IT'S SUPAH MARIO BROTHARS 2 BABYYYY

Now, seriously... wow. This was awful. You see everything this game has to offer in the very first level. Probably just once or twice I was surprised with a twist of the picking up/throwing mechanic, which I'd say wasn't explored to its fullest.

And I'm somewhat grateful for that, as this buggy, illogical hitbox, repetitive mess of a game was begging me to stop playing it. Almost every single level has a mini boss fight, and almost always it's against Birdo, or as this game's credits call... them, Ostro? That's kinda funny.

But this game certainly isn't. So many design flaws, of its time I guess. Yet there is so much influence of the title in the Super Mario series. Probably every single element from this game has returned somehow, somewhere, in the Super Mario series, except for its main gimmick. It's kind of a shame, yet probably for the best to keep the Doki Doki Panic essence away from the series.

I made use of the rewind feature shamelessly as there were many, many cheap deaths and unpredictable behavior all over the place.

For many years I played the first level or two, when I was younger, with so much joy. Now I wish I had left this title in the mystical realm of the unknown so I'd respect it a little more. At least I can say I finished it.

Go play Onion Assault. That's actually good.

Played for 3 hours and 4 minutes through Nintendo Switch Online.

Even if wasn't originally designed as a sequel to Super Mario Bros., upon comparing the two, I appreciate how much this game improves on SMB1. The four playable characters add a great variety and improve replayability. More varied environments, including vertical platforming sections, help to mix up the proceedings. There's a greater variety of boss fights. And overall, the pace of the platforming is more varied, with some levels still focused on quickly running to the exit but others having more exploration involved.

And hey, if its non-Mario origins show through a bit too much for you, there's always the other SMB2, I guess. For me, though, this is by far the better game.

What an odd specimen of a title. It started life as "Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic" in Japan. Then it got brought to the US rebranded as a sequel to the iconic Super Mario Bros., and then it got sent back to Japan as Super Mario USA.

Evidently, it's a very different game than its "prequel". Almost no power-ups, you can pick up enemies and throw them, you fight Wart instead of Bowser at the end.
This is also the first time you can play as Princess Toadstool (Peach) or Toad. Each of them also control slightly different, which is a neat touch. The controls in general are fairly polished, they feel a bit less stiff than Super Mario Bros. No complaints here.

The presentation is pretty nice for an NES title. Vibrant colors, lively sprites, the game doesn't have too much music but what's there is great.

The gameplay is the biggest complaint I have with it. Specifically the level design. It starts off well-designed, but as you go on, some parts seem to be intentionally designed to waste your time. Like the vertical castle-esque areas that make you fall all the way down if you mess up too much. Or that one level with the ridiculous amount of jars you have to scour. Enemy placement gets very unfair sometime near the midpoint. I'm looking at you World 4, with your Beezo swarms and snow golem things.

The ending is also very disappointing, making your entire adventure null and void. Even in a story-light game such as this.

Overall, Super Mario Bros 2. is a perfectly fine game, but it's not one I'd go back to often.

The reskinning of Doki Doki Panic as Mario 2 accidentally established some parameters for divergent game sequels

Turnips, clouds, Birdos, magic doors. The noise introduced by the original game's surrealist/orientalist theme ungrounded the franchise permanently, and the airy images fit the new character abilities: Luigi's horrible flutter jump and Peach's powerful air control

Oddly paced in its introduction of new elements and repetition of old ones, but its moments of challenge are fun to work through (e.g. Spark platforming section in the final level), and it finishes strong with the veggie-lobbing dream machine spat with Wart, which feels like a fitting endpoint to the game's emphasis on avoidance and tossing

Improves on the first in terms of level and enemy variety. Boss variety is an issue though, as you’ll fight the same birdo boss 10+ times.

Great platforming for the time. More colourful and pretty that it’s predecessor.

Hated the way you couldn’t jump on things to kill them though.

“NOT A BAD GAME, JUST NOTHING I WANTED”

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really given Super Mario Bros. 2 a fair shake. I tried Super Mario Advance and the Mario All Stars version of SMB2 but wrote it off as uninteresting. “This isn’t the real Super Mario Bros. 2, after all,” I told myself.

I’ve never played Super Mario Bros. 2 front to back until now.

The first half of this game is actually pretty good! I think if you can handle that it’s not 1:1 mechanically with the first game you’ll have a good time with it. There was even a point during my playthrough where I considered myself a Super Mario Bros. 2 truther. I mean, my God, I really enjoyed my first hour with it. Maybe Dunkey was right all along.

But then I, uh… quit having fun, I guess?

I started this game in February and played fervently, blasting through the first few worlds with relative ease. And then I just started coming back less and less. Playing through the game at a snail’s pace, piecemeal. Maybe finished a few levels every once in a while. Some days I could only stomach one level at a time. I almost didn’t play at all in April.

Admittedly I think a lot of my displeasure stems from the fact that I am not good at most retro games. And as much as I try to steer clear of abusing save states to progress, I was saving almost every other screen in this one. A lot of the later levels’ tricks and traps were major mood killers.

And like, not to put too fine of a point on it, I feel as though I’m just an outlier at this point? Are we all playing with save states on here or are we really just raw dogging these games without safety nets? Or are we playing the updated All Stars / Advance versions and logging it as the NES one?

This game is absurdly hard. I couldn’t imagine trying to get through all this in one go, even with warp zones.

Sometimes the game just gives you a hit point (heart) back, but there’s no way to get an extra hit point (mushroom) without finding a magic potion first, and even then you have to guess where the mushroom will appear. It’s a pretty unfair guessing game. Also, I think I only won the post-level slot machine for extra lives a few times. It’s maybe the least generous slot machine minigame I’ve played in a long while, and that sucks cause those extra lives would have definitely come in handy later. Instead I was just loading save states constantly.

I don’t know. I’m sorry this is such a negative review. I just didn’t feel great playing this one and I don’t think it’s one I’d come back to anytime soon.