Super Mario Bros. 2

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Super Mario Bros. 2
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Composer(s)	Kōji Kondō
Series	Mario
Engine	modified Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic engine
Platform(s)	NES, SNES (Super Mario All-Stars), Game Boy Advance (Super Mario Advance), Virtual Console
Release date(s)	NES NA October 10, 1988 EU April 28, 1989 AUS May 1989 JP July 14, 1992 Virtual Console AUS May 25, 2007 EU May 25, 2007 NA July 2, 2007 JP August 10, 2007
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) (VC)
Media	2-megabit cartridge
System requirements	[Nintendo Entertainment Software]

Super Mario Bros. 2 (SMB2) is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was released in North America on October 10, 1988, Europe on April 28, 1989 and Japan on July 14, 1992. The game was also remade as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), released on August 1, 1993 in North America and December 16, 1993 in Europe. It was rereleased on the Wii's Virtual Console in Europe, Australia and New Zealand on May 25, 2007 and North America on July 2, 2007.

Unlike the majority of other Mario titles, SMB2 was not developed from an independent point, but rather it is a redesign of the Japanese Famicom Disk System game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo's original sequel to Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan as "Super Mario Bros. 2" in 1986, however because of that game's perceived difficulty and its close similarities to the original game, Nintendo decided not to release it in the West at that time. The redesigned Western version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan in 1992 under the title "Super Mario USA" (スーパーマリオＵＳＡ, Sūpā Mario USA^?, also スーパーマリオユーエスエー), and in 1993 the original Japanese version was released to the rest of the world as "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels" (part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the SNES).

Because SMB2 is a redesign of a non-Mario game, the game differs greatly from the original Super Mario Bros.. The game has sold over ten million copies, was the 3rd most sold title on the Nintendo Entertainment System^{[citation needed]} and was critically acclaimed at the time. Many elements from Super Mario Bros. 2 have since become part of the Mario series canon and the repertoire of recurring elements.

[edit] Gameplay

The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (April 2009)

Mario, on top of a hill

Peach, Luigi, Mario and Toad, the four playable characters in Super Mario Bros. 2. They are shown in order of speed when running and picking up objects.

At the beginning of the game (and subsequently each time they start or restart a level) players choose from one of four characters: Mario, Luigi, Toad, or Princess Peach. Each character possesses unique abilities; Toad is the fastest, Luigi can jump the highest, Princess can hover and float long distances and Mario is the most evenly-rounded. Additionally, all characters have the ability to perform a "power squat" for higher jumps, a skill unique to this title.

Super Mario Bros. 2's use of Princess Peach as a playable character represented the first playable female character in a Mario game. The game is also the first Mario title in which Princess Toadstool is not the damsel-in-distress, and it would be the only such title for 8 years until the release of Super Mario RPG in 1996. This is also the first time Luigi is depicted as taller than Mario. In addition, Super Mario Bros. 2 is the first Mario game where players can backtrack within the level. In earlier Mario games, the screen only scrolled to the right.

One of the game's most defining aspects is the ability to pluck vegetables from the ground to throw at enemies. Unlike other Mario games, simply jumping on enemies does not have an effect on them. Enemies can, however, be picked up and thrown, and the player can also ride on mobile enemies to cross dangerous terrain. Enemies in Super Mario Bros. 2 reappear after being killed, but this aspect was later changed in a later adaptation of the game. Many enemies which first appeared in this game, such as the Shy Guy, reappear in sequels and related games.

This is the first Mario game to make use of a life meter, which allows the player's character to be hit as many as four times before dying. New power-ups and items also appear in this game, and Super Mario Bros. 2 introduces the concept of doors to other rooms to the Mario series. Potions, which are pulled up from the ground like vegetables, can be dropped to make a door appear. This door leads to a non-scrolling, enemy-free, and unlit "mirror-image" version of the current screen (called Sub-Space) in which the plants contain coins—used to play the slot machine-like Bonus Chance mini-game at the end of each stage—rather than vegetables when uprooted. Coins can only be collected on two visits to Sub-Space per stage; on subsequent visits pulling the plants will simply yield vegetables again. The Super Mushrooms which add units to the player's life meter are also found in Sub-Space, and unlike in most Mario games, these super mushrooms are stationary. Rising hearts appear after a certain number of enemies are defeated which can quickly recover a unit of depleted health to the life meter. Some vases become "warp zones" in Sub-Space, allowing the player to advance to another world (equivalent to the warp pipes in Super Mario Bros..) Players can only be in Sub-Space for a limited amount of time; while in Sub-Space, the game's music changes to a reprise of the Super Mario Bros. theme. 1-Up Mushrooms may also be incidentally obtained in normal game play while plucking up vegetables, though here they appear red instead of the usual green, and "1-up" is written on their caps. Stopwatches may be plucked from the ground which leave all the enemies suspended in time for a brief period.

The use of beanstalk-climbing is more common in this game than in Super Mario Bros., and new challenges have been added including digging in sand for keys (guarded by a flying, pursuing mask called "Phanto"), and bombing puzzles in which the player must time the detonation of a limited number of bombs to coincide with their height relative to stone barriers to complete a level. Other puzzles include vertical ascension puzzles (on a successive series of disappearing flying carpets), falling maze-navigation puzzles (with randomly spiked walls), and lateral movement puzzles (e.g. to ride a flying egg across the sea).

As in SMB1, SMB2 players may again obtain Starmen for brief invincibility, however they must first collect a series of five cherries. The SMB1 Fire Flower is not available, but POW blocks (that destroy all on-screen enemies in contact with the ground) from the original Mario Bros. arcade game make a reappearance. Like all other weapons in Super Mario Bros. 2, POW blocks must be thrown rather than punched from below (as required in Mario Bros.). Unlike other Mario games, there is neither a time limit for levels nor a running score within SMB2.

[edit] Development

Papa, fighting the third version of Mouser

Various Nintendo of America employees personally disliked the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, which they found to be frustratingly difficult and otherwise virtually identical in gameplay and features to Super Mario Bros. (SMB1).^[1] Adopting the belief that such a game would likely sell poorly in the United States, Nintendo sought to release a different sequel that would be more acceptable for Western audiences. Because of this, although Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was originally set in a storybook and had an Arabian theme completely unrelated to the Mario series, it was modified to use sprites and music from the Mario series as well as to introduce new characters in keeping with the Mario storyline.

[edit] Comparison with Doki Doki Panic

Most of the differences between DDP and SMB2 are small graphical changes,^[2] such as animation being added to the POW blocks, bomb fuses, cherries, potions, vegetables, and extra frames of animation for numerous enemies for the SMB2 version. Super Mushrooms replacing large hearts as life-meter increases, the characters shrinking when reduced to only one unit of health, and some music tracks being made longer with more instrumentation were among some other changes. DDP 's save feature was also taken out of SMB2 due to the limitations of the NES compared to the Famicom Disk System (battery back-up was also very expensive at that time).

[edit] Enhanced remakes

[edit] Super Mario All-Stars

Super Mario Bros. 2 received a graphical, audio, and gameplay upgrade when it was rereleased five years after its original release as part of the Mario games collection, Super Mario All-Stars (1993, SNES). While substantially similar in gameplay and to the original, a few minor differences were made in the Super Mario All-Stars version to address perceived issues with the original.

Whereas the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 only allowed players to continue twice after losing all of their lives, the All-Stars version enabled players to continue any number of times due to the reintroduction of a save function (as with the original Doki Doki Panic). The ability of players to win lives in the All-Stars version of the Bonus Chance game was also increased from a maximum of 5 to 10. While in the original NES version players were forced to use the same character throughout the duration of the level the character was selected for, the All-Stars version additionally enabled the player to select a different character after losing a life. Minor glitch-corrections were also made such as the repairing of occasional musical errors.

Finally, various minor stylistic and aesthetic changes were also made including the changing of Princess Toadstool's hair from brunette to blonde, alterations in size and shape of in-game elements (e.g. the icons of the Bonus Chance game, and the units of the health meter), minor alterations to music, and the insertion of effects such as split-screen and blurring that utilized the enhanced graphical capabilities of the SNES.

[edit] BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge

BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge showcased the enhanced graphics of Nintendo's Satellaview subsystem. Shown here is a depiction of one of the gold statues obtainable in-game.

In March-April 1996, Nintendo (in collaboration with the St.GIGA satellite radio station) released an ura- or gaiden-version of the game for the Satellaview system featuring graphical enhancements similar to Super Mario All-Stars. This new game was entitled BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge (ＢＳスーパーマリオＵＳＡ パワーチャレンジ^?), and like all Satellaview titles it was released episodically in a number of weekly volumes. The game made use of "SoundLink" narration (radio drama-style streaming voice data intended to guide players through the game and give helpful hints and advice) and broadcast CD-quality music. Due to the nature of SoundLink broadcasts these games were only broadcast to players between 6:00 and 7:00PM on broadcast dates, at which times players could download the game from the Events Plaza on the BS-X application cartridge.^[3] A single rerun of the broadcasts was conducted in the same weekly format from June 3, 1996 to June 29, 1996 at 5:00 to 6:00PM. The BS-X download location for the rerun changed to Bagupotamia Temple.^[3]

While the underlying gameplay itself is largely similar, new and arranged content has been added. For instance, the BS version newly featured a score. Furthermore, at the beginning of the game Mario is the only playable character. Later in the game, time-dependent events occur triggering, among other things, the possibility of using other characters. Another feature unique to the game is the inclusion of gold Mario statues (ten in total for each chapter) that are hidden in various locations (including Sub-Space). Collection of the statues in-game grants the player an extra life and refills the life meter. After clearing a level, the player could press "Select" to see some statistics such as the number of statues, coins, cherries, and mushrooms collected, as well as display which bosses had been defeated.

As a 4-volume broadcast, each week bore a different subtitle. The names of the volumes were:

• "I, Super Birdo" (「あたしたち、スーパーキャサリンズ」, "Atashitachi, Supa Kyasarinzu"^?)^[4]
• "Tryclyde's Secret Quicksand Surprise" (「ガブチョもびっくり流砂の秘密」, "Gabucho Mobikkuri Ryuusa no Himitsu"^?)^[4]
• "Fryguy on Pack Ice" (「氷の海でヒーボーボー」, Koori no Umi de Hibobo^?)^[4]
• "Wart's Trap, Look Out Mario Brothers" (「マムーの罠，危うしマリオブラザーズ」, Mamu no Wana, Abunau Ahi Mario Burazazu^?)^[4]

BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge was never released outside of Japan and as with all other Satellaview titles it has never been re-released as a stand-alone title. The game exists today solely in ROM-format and is traded online by Satellaview emulation enthusiasts.^[3]

[edit] Super Mario Advance

Super Mario Advance box art

In 2001, Super Mario Bros. 2 received another enhanced remake as part of Super Mario Advance (also containing a remake of Mario Bros). Super Mario Advance was developed by Nintendo R&D2,^[5] and represented the first Mario title for the Game Boy Advance.

The Super Mario Advance version of SMB2 includes several new features such as the addition of the new enemy, Robirdo (a robotic Birdo acting as the boss of world three), the addition of the Yoshi Challenge (in which players may revisit stages to search for Yoshi eggs), and an all-new point-scoring system (a first for the game). Graphical and audio enhancements were also added in the form of enlarged sprites, multiple hit combos, digital voice acting, and such minor stylistic and aesthetic changes as an altered default health-meter level, boss-order, backgrounds, the size of hearts, and the inclusion of a chime to announce starmen, were also added.

Nintendo's decision to choose Super Mario Advance as the Game Boy Advance launch game was seen by some as misguided; GameSpot in particular thought that Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World would have been a better choice for a launch game considering their respective popularities^[6] (both titles were eventually also remade as part of the Super Mario Advance series). However, IGN praised the choice, calling it "one of the most polished and creative platformers of the era".^[7] In any case, Super Mario Advance was a best-selling launch game, and became part of the GBA's Player's Choice lineup as one of the console's first three Player's Choice games (along with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Super Mario Advance 3).

[edit] Reception

Upon release, Super Mario Bros. 2 was highly successful, and it is currently the third highest-selling game ever released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with over ten million copies sold.^{[citation needed]}

The game did not, however, always receive critical acclaim. ScrewAttack reviewers have deemed the game the ninth worst Mario game of all time, referring to the game as "a lie".^[8] Despite this, the game placed 27th in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time,^[9] and when it was released in 2001 as Super Mario Advance it received generally positive critiques garnering an aggregate score of 84% on Metacritic.^[10]

[edit] See also

• List of best-selling video games

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Super Mario Bros 2/Yume Kojo Doki Doki Panic Retro Corner - XLEAGUE.TV and TGWTG's video feature on Super Mario Bros. 2
• Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic-The strange truth behind Super Mario Bros. 2
• BS Super Mario US