RSS Feed
Twitter
April 28th, 2015 
Carl Williams 
Nintendo was still new to sequels when Super Mario Bros 2 (SMB 2) hit the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Boy did they go away from the norm for what a sequel was supposed to be. This seque was almost a complete departure from the original NES title. In Japan the title used for the US SMB2 was a completely different title. What was there in the North American version barely said this was a Mario title. Barely.
Taking chances with a classic
Gone were the basics of Mario lore. No jumping on enemies to kill them. Now jumping on the enemy just gave Mario, or one of the other three characters, a ride along the path. No jumping from underneath to hit coin blocks to earn money, no more castles to traverse and then we get hit with the biggest screw job when you beat it, bigger than the Montreal Screw Job in WWE
Super Mario Bros 2 was unique
Was Super Mario Bros 2 all bad though? Nope, far from it. It was just a major departure from what fans were expecting. Still fans bought it and word spread. The game was still fun. Gamers enjoyed the negative world aspect (find a potion and throw it down and enter the door),. The different enemies and the adventuring aspects that were missing in the first game expanded the interaction. Entering caves and buildings within the level and completing tasks and then leaving was new.
Not much of a gray area
Super Mario Bros 2 was just different enough to cause fans to either love it or hate it. Me personally, I loved it. The imaginative ways the bosses were handled was a welcome departure from the norm. In the first Super Mario Bros game each boss was just Bowser again. In Super Mario Bros 2, each game world featured a unique boss.
If you are not one that got a Nintendo NES Classic Mini (eBay anyone?) then you probably will have to settle for the eShop version or grab the original off of eBay
or Amazon. We have much more Super Mario Bros coverage available.
Share this:
Posted in 
Tags: 
Thank you, Carl! I officially love your reviews. Seriously. We feel the exact same way about Castlevania 2 and SMB2. A sequel does not always need to be a palette-swapped version of the original with an adjusted difficulty level. It was extremely rare back then to have a game where you could play as different characters and the characters genuinely handled differently.
Also, my first video game system was an Atari 2600 when I was 4 years old 🙂
Thank you @NYCJapaneseTeacher for the comment. Always great to hear from like minded gamers.
I loved Castlevania II (it was the only one so far I have beaten without cheating). Back to SMB2 though, it was extremely under rated, even though it was touted pretty hard it still got a bad rap for departing from the “Mario norm”.
Atari 2600 still rocks, original games and the myriad releases from the homebrew community.