Here's the thing, the game is fine, but it doesn't feel like a Mario game which is my biggest issue. I know the game is a reskin of Doki Doki Panic, but they tried to make it feel like Mario right? It just doesn't seem like that worked at all. Yeah the iconic enemies like Shy Guy and Birdo (named Ostro in this game) exist, but they also originated from Doki Doki Panic. It just feels like there's nothing to really identify this game as a Mario game except for the fact that Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach are playable. Besides that, the game isn't bad. Some of the levels feel kind of tricky, but the game isn't cheap like how Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels were (those stupid levels that looped until you took the right path are what I'm referring to). The only levels I didn't really like were the desert levels since you had to dig into the ground and it felt awkward. There's no variety with the bosses as it's either Ostro (Birdo) or the boss at the end of the world which you would beat in the same way. I don't like how you can't jump on enemies to kill them in this game since it, again, doesn't make the game feel like a Mario game. The plus side is the different characters because Luigi and Princess Toadstool are fun to play (I didn't figure out what Toad did prior to the review, oops). Those make beating levels more unique since you can use different characters to solve the same problems. Overall, the game isn't bad by itself, but as a Mario game, it doesn't really fill the quota.

Die Story ist selbst für Mario-Verhältnisse hanebüchener Blödsinn, aber das Gameplay ist wenigstens originell. Leider ist das ganze Spiel derart unmenschlich schwer, dass ich ab Welt 4 nur noch mit Savestates weitergekommen bin, da ich sonst ständig das gesamte Spiel von vorne hätte beginnen müssen.

Das Leveldesign ist stellenweise sehr fragwürdig, man muss aber dazu sagen, dass dies kein wirkliches Super-Mario-Spiel, sondern ein Reskin des japanischen Doki Doki Panic ist. Insgesamt ohne Nostalgiegefühl also keine Empfehlung.

Achievements: 50 %

Pros: Four characters to choose from to play as! Fun boppy music! Interesting and fun pluck mechanic. And, best of all NO TIMER! You can diddle around as much as you want in these levels without the stress of impending doom by a clock.

Cons: The platforming gameplay of this game, just isn't as fun as traditional hop & bop Mario platformers. Also, the level design is kinda not great, to be honest... There's one stage with a series of jars/pipes, and only one of them has a key hidden inside it, so you're going down each jar/pipe to find the key, dealing with enemies over and over, until you find the right jar/pipe with the key... and there's no sense of design at all, just blind trial and error until you find the right pipe/jar with the key... a bit frustrating really, and there's bits of things like that throughout the game, that leads this one feeling a little less quality than other more mainstream Mario titles.

What it means to me: First played this on the All-Stars version for SNES, and it was pretty whimsical, and for a while, this was my favorite Mario game, really! Playing as Peach with her hover ability, and not having a timer, really helped ease myself into these types of games as a kid. A lot more accessible considering those elements, which, makes this game a lot better as a result.

Gets way too much flack for being "different" (which yes I understand the history that literally everybody knows now) and instead people ignore just how rock solid of a platformer Super Mario Bros 2 actually is. Sure, it's not as tight as the first game nor as varied and charming as later installments, but in it's place are four distinct characters, each with their own unique playstyles, and level design that actually rewards replay and exploration.

It just feels really good to go through to boot. I love the throwing mechanic, and how it allows you to use enemies as their own platforms. I love the different kinds of enemies in this and how each one is completely unique from each other. I love the improved sprite work from the first game. It's just a great, fantastic time, if a little clunky sometimes. Still worth a check out if you haven't played it, and worth a second look if you dismissed it at first.

The situation of my youth, where I just assumed Nintendo dropped everything right away from their best-selling game to try something absurd and different, was a lot funnier.

The idea of Doki-doki panic overlaid with Mario, though, is also funny, and the four characters with differences, still works. An early case where a Princess character was not only valid but beneficial, is a great boost for my daughter.

But Luigi is king, you don’t need her fluttering jump, but his high jump helps. Anyway, you’re not really platforming, so the game is super weird, you do throw a lot of eggs at Birdos.

Still more a fun novelty than an upper-echelon or considerable Mario game.

Played in one sitting!

Its far more visually and in some ways mechanically more interesting than its predecesor. I enjoyed my time all the way through with this, but some small part of me thinks without the Mario rebranding, this game would be forgotten as a kinda fun but ultimately bland platformer by today's standards.

Although it is interesting watching Doki Doki Panic gameplay and seeing how many of its characters an elements the Mario brand has inherited and continues to use. Bob-ombs, Shy Guys, Birdo, Pokeys are all staples of the franchise. Even Snifits and Ninjis make infrequent appearances. And the same cast are reused in 3D World with the same abilities. I just think its crazy how many elements of the series came from a resprite where they really only replaced the main character,

Mario 2's kind of like the odd duck of the series, a well made game that improves over its predecessor in several ways, but also kinda obvious that it wasn't originally a Mario game.

It kinda brings to mind one of the scrapped Mario 1 concepts, where Mario was originally meant to wield a gun of some sorts. That made its way into Mario 1 with the fire flower, but that's an optional powerup. Mario 2 on the other hand, makes projectile aiming its main draw, chucking shit at enemies and bosses and picking the right angles to do it from.

It's genuinely surprising just how well all of this comes together into a satisfying package. It's simple to grasp, fast-paced all throughout, and with more refined controls to boot. There's more mid-air control this time which is essential for this type of game, and a total of 4 playable characters to choose from, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Honestly though, not sure why you would ever pick Mario and Toad, when Luigi has a high jump and Peach can float. They're way more broken as characters, while Mario and Toad seem like challenges to impose on yourself.

Levels are also much more exploration-oriented with a small touch of puzzles. Still relatively linear and intuitive to traverse, but sending you in all sorts of directions and not just to the right all the time. The removal of a timer is much appreciated, letting you take your time to uncover some of the more hidden pathways.

There are some complaints. I still wish there were more 1-ups around. There's a roulette minigame that seems to want to answer this problem, but it is too difficult to line up the slots, and I have no idea if there's a trick to it. I wish the game didn't use epilepsy lights everytime a bomb-omb exploded, even if I may not be photosensitive myself. And I wish Phanto would get off my fucking case. When he starts chasing you around as you pick up keys, I've found him pretty difficult to predict. The times where I thought I needed to jump, or duck under, did not work out for me 70% of the time as he proceeded to swerve in a way I couldn't anticipate. He's a pretty aggressive douche, I don't like him and I want him out of my house.

There are some gripes I have with the game's difficulty, and I tend to not look forward to certain rooms. But, I think there's more here to enjoy than there isn't. It's a classic, to be sure. But is it a "real" Mario game, though? I think that's up to debate, I kinda consider it like a weird little spinoff, but one that's still memorable and worth beating at least once.

This game is so weird to me. In a lot of ways I think it's one of the most creative and interesting Mario games. And yeah, I know that comes from it being a localization of YKDDP (literally everyone knows this) but that game was originally designed to feel like a Mario game with vertical scrolling anyway. Future games would take a lot of inspiration from this one, with more active boss battles that usually take 3 hits to defeat, a lot of enemies would become series staples, more open levels that encourage exploration, themed worlds, etc. A lot of people don't realize how much of modern Mario came from this game. The game itself is very creative already and it has a great soundtrack. That all being said, it kind of still sucks in a lot of ways. The movement is pretty much the exact opposite of SMB1 and SMB2J. Instead of being super stiff, Mario is extremely mobile and slippery. This is fine early on but eventually the game wants you to make fairly precise jumps and you end up feeling extremely frustrated. The continue system is slightly better since you get a few game overs before it sends you back but needing to earn lives from the slot machine is extremely annoying. Even after learning the timing it's still very inconsistent.

There's a lot of good and bad in this game, but I have to give it a 6/10 simply for the sheer amount of ideas and creativity on display, and how impressive the game was for the time. Even as a reskin it's impressive, there's a whole lot of changes they made to make the game feel like a Mario game, and the ending is incredibly beautiful and impressive given this was a 1988 NES game.