Gaming Confessions: I Love Super Mario Bros. 2

It’s time for gaming confessions: the designated series here on GameGrin for all our guilty pleasures, hot takes, tricks, and embarrassing moments. Today, I’m owning up to something that a lot of gamers won’t agree with me on — Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of my favourite Mario titles.

Ever since I was a child playing games on my original NES, I have always loved the Super Mario Bros. series. This includes Super Mario Bros. 2, which a lot of people don’t think belongs, as it’s such a departure from the original title. When the game was released in Japan, it was known as Super Mario USA, since they already had a Super Mario 2, which we didn’t get as they thought it would be too difficult for Western gamers. We didn’t get it until it was included on the game collection for Super Mario All-Stars as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. They weren’t wrong: even with the ability to save on the SNES, it is a very difficult game; I’ve never been able to complete it in all these years. One of my favourite things is that in Japan, it was on a bright pink cartridge — Famicom games look so cool!

This game is a reskinned version of Doki Doki Panic on the Famicom Disk System. I love that the game gives you the choice of which character you want to play as from Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, or Toad, with each handling differently; they aren't just copies of each other. Mario is a good all-rounder: he has decent speed and can make precise jumps. Luigi has crazy kicking legs and can jump very high, but when you try to land on a platform with him, it almost feels like he’ll slip off. The Princess has the ability to float after jumping, which is very helpful for crossing large gaps. Finally, Toad can pick vegetables quickly and dig really fast, which is especially useful in sections where you need to dig straight down.

In this entry of the series, instead of jumping on enemies like Koopas and Goombas, you pull up vegetables from the ground to throw at the baddies in your path. You may also pull up coins or magical potions. When thrown, the potion bottle creates a magical door leading to a dream world where any vegetables you pull turn into coins, or you may find a large mushroom to power up your character. Once the time runs out, you return to the normal world.

The enemies you face in SMB2 are completely different from those in the first Super Mario Bros.. Instead, we were introduced to baddies like Shy Guy, Ninji, and Birdo, all characters who have remained in the franchise and still appear in games today. There was one enemy who always scared me as a kid: Phanto, the evil mask that chases after you when you pick up a key. They are incredibly fast and constantly try to smash into you. If you toss the object you’re holding, they’ll fly off, but as soon as you pick it back up, the mask quickly returns to torment you.

There are seven worlds and 20 stages to conquer before the final battle with Wart; though there are secret warp locations that allow you to skip through many levels. Some are quite well hidden, and you may not even encounter them, but I rather cheated by using an issue of Nintendo Power magazine to help me find them all. Warps can shave time off your total playthrough, but jumping ahead might land you in a stage that’s much harder to complete, especially when you lack the experience from earlier levels you skipped over to know what to do.

There’s a huge variety of settings across these seven worlds. One has you traversing a desert with dangerous quicksand; another has you crossing waterfalls by hopping across logs carried by the current; and one of the most challenging is the ice world, where the slippery platforms make it difficult to stick a landing. Once you complete a stage or die, you return to the character selection screen, where you can try out someone else. Always picking the Princess, as I did as a child, isn’t always the best choice, as each level seems to favour a specific character who has an advantage over the others.

One thing I love is how the game keeps track of how many times you’ve selected each character. Whoever you use the most will receive special recognition when you reach the end of the game. If you somehow reach the finale having used each of them five times, you’ll get recognition for all the characters, which is really neat. It’s certainly more reasonable than in the original Doki Doki Panic, where you had to beat the game four times, once with each character, to see the true ending.

I have a huge soft spot for this strange and vibrant game with its great music. I understand why some people feel it doesn’t fit into the franchise, but it’s still a fun experience that I highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t played it. The ending might not be the most satisfying one I’ve encountered, but for me, it’s the main game itself that matters, and I always have a great time playing this title. If you don't have the original consoles, the game is available to play if you have a Switch and the Nintendo Online Membership, so you really need to check it out!