Welcome to part 2 of my Super Mario All-Stars review!
Last time I talked about the original Super Mario Bros but today, it's sequel time!
We're going to discuss Super Mario Bros 2 and The Lost Levels.
So why are there 2 different sequels to Super Mario Bros?
If you're a gaming veteran you probably know but, in case not, here's a refresher.
In 1986, just a year after the first Super Mario Bros hit the market, Nintendo released
Mario 2 in Japan.
Since they only had a year to develop the game, it was pretty much a retread of the
first Mario just way harder.
It had a few enemy and power-up changes, but the main difference was level complexity and
difficulty.
In my opinion, it's the hardest Mario game of all time.
Tough as galvanized nails, tough as a titanium turtle.
In fact, it was so hard that Nintendo didn't release it in the West.
I'm serious -- Nintendo of America was afraid it wouldn't sell well.
But they needed to pump out something.
There was a huge demand from those little 8-bit kiddies in America.
So Nintendo took a Japanese-only game, Doki Doki Panic, and turned it into the American
Super Mario Bros 2 in 1988.
Doki Doki Panic was an Arabian game about an Aladdin-looking guy and his family going
on an adventure.
It was a pretty creative game for the time, with lots of vertical levels and 4 playable
characters who got morphed into Mario characters in the Super Mario Bros 2.
The turbaned hero Imajin became Mario.
Imajin's sister became Princess Toadstool.
His dad became Toad.
And get this, his mom became Luigi.
Isn't that sad?
As if Luigi needed another kick to his self-esteem after living in Mario's shadow for his whole
life.
Anyway, people like to argue over if this is a real Mario game or not.
I don't like naysayers on this debate.
For me, it's a real Mario game through and through, no matter what roots it had.
It may be a black sheep, but it's a sheep that's worth our time.
Let's get down to gaming.
Super Mario Bros 2 begins with Mario falling out of the sky and landing on a weird, grassy
hill.
If you're new, the first shocker you'll get is the combat system.
No longer can you jump on the enemies and squish them with your frumpy plumber weight.
Now, you can only kill them by throwing objects or chucking bad guys at each other.
There are no more Goombas or turtles in this game, which is kind of lame.
But there are Shy Guys, Sniffits, and Bob-ombs who became regular entries in the series.
Play any Mario sports game now and you'll see a ton of the little masked buggers.
And if you've been playing a ton of Mario games and you're sick of them, you might find
the enemies here refreshing.
Even though this was was a recreated version of a random Japanese game, it has a lot of
classic Mario features added to it, like the mushroom.
You can still get the super mushroom which makes you bigger and able to take an extra
hit.
In fact, you can stack the effects by getting more mushrooms which increases your amount
of hearts.
This is the only Mario game to date that uses a heart system for health and it's pretty
cool!
I just wish you could keep the hearts between levels -- this is one of those games that
scrubs your power ups clean every time move on.
Kind of like how you lose Yoshi in New Super Mario Bros Wii at the end of the level.
Probably the most unique thing about Super Mario Bros 2 is its character selection.
This is one of the only Mario games where you can select multiple characters EVERY level.
It's rare in any full scale platformer for you to have that option.
And this is the most influential aspect of the game.
It turned Mario's supporting cast into important characters for the first time.
Mario isn't anything special; he's just a balance character.
But Toad is super fast, super strong (which means he can lift heavy objects quickly),
and he has a crappy jump.
Still, he's my favorite character.
Toad is a badass and I feel like the world doesn't understand that!
Don't let his stupid voice fool you.
He's got the heart of a champion, that little guy.
Toad, I'd like to forgive you for all the "Princess is in another castle" business -- you're
pretty cool guy.
Next, we have Princess Toadstool.
She's pretty weak and slow but she has a horizontal float jump that is ridiculously useful.
It makes jumping across canyons and waterfalls easy for once.
Nintendo liked the move so much that they brought it back to Peach's character in Smash
Bros Melee and Brawl.
And, she'll have it in the new 3-D Mario game coming soon on the Wii U.
This was Peach's greatest role in Nintendo history, I'm serious.
Her actual DS game where you play as her was a disaster; it had the double insult of somehow
being sexist AND boring.
No, her real time to shine was here in Super Mario Bros 2 where she's an equal to the brothers.
There's no big fuss about her being a female adventurer, she's just a normal person with
strengths and weaknesses.
I find it frustrating that so many feminists hate the Mario series when they've never even
played this game.
But enough of my soapbox nonsense.
We're here to talk about the game, not macro-level gender issues.
Luigi is a really important character in the lineup because he's got the highest jump.
He can jump so high that it feels like you're breaking the game's rules, and I love that
feeling.
But he has major weaknesses.
He slides around like he's on a pair of ice skates when he tries to run, and he's pretty
weak.
My theory is he's wasted off his ass while he's on the adventure.
That's why he stumbles around.
I mean, I can't blame him for drinking too much fire flower juice.
The guy's been stuck as Player 2 for his whole miserable life.
Luigi's extra jumping power was actually invented in the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, but it
wasn't as exaggerated as this.
In the Western Super Mario Bros 2, he basically does a flutter jump.
Shigeru Miyamoto invented that kicking animation so it wouldn't feel so awkward jumping around.
And I like it -- I always as a fan of flutter jumps, especially when Yoshi does it.
So, what are the levels like in Super Mario Bros 2?
Well, I thought they were really advanced for their time.
Compared to the first Super Mario Bros which repeated levels a lot, this one had really
diverse, huge levels.
And lots of them were vertical, something you don't see much in the Mario series.
The challenge factor is really high, especially in the final fortress, but the levels always
had a cool atmosphere to them.
The bosses were just plain awesome.
I'm not a big fan of the Koopa kids so I personally loved that this game brought in its own lineup
of original bosses.
There's Birdo, the gender-confused Yoshi-ish thing that became a staple in the series;
there's Mouser who throws bombs at you, a fire guy and a crab, and then my favorite
boss design of all time: Tryclyde.
No one seems to remember this guy but wow, what an awesome monster!
He's a giant three-headed serpent who spits fire.
The Mario series rarely gets such intimidating, dark creatures like this.
Why can't we bring back Tryclyde?
I want to play as him in a new game and shoot fireballs at unsuspecting Toads!
Cook 'em up!
Roast their flesh!
Wa ha ha ha!
Oh yeah, speaking of evildoers, I almost forgot Wart.
He's the final boss but he doesn't deserve much of our time.
He's basically a fat frog who looks like Bowser and shoots bubbles out of his mouth.
Yes, he's the amphibious version of Bubble Man.
You have to kill him with vegetables and it is a decent boss fight but still, eh, I don't
think he's one of the greatest villains I've seen.
Super Mario Bros 2 has a weird feel to it in general because it takes place in the Dream
World, Subcon, and not the familiar Mushroom Kingdom.
There's some trippy stuff like the jars that take you into a little dream realm where you
can find mushrooms and coins.
It's definitely a weird game and I personally don't find the combat system as fun as the
normal jump & fireball style, but it's definitely unique.
What really saves the game is the 4 playable characters.
It adds a lot of replay to the game and keeps things interesting.
If you've never played it, then what are you waiting for?
As far as black sheep games go, I think this is a great one.
Now, what about the Lost Levels?
I said I would talk about this Japanese Mario sequel so I'd better be a man of my word.
I think this game is okay in its own right, but it's not much of a sequel.
It's more of a level-hacked, modified version of the first game.
Back in High School, I set out to beat the All-Stars version and I did succeed, but it
took me a long time and plenty of deaths.
You could make an undead army of Marios out of all my failed attempts.
The main challenge in the Lost Levels isn't the enemies, quick jumps, or fast-paced action.
It's confusion.
Once you get a few worlds in, every level starts to become a maze.
Remember in the first Mario game how certain castles made you memorize the correct route
to get through?
Well Lost Levels does that for about 50% of the game.
You have to keep trying out new pipes and new jumps to get through the correct way and
it's tedious as all hell.
And there's wind, flying Bloober squids, and poison mushrooms to make your trip even more
ugly.
I just think it's a kind of unpleasant adventure once it gets into the really mazy territory.
That's why I'm not too enthusiastic about it.
But some people really get a kick out of the challenge and I understand that.
All I'm saying is that I'd like if the challenge was more action-oriented and not maze-oriented.
It's just not my style.
Probably the greatest contribution to the game was Luigi as a unique character.
He's slippier than Mario but he has a higher jump -- this was the game that invented that
idea, even if the Western version made it more mature with the fluttering animation.
If you want a hard Mario game, go for it.
It's packed with levels too.
There are 4 bonus worlds in addition to the regular 8.
Well that concludes my discussion of Super Mario Bros 2.
Next up will be the king of the Nintendo Mario games: Super Mario Bros 3.
I know that a lot of you are big fans of that one so be sure to show some support and stayed
tuned.
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Have a nice day, and I'll talk to you again sometime soon.