If i could sum up this game in one phrase, i would say this feels like a collection of bad Super Mario Maker levels.
This game don't add much to the first and classic "Super Mario Bros." (1985), being more an expansion than a full fledged sequel. The only notorious differences from the first game being the poison mushroom, the red piranha plant and the wind (the only interesting new mechanic). But beside everything else, this game, that properly receive the name of "Lost Levels" in the West (this is what this game should've been), is trying to be a harder version of "Super Mario Bros."
If you played the first game, what i highly recommend you do, you know that one of the few problems with it, and with Nintendo games in general in that era, is the way they developed difficulty throughout the game. The overall moving mechanics of Mario in the game, favor dynamism over precision, creating a fast paced always moving plattformer that is really fun to play. However, in the later Worlds of "Super Mario Bros.", to create a sense of challenge, the devs opted to create more high precision jumps for plattforms, what betrayed the game overall intention and mechanics, and made some late levels more about try and error than an interesting use of mechanics. The problem with "Super Mario Bros. 2" is that the whole game is like later levels. Pretty much every level is meant to be played in a single specific way, with a lot of tight windows to jump, that should be done in a unique way, what takes away the room for high octane movement and constantly break the tempo of the game. Most of this game will be you awaiting for a window open to you to jump. The level design is bloated, not allowing the player to have any anticipation whatsoever, making this game pretty much a game where you die and then as you die from things you can't expect you learn and decorate how to play the level, sometimes you'll feel like you're playing "Cat Mario".
And if the labyrinth levels in the first game were bad, being mysterys that you should solve by try and error, this game is bloated with levels you have to guess, based on nothing. From levels where a pipe high in the sky is where you should enter instead of advancing to the right to the classic labyrinth of layers in the boss level. The "bosses" is as predictable and formulaic as in the first game, just await Bowser jump and the run under him.
This game not only don't solve the first game few mistakes, as it radicalizes and make the game be bloated with them, without add nothing worth to mention, have bad design and forced difficulty. By far the worst mainline Mario game that is not "Super Mario Land" (1989) (that one is barely an actually put through game), and somehow the decision of Nintendo of America to not bring this one, but to bring "Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic" (1987) as "Super Mario Bros. 2" instead was a great one (even if that one is not good either).
This game don't add much to the first and classic "Super Mario Bros." (1985), being more an expansion than a full fledged sequel. The only notorious differences from the first game being the poison mushroom, the red piranha plant and the wind (the only interesting new mechanic). But beside everything else, this game, that properly receive the name of "Lost Levels" in the West (this is what this game should've been), is trying to be a harder version of "Super Mario Bros."
If you played the first game, what i highly recommend you do, you know that one of the few problems with it, and with Nintendo games in general in that era, is the way they developed difficulty throughout the game. The overall moving mechanics of Mario in the game, favor dynamism over precision, creating a fast paced always moving plattformer that is really fun to play. However, in the later Worlds of "Super Mario Bros.", to create a sense of challenge, the devs opted to create more high precision jumps for plattforms, what betrayed the game overall intention and mechanics, and made some late levels more about try and error than an interesting use of mechanics. The problem with "Super Mario Bros. 2" is that the whole game is like later levels. Pretty much every level is meant to be played in a single specific way, with a lot of tight windows to jump, that should be done in a unique way, what takes away the room for high octane movement and constantly break the tempo of the game. Most of this game will be you awaiting for a window open to you to jump. The level design is bloated, not allowing the player to have any anticipation whatsoever, making this game pretty much a game where you die and then as you die from things you can't expect you learn and decorate how to play the level, sometimes you'll feel like you're playing "Cat Mario".
And if the labyrinth levels in the first game were bad, being mysterys that you should solve by try and error, this game is bloated with levels you have to guess, based on nothing. From levels where a pipe high in the sky is where you should enter instead of advancing to the right to the classic labyrinth of layers in the boss level. The "bosses" is as predictable and formulaic as in the first game, just await Bowser jump and the run under him.
This game not only don't solve the first game few mistakes, as it radicalizes and make the game be bloated with them, without add nothing worth to mention, have bad design and forced difficulty. By far the worst mainline Mario game that is not "Super Mario Land" (1989) (that one is barely an actually put through game), and somehow the decision of Nintendo of America to not bring this one, but to bring "Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic" (1987) as "Super Mario Bros. 2" instead was a great one (even if that one is not good either).