Super Mario Bros. 2

aka: Mario 2, SMB 2, Super Mario USA
Moby ID: 7299
NES Specs
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Description official descriptions

This release of Super Mario Bros. 2 is completely different from its original Japanese counterpart, originating in the West and being in fact a version of Yume Kōjō: Dokidoki Panic with a different storyline and protagonists swapped for Mario and his friends.

One night Mario has a strange dream, where he opens a door to another world filled with even stranger creatures and lands than those in his last adventure against Bowser. Amazingly, the next day, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess stumble upon a cave, which leads to the world that was in Mario's dream.

Subcon, the land of dreams, is under an evil spell thanks to Wart, so Mario and the gang must save the day. New creatures to defeat and plenty of nasty surprises await.

Choose from the four characters, each differing in speed and jumping ability, and head on through 7 levels each filled with puzzles, bosses, bonus coins, the always helpful mushroom, and invincible star, plus bombs and magic potions. After each level, depending on the coins you collect, you can use them in the bonus game to collect extra lives.

Spellings

  • Super Mario Brothers 2 - Alternate spelling
  • スーパーマリオUSA - Japanese spelling

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Credits (NES version)

15 People

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 195 ratings with 5 reviews)

If you don't like vegetables then you can throw them at enemies

The Good
This game has a bit of a history to it. Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally released as Doki Doki Panic in Japan. The original Super Mario Bros. 2 was only released in Japan and is internationally known as Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. Nintendo back then thought that this game is too difficult for players in Europe and the US, so they changed Doki Doki Panic and turned it into a Mario game. Let's take a look to see if this still holds up like the Mario games.

This game actually has somewhat of story, if you can believe it. One day, our Italian plumber Mario had a strange dream, where he finds a door that transports him into a dreamworld called Subcon. In this world, the people of Subcon ask Mario for his help because they got cursed by a gigantic villainous frog known as Ward. Mario, of course the good guy that he is, decides to help the people of Subcon. Meanwhile, Luigi, Toad and princess Peach have a picnic and suddenly discover a cave that leads to the world of Subcon. The group decide to help the people and defeat Ward once and for all. I have to say, i am impressed that a Mario game has a story, although the story is just there. It's a Mario game, so what do you expect? So let's talk about the gameplay.

Super Mario Bros. 2 plays a lot differently from the first SMB. You still have the same controls like in the first game, but there are new mechanics in this game. You don't defeat enemies by jumping on them like in the first game. Instead, you can pick up enemies and throw them at other enemies, which is very useful for killing multiple enemies at the same time. Another thing is that if you hold down d-pad, the character blinks and he or she can jump higher.
Mario, Luigi, Toad and princess Peach have their own unique strengths. Mario is the allrounder in this team, but he doesn't have anything unique to him. Luigi can jump higher but his traction is really weak. Toad is the fastest one in the group and he can pick up vegetables and plants much faster. He is actually my favourite character in the game. Princess Peach is the slowest one in the group and i generally don't like playing with her, but she has the best ability. She can hover for a short period of time and it sometimes breaks the game because it takes away the challenge, but to me it wasn't really an issue.
There are other things you can collect. If you see a heart floating in the air, pick it up and get back your health. Yes, this game has a health bar. You can take hits up to four times if you collect the mushrooms in the bonus levels. These bonus levels are only accessible through a bottle which you can pick up from plants. The world turns black and the remaining plants turn into coins. These coins are used for the slot machine at the end of every level. Sometimes if you throw the bottle at the right place, you can discover a warp pipe which leads you to another world. Also there are doors in this game which lead to another area. Those doors are locked sometimes, so you have to search for a key to unlock them. If you have found the key, a mask will chase you until you use the key.
I like these new mechanics but there are a few problems which i address later.

The level design is much better than in the first game. Every world has its own theme, for example a desert world or an ice world. The characters and enemies are much more detailed and everything in the backgrounds moves, which makes the level design more fluid. The general look of this game is more appealing to me than the first game.

The soundtrack is just as catchy as in the first game. I really like the overworld theme, but not quite as much as the first game theme. The other tracks are good too, but very short.

The Bad
There are a few problems i have. If you hold down the b-button you can run, but the acceleration is a tiny bit too fast for me. If you aren't careful, you can fall down a pit.

Another problem is that most of the enemies you encounter don't do anything but walk or jump, which makes you think, why should i defeat those guys in the first place? Because of this, these are just boring and i wished they would at least attack you. Even the mask that follows you if you have a key is easy to dodge if you throw the key away.
The boss battles are the best thing when it comes to the enemies. There are different enemies, such as a mouse, who throws bombs at you, a three headed dragon who spits fire and Birdo, a transgender enemy who shoots eggs and later fireballs. Nintendo actually included a transgender in a Mario game. Birdo appears in a handful of Mario spin off games such as Mario Kart. The boss battle, as i said, is the best thing about the enemies but they are not very challenging either. Even the final boss, Ward, isn't really a challenge. He is pretty easy to beat because the machine which cursed the people of Subcon actually helps, which is really weird. An evil machine helps you in defeating his own master. Won't say no to that but still, what an odd machine.

The Bottom Line
Despite these problems it has, i still love this game. It's very different from the first game and it's a real breath of fresh air if you played it all these years later. If you are new to Mario games, you can play this to start with because it's not so challenging, unlike the first game, and you can get a feeling of what Mario games are about.

That's it folks, see you later.

NES · by Lisa Müller (28) · 2018

One of the all-time greatest Mario games

The Good
I liked virtually everything about Mario 2. I honestly could not have lusted for any NES game more than I ever did for Mario 2! Everything today is still so colorful, so wacky, so fun. The Land of Dreams is a very real place to me, and this game will always have an eternal place in my heart as being "that Mario game". The one that hooked me, converted me to Mario-ism, and made me a fan for life.

The Bad
This game has no flaws. None whatsoever. People who complain about how Doki Doki Panic had its graphics change, and therefore this isn't a real Mario game, need to get a life.

Mario is what Mario is. As far as I'm concerned, there are two Super Mario Brothers 2 video games, and I love this one even more than the other. :)

The Bottom Line
Brilliant.

Mind-blowingly brilliant. If you can't have fun playing this game, do yourself a favor and quit playing video games. How miserable it would be to always be waiting for that "one game" to arrive, the game that would be the most you've ever had, when really such incredible fun could only be found in a game as simple as this one is.

NES · by Matthew Broussard (6) · 2004

Is it Mario or Doki Doki Panic, and who really cares?

The Good
There are two different versions of Super Mario Bros. 2 that exist. The version released in Japan looks and plays like its predecessor, and new mechanics were introduced. The one for American audiences, however, was actually based on Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System. Nintendo's headquarters in Japan said their own SMB2 would be too difficult for American consumers, so they ordered Nintendo of America to replace all four characters of a popular show on Fuji Television with characters from the Mario universe, and leave the rest intact.

The story is already explained in the game, so I won't go into it in detail here. Four characters that made their appearances in the first game find themselves in a strange land controlled by Wart, an evil being who has placed a spell on Subcon. It is up to Mario and the gang to defeat Wart and restore Subcon to its former glory. The characters have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and switching between them provide some variation to the game.

SMB2 introduces new gameplay mechanics that more or less get re-introduced into future games. Mario's ground-pounding attack is replaced with the ability to lift vegetables from the ground and use them to knock enemies off the screen; and during the course of the game, your character can ride magic carpets and other enemies. You can also enter Sub-space, a mirror image of what you see on screen before you enter, where you can lift plants up to get coins needed for a gambling game at the end of each stage. My favorite mechanic is throwing eggs back at Birdo after she spits them at you. (Later, it is even necessary to ride one of these eggs over a series of hazards.)

There are seven worlds that Mario and Co. must traverse through, and each of them is set in a specific location. Each of the locations brings about many challenges that you must deal with. World 4, for instance, is set in snowy areas, so your character needs to navigate icy surfaces., as well as getting onto a sprout of water from a whale that you can reach a platform. No matter which world it is, the scenery looks excellent. I like the waterfall in World 1, as well as the falling logs directly in front of it. A common occurrence in SMB2 are locked doors, but carrying a key causes an evil being called Phanto to hunt you down as long as you are carrying it.

The memorable soundtrack reflects the environment you're in, with a specific soundtrack used for indoor and outdoor areas. Every tune sounds much better than Doki Doki Panic thanks to the NES's own synthesizer. I was impressed by the short melody that plays in the caves, consisting of what sounds like drums. The sound is excellent as well, as they consist of PCM audio samples; most of them are new, while others are similar to the sound effects in the first game.

The replayability of the game is quite high. The stages can be replayed with different characters, but unless you are using an emulator that supports save states, this means restarting the game. Also, chapter seven presents several ways of reaching Wart, so it's worth playing the game again anyway. Multiple routes through the game was re-introduced in Super Mario World.

The Bad
Besides SMB2 being virtually a non-Mario game? I can't think of anything.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, SMB2 is totally different to its predecessor. The real sequel wasn't released in America due to the high level of difficulty. What audiences got instead was a version of Doki Doki Panic, which is slightly modified so that it was suitable for American audiences. But back when it was released, people had no idea that the actual sequel was only released in Japan. Nevertheless, American SMB2 is great fun. The graphics and sound is excellent, and the use of multiple characters and routes throughout the game ensures that the game can be played more than once. If you want to play the actual sequel, you need to either use an emulator or hunt down a Famicon, along with the Disk System add-on.

NES · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2015

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bosses

Super Mario Bros. 2 replaced Doki Doki Panic's third Mouser boss with a rock-tossing giant crab called Clawgrip.

However, Clawgrip's name is spelled wrong in the SMB2 credits (it's spelled as "Clawglip"). Interestingly enough, this small flub was not fixed in Super Mario All-Stars!

Cover

The picture used on the cover incorrectly has Mario's shirt as blue and his dungarees as red! This mistake is just on the cover art as Mario's in-game color scheme is the correct blue dungarees/red shirt.

Influence

Though not originally designed as a Mario game, the further Mario games used many elements from this game, mostly enemies. Shyguy, Bob-omb, and Pokey are notable examples.

Mario and Luigi

By inheriting attributes from the Doki Doki Panic characters they replaced, the appearance of Mario and Luigi are differentiated by more than a palette swap for the first time in this game. Though they were again palette swaps in some later games, Super Mario Bros. 2 set the precedent for Mario to be the shorter brother and for Luigi to be lanky.

Release history

The Japanese Super Mario Brothers 2 was an updated version of the original title, complete with harder levels and new enemies. The US SMB2 was a conversion of the Nintendo title, Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic, simply replacing the characters in that game with character from the Mario universe.

Nintendo later released the Japanese SMB2 in the US (titled Super Mario Bros. : The Lost Levels) as part of the compilation title, Super Mario All-Stars, on the Super Nintendo (SNES).

Japan gamers would also receive the US version of Super Mario Bros. 2, released as Super Mario USA in 1992.

Awards

  • EGM
    • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #108 in the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #30 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Power Play
    • Issue 01/1990 - #2 Best Nintendo Game in 1989

Information also contributed by Big John WV and j.jones, Joshua J. Slone, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, WWWWolf

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Arcade, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Wii added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Exodia85, gamewarrior, Andrew Shepard, MegamanX64, Patrick Bregger, TJ Liebgott, Thomas Thompson, FatherJack.

Game added September 28, 2002. Last modified March 27, 2024.