Checked out this NES ROM hack that faithfully recreates a pretty obscure PC follow-up to the original Super Mario Bros. as a native NES game. I guess, technically speaking, this would be the third official sequel to Super Mario Bros. (after The Lost Levels / SMB2 in Japan). So, this is a review of the content of the game that's being ported; the port itself is amazing technically, no criticism there.

There's a lot of cool stuff here: the Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. enemies add a nice mix-up to the original enemy roster, and I kind of like the deeply saturated palette and new sprites + interesting usages of old sprites. It's also just nice to have, ya know, more official Super Mario Bros. content to experience. The original game remains a solid mainstay of retro gaming, and this builds off of it nicely.

But damn, this thing feels like an official ROM hack in the weirdest way: there's an item that basically lets you swim in the air for a few seconds which feels like a physics exploit, the DK hammer power-up is hilariously busted, and the level design is just straight wack sometimes with tons of leaps of faith onto off-screen platforms and clunky block placement. Hudson Soft just doesn't have that Miyamoto special sauce, unfortunately.

Overall, had a nice few hours with it and probably would recommend, but I nope'd out after getting frustrated with 8-2's awful Hammer Bros. overuse and 8-3's fire bar nonsense. Worth a look just to experience some forgotten Mario history, but consider playing on something with save states unless you're a seasoned SMB expert.