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Super Mario Bros. 2
Nintendo Entertainment System
It is games like this one that make me feel really old. I actually remember when Super Mario Bros. 2 came out. I must have been 6 years old. I played a LOT of Nintendo games at the time, particularly with my friend Brian (who I mentioned in a previous post as the friend who had Mega Man). I remember getting this game brand new. I don't even think it was for Christmas or a birthday or anything special. My mom simply got it because the original Super Mario Bros. had been such an iconic game that we had to get the second one right away.
Can you believe my initial feeling had been disappointment? I think I was expecting a game like the one that Mario 3 had eventually turned out to be. I wanted a similar title to the first game, but with new levels, new items, and new advances to the game play. But this game was nothing at all like the first game. It was in a completely different league of its own. I thought that it was weird and not Mario like at all.
It turned out that I was right. Mario 2 was originally supposed to have been what became later known as the Lost Levels. But people thought that it was too similar to the first Mario game that they never released it States side. Instead they simply inserted Mario characters into an existing game called Doki Doki Panic - and brought that title to the US. So the reason it is so weird is because it is really not even a Mario game at all.
Despite my initial feeling of disappointment, I still played the heck out of the game. I actually came to learn to love it as a kid. Every secret, every nook and cranny of that game I knew by heart. It was eventually abandoned to the wayside when Mario 3 came out. Later on in life when I got a Sega Genesis, my mom traded in my NES and all of my games to go towards paying for the new system. I didn't know it at the time, but that turned out to be one of my worst decisions ever.
I still to this day don't own a true copy of Super Mario 2.
So from the point when I was a little kid who got a Genesis to young adulthood I never played Mario 2 once. It had virtually dropped out of my life. Then when I was 19 I started dating a girl who had Mario 2 and a bunch of other NES games. This is probably one of the many reasons I fell so hard for her. We had marathon Mario 2 gaming sessions - and it would turn out that she was even better at the game than I was. True, I hadn't played it in probably ten years. But she was better than I had been even as a kid. She knew how to get as many coins as humanly possible and then on the slot machine game she always got 2 or 3-up. Every single time. She eventually would get to the point where once she went over 99 lives, her number of lives started to turn into these weird symbols instead of numbers. It was crazy.
Eventually though we broke up, and seeing as how it was her copy of the game, I was once again Mario 2-less. Over the years since I turned 21 I have gotten myself an NES and a pretty big game collection. Looks like I did it just in time too because I have noticed that the price of retro games has risen exponentially. But it should dishearten you and everyone else out there to know that I still don't have a copy of Mario 2. I had to settle for Mario All-Stars for the Super Nintendo. This game has Marios 1 through 3, plus the Lost Levels on it. And all games are "improved" with updated graphics and sound effects. Here is an example of the improved graphics:
Aside from the changes, the game still plays and controls exactly the game. Nothing has been changed to the game content. So as I write this review, I write it with the version of the game I have grown up knowing and loving in mind: the NES version.
For those who don't know much about how this game works - it is as I said very different from Mario 1 and 3. There's no Bowser, no goombas, no koopa troopas. No fire flowers. Simply jumping on an enemy will not kill them. This is an entirely new game.
Each level allows you to select a character you wish to play as. You can be Mario, who is pretty fast and the most well rounded character. Toad, who is fast and small but has jumping limitations. Luigi, who can jump long and high with his fluttering crazy legs. And then the Princess, who is by far the most dominant character in the game. She is a the slowest digger, but this is offset by how when you press and hold the jump button while jumping she can glide through the air for a pretty good amount of time. Many people like the Princess because she can get you through the difficult jumping and platforming sections of the game the most easily. I agree with this, but I do like to mix up my character selections just to make it more challenging.
This combat in this game revolves around picking up and throwing your enemy. Or picking up something and then throwing it AT your enemy. This is a huge different from how things work in other Mario games. Almost every enemy in the game can be picked up. You can either throw them at another enemy, which will kill both of them. You can simply throw them away and go past them. You can even use them to jump off of to reach higher ground.
You can also pick up and use items that are buried in the ground. You simply stand over them and pluck them up. Most of these items are vegetables which are simple projectiles you use to throw at your enemies. Other items are 1-ups, POW bricks, or potions which open a secret door. When you enter this door, you enter the "night world" where you can find hidden items like mushrooms. Also while in this night world, any items you pluck from the ground are turned into coins, which are used at a slot machine at the end of every level. This slot machine allows you to win extra lives with each match you make.
Other game items include cherries, which make an invisibility star appear when you collect enough of them, and hearts, which refill your life once you have killed a certain amount of enemies in a level. Warp zones that allow you to skip ahead in the game are scattered along the way. These can be discovered by going into the night world and going down into pipes. Not all pipes actually do anything, however.
One iconic aspect of the game is whenever you have to pick up a key that is being guarded by a couple of big floating faces. When you pick up the key and try to take it to the lock, one of the faces detaches from the wall and pursues you relentlessly until you drop it. I always found running from these guys to be a thrilling experience. It is definitely memorable and one of the things that makes this game so unique.
Speaking of unique and iconic, almost every level ends with a battle with Birdo, a bizarre creature who launches eggs at you. You can defeat Birdo by jumping on the eggs and throwing them back at him (the game's manual says him!). As the game goes on, Birdo becomes more difficult to beat. He becomes faster and he launches fireballs from his mouth. Different colored Birdos have different characteristics. I never really had too much of a problem with him though.
Three levels make a stage - and at the end of each stage you must defeat a special boss. These include Mouser, a bomb throwing rat. There is a multi headed lizard that shoots fireballs. There is a crab that launches rocks. And my favorite is a big fireball thing that breaks up into smaller fireballs as you hit it. As mentioned there is no Bowser at the end of the game. This game has a villain named Wart, who is a giant belching frog. You must defeat him by hitting him with vegetables that are being launched by a giant organ in the background.
Of course, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. None of this game makes sense. So I guess a lot is explained when we find out at the end that it was all just one big dream. As a kid, this gave me hope that this is why the game was so different from Mario 1. And that maybe Mario 3 would be more of a traditional Mario game. Which it did end up being.
This really is an amazing game though. It is the total package. No it is not like the other Mario games, but once you put that out of your mind and treat it like its own game, you will recognize its brilliance. The levels are so big, and there is so much to see and do in each level. Each level has its own unique personality and setting. There are hidden secrets, there are special shortcuts you can discover. There are also multiple branches you can take to get to the end of each stage.
The enemies are iconic. You have got shy guys, the vine crawling things, the faces that chase you, flying fish you can grab out of the air, Birdo, the bosses, Wart. The whole game is just so fun, creative, and clever. It is an absolute blast as well as a pretty solid challenge.
This is one of the greatest NES titles ever released. Who knows, it may actually be in my personal top ten of games I have played, period. You don't get much better than Super Mario Bros 2. Not only is it an incredible game, but it also has a lot of sentimental value for me as well.
I can see no other viable grade for this game than an A plus.
Overall:
A+
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