While some people didn't like this sequal, I found it to be fun even if it's strangely different than the other games.

User Rating: 9 | Super Mario USA NES
By Elite29 | Review Date:
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a very strange game. It's strange because of how completely different it was to it's predecessor, the original Super Mario Bros. If you don't know the story behind this game, well here is the quick version: Over in Japan, they recieved a completely different version of this game. Their version is almost exactly like the original Super Mario except WAY harder. For fear that us american games would shy away from a game that difficult, Nintendo decided to make a different game for us. What we get is a game that was original a completely seperate game that had the main characters taken out, Mario characters inserted, and it shipped. So due to this fact, this game doesn't fall into the same Mario universe as every other game in the series does.

While I would normally be insulted by Nintendo's thoughts that us american gamers can't handle a game as challenging as the japanese Super Mario 2, I am actually happy about their decision since this game is still fun and was something different. Sure a lot of people didn't like it when it came out, but I think over time it has developed quite a following and certainly worthy of being in the Super Mario series. If you are ever curious on 'what might have been', you can always download the japanese Super Mario 2 from the Wii's Virtual Console service. It's called, 'Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels'. After trying that out, I think us americans got the better deal.

This game isn't looked upon as one of the best in the series, but look at the competiton it has to go up against. I think it's better than Super Mario Sunshine (the disappointing GC title), but it's not as good as the other games in the series due to those being pretty much perfect (SMB3, Super Mario World, Super Mario Galaxy) or revolutionary (SMB, Super Mario 64).

Look at it this way, if you are going to want the whole Mario collection then you will get this game anyways. But at least it's not a garbage sequal like the Zelda series received (Zelda 2.....ugh). Yes it's very different, but it's still a really fun game that every owner of a NES should have.

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