clunky.
I only got one of the endings, but for me that's enough for this game.
Maybe worth a shot, but it feels very rough.

I was really surprised of how good this game is, I´ve never seen anyone talk about it but is a really really good roguelike. The health based gameplay is nice and unique, the items are really fun and they actually alter the gameplay quite a lot and the amount of content the game has it´s unbelieveable.

It saddens me a lot seeing people that only played 1-2 runs and left it there, the game has so much content to offer than even after 20 runs you keep seeing new stuff never seen before.

And the creator seems really nice and keeps updating the game and listening to their community.

If you want to play a roguelike similar to Gungeon, this one will greatly surprise you, it´s really good looking with awesome music and a really good overall gameplay filled with a looooooott of content. Even if I have already seen the credits there is a lot of stuff still to do so I will keep playing and enjoying it, go play it yourself.