by David Hockenbroch

Created on: March 24, 2009

Super Mario Bros. 2 was an excellent game, and so was Super Mario Bros. 2. The Japanese and American versions of this game had nothing in common, so let's take a look at both!

The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 worked very similarly to the first Super Mario Bros. for the NES. It was later released under the title "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels" as a part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the Super Nintendo in the US. The game was a side scroller, and the environments were very similar to those in the original Super Mario Bros. No new enemies were added, but some of the old enemies showed up in different places. Some of those that had formerly only appeared on land or in the air appeared in the water, and vice versa. Also, at some points in some levels, a strong wind would blow, which would either speed you up and allow you to jump farther, or slow you down and hinder your ability to jump over long distances.

This version of Super Mario Bros. 2 also was the first game in which there were differences between Mario and Luigi other than the color of their outfits. It included poisonous mushrooms, which had the opposite effect of a super mushroom. Both of these features reappeared in later Mario games on various consoles in games such as Mariokart and various other sports games.

Some of these additional elements were fairly innovative for their time, but the game lacked a 2-player mode, which had been present in the previous installment. For gameplay, I'd give it the same 8/10 that I'd give the original, for these reasons. The graphics were on par with the original as well, so 8/10 there. The sound quality was improved, but most of the sound was taken from the first game in the series. That's a 7/10 in my book. It's a pretty solid game all around.

Fearing that the American audience would find the original Super Mario Bros. 2 too difficult, Nintendo released an entirely different game in the US. A Japanese game called "Doki Doki Panic" was fitted with new graphics relating to the Mario franchise and was released as Super Mario Bros. 2 in the United States. The original four characters, the average-skilled brother, the high-jumping mama, the floating sister, and the strong papa were replaced by Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, respectively. For the first time, Luigi was portrayed as taller than Mario.

The game was a side scroller at heart, but some sequences also involved moving up or down as well. Players could still jump on enemies,

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