After the personality-altering experience that was my Mario 1 playthrough, I elected not to play this game with game over resets. I honestly might never have beaten it otherwise.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a lot more. It's a lot more content, it's a lot more difficult, it's a lot more confusing, and it's definitely a lot more creative. There were many times throughout the game where I doubted I'd ever be able to finish it, because I would die in the same spot a dozen times in a row, and then directly after surpassing that challenge go nearly 20 minutes without dying at all (a feat in these early games, to be clear.)
There were plenty of times where the game felt like it was absolutely just throwing bullshit at me for the sake of difficulty, but at the same time I was never as bewildered and frustrated like in the first game, because it was always killing me in a new and interesting way. There's more mechanics here that both you and the game get to exploit here to make a game that, while still NES hard, is never monotonous. A prime example is in the boss fights, which are definitely very hard, even in their repeated forms, but show so much more creativity and actually give you multiple paths to beating them, as opposed to the Bowser axe run at the end of every Mario 1 world.
I was also pretty stricken by how long this game was. I certainly wasn't going as fast as I probably could have, but at 6.5 hours there was way more content, and specifically way more unique content than I expected here, making it a game that I can't help but admire.
I don't always love Super Mario Bros. 2, I think it's can be frustrating horseshit a good chunk of the time, but if nothing else it is some of the most interesting frustrating horseshit on the NES.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a lot more. It's a lot more content, it's a lot more difficult, it's a lot more confusing, and it's definitely a lot more creative. There were many times throughout the game where I doubted I'd ever be able to finish it, because I would die in the same spot a dozen times in a row, and then directly after surpassing that challenge go nearly 20 minutes without dying at all (a feat in these early games, to be clear.)
There were plenty of times where the game felt like it was absolutely just throwing bullshit at me for the sake of difficulty, but at the same time I was never as bewildered and frustrated like in the first game, because it was always killing me in a new and interesting way. There's more mechanics here that both you and the game get to exploit here to make a game that, while still NES hard, is never monotonous. A prime example is in the boss fights, which are definitely very hard, even in their repeated forms, but show so much more creativity and actually give you multiple paths to beating them, as opposed to the Bowser axe run at the end of every Mario 1 world.
I was also pretty stricken by how long this game was. I certainly wasn't going as fast as I probably could have, but at 6.5 hours there was way more content, and specifically way more unique content than I expected here, making it a game that I can't help but admire.
I don't always love Super Mario Bros. 2, I think it's can be frustrating horseshit a good chunk of the time, but if nothing else it is some of the most interesting frustrating horseshit on the NES.