Super Mario Bros. 2 is the name applied to two video games, both sequels to Super Mario Bros.. The Japanese game was a followup to the original and featured the same style of gameplay and level design as the original, and was released in the United States as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and later as a bonus level to the Game Boy Color Super Mario Deluxe. The American game was a massive departure from the original's gameplay and style, and was eventually released in Japan as Super Mario USA in 1992, a year before All-Stars came out on the SNES. The reason for this difference is that the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is a remake of a different Japanese game, Doki Doki Panic. Neither the original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 nor Doki Doki Panic were ever released in their original formats outside of Japan.

The remainder of this article is concerned with the US game named Super Mario Bros. 2. For information about the Japanese game of the same name, see Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, by which name it will be referred to as henceforth.

History

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was released in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System, the Japanese equivalent of the American NES. It featured the same gameplay and level design as the original Super Mario Bros., with the addition of poison mushrooms and a much higher difficulty level than the first game.

Due to the similarity in gameplay to the original, and its increased difficulty, this game was not brought to the US. It was later available in the Super Nintendo game collection Super Mario All-Stars', with redone 16-bit graphics.

The American game called Super Mario Bros. 2 is the most unusual game in the Mario series. In this game Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach Toadstool (who is brown-haired in this game), and Toad have to save Subcon from Wart and his minions.

The reason that the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is so unusual is that it was made by making small changes to a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic: Yume Kōjō (a loose translation is "Heart Thumping Panic: Dream Factory"). Various Nintendo of America employees personally despised the Japanese sequel which they found to be frustratingly difficult. Knowing such a game would likely sell poorly in the US, they wanted to release a different "Mario 2" they thought would be friendlier to American audiences. Although Doki Doki Panic was originally set in a storybook and had an "Arabian" theme completely unrelated to Mario, it was modified to use Mario sprites and music. With these small revisions, it was released to the U.S. market in 1988 and featured on the cover of the very first issue of Nintendo Power Magazine.

The American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was eventually released in Japan for the Nintendo Family Computer under the name Super Mario USA. It was also released as part of the Super Mario Collection (in the U.S., Super Mario All-Stars) in Japan.

Story

The story of Super Mario Bros. 2 takes place in a dream world, called "Subcon." In this world, Mario and his friends must battle many strange and new enemies, which are quite different from the enemies in the original Super Mario Bros. In the end, after the main boss Wart is defeated, it is revealed that the whole game took place in Mario's dreams. Of course, the real world explanation for the difference between the enemies of Super Mario Bros. 2 and other Mario games is the fact that unlike the other games Mario 2 was adapted from Doki Doki Panic. Nevertheless, there have been numerous attempts to integrate Super Mario Bros. 2 into the general Mario fanon.

Originally, all enemies in Super Mario Bros. 2 were intended to exist only in the Dream World, but the prequel game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, made it clear that they existed in the Mushroom World beforehand. Their appearances in Super Mario Bros. 2 could thus be explained as childhood memories resurfacing in the Dream World of Subcon. This also justifies their other appearances in post-Mario 2 games. Yet strangely, there has been no further mention of Subcon or its main boss, Wart.

Gameplay

Understandably, Doki Doki Panic turned Super Mario Bros. 2 bore little resemblance to the original Super Mario Bros.

You choose from four characters each time you start or restart a level: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach Toadstool, and Toad. Each has a special ability: Luigi can jump very high, Princess can remain temporarily suspended in the air, Toad can pick things up quickly and is very agile, and Mario is balanced.

Enemies like Birdo and Shyguys are defeated by throwing vegetables and other items which the character plucks from the ground. Most enemies may also be picked up and thrown. Many enemies which first appeared in this game would reappear in later sequels and related games.

In each level, there are places where the player can pick up potions, which he can drop to make a door appear. This door will lead to a left-right reversed non-scrolling section of the level with no enemies. If a door is created in the right place, there will be coins planted in the ground which the player can pick up, and sometimes a mushroom which will add another unit to his maximum health and re-fill his health. In addition, some pots (the equivalent of pipes in the original game) became "warp zones" that allowed the player to skip to another world.

At the end of each level, the player is presented with a slot machine-type game. He gets to try as many times as he has coins collected from the level he just completed, and depending on what combinations come up, he can get anywhere from 0 to 5 extra lives for each try.

Enhanced remake

The game experienced an enhanced remake on the SNES in Super Mario All-Stars.

Super Mario Bros. 2 received a graphical, audio, and gameplay upgrade under Super Mario All-Stars (in Japan, Super Mario Collection) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Famicom. On the NES version, the player can only continue twice. On the Super NES/Super Famicom version, a player can continue any number of times and can also save the game. As for that slot-machine type game, the icons are bigger on the Super NES/Super Famicom version. The player can get up to 10 extra lives on the Super NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2, compared to getting up to 5 five extra lives on the NES/Famicom version. That is because the "7" symbol is an addition to Super NES/Famicom version. On the NES/Famicom version of Super Mario Bros. 2, the player can select a character and must play as that character at the length of the level. On the Super NES/Super Famicom version, the player can select a character at the beginning of each level and after losing a life.

Super Mario Bros. 2 received a second enhanced remake as Super Mario Advance, the first Super Mario title for the Game Boy Advance. It included several graphic and sound enhancements in the form of enlarged sprites, multiple hit combos, and digital voice acting.

Game popularity and impact

Due to its unique style of gameplay and set in a completely different world, Super Mario Bros. 2 has become one of the most popular games for the NES and has made a continuous impact on the entire Super Mario Bros. series. Notable examples include:

• Bob-ombs have appeared in several other Mario games, starting with Super Mario Bros. 3.
• Super Mario World featured Pokey, jumping Ninji (in Bowser's castle), the ladybug-like enemy "Hoopster" that is tethered to cable loops, and Pidgit (occurs as Pidgit Bill if the player completes the SPECIAL levels; the Pidgit Bill is a transformed version of Bullet Bill).
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island features multiple enemies from Super Mario Bros. 2 such as the Shyguys, with multiple variations, as did Yoshi's Story.
• Super Mario 64 featured Pokey and Bob-ombs.
• In Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World, Luigi is played with a higher, more "floaty" jump as in Super Mario Bros. 2.
• In Super Smash Bros., Bob-ombs are used as explosive items that can be thrown at the opponents and knock them out. If not caught on time, they would become obstacles possibly knocking out the player.
• Super Smash Bros. Melee features a section of Super Mario Bros. 2 that was turned into a 3-dimensional stage. This was officially the first time that any part of the game had been made 3D. (The characters, however, are still locked in 2-D motion.) The stage is initially locked, however, if the player manages to get a Birdo or Pidgit trophy, it is unlocked and available for play. The stage is called Mushroom Kingdom II, though it should properly be called Subcon, the Dream World's real name. Bob-ombs also appeared as items in the same manner in Super Smash Bros. Melee as in its predecessor.