Super Mario Bros. 2 is certainly a strange and much different title to all the other games in the Super Mario series.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is as completely different it could have possibly been to the original while also been quite familiar. The original Mario couldn't have been any simpler than it was. You had to reach the end of a level without dying, but along the way the levels were filled with obstacles and enemies, of which could be killed by simply jumping on them or by firing a shell in to them. Well the basic goal of each level in Super Mario Bors. 2 is the same as in its predecessor, but Super Mario Bros. 2 added keys to levels in order to unlock certain doors in levels, and the way of killing enemies was different too. You could no longer jump on an enemy to kill it. Instead you had to jump on its head, pick it up and then throw it at another enemy in order to kill it. Or you could pull up shrubs from the ground to throw at enemies to kill them too.
Also a health system was added to Super Mario Bros. 2. On the first game you started as small Mario, but if you found a Mushroom you turned into big Mario. In big Mario form you could be protected from enemies for one hit, and if you got hit you returned small. You could also get another upgrade, the Fire Flower. The Fire Flower only appears once you're big Mario, and if you got it you could shoot fire. Well this was all changed for Super Mario Bros. 2. You do again start the level as small Mario, but Mushrooms have gone. You have a three heart health bar in Super Mario Bros. 2, and when you're small Mario you only have one heart of life. But when you find a second heart you turn to big Mario, and you can get a third heart for extra protection when you're big Mario. If you're at full health and get hurt and go down to two hearts, you stay as big Mario, but getting knocked back down to one heart results in you returning to small Mario. The new found health system didn't go down well with Mario fans at the time as they just couldn't understand why Nintendo had changed the same so drastically when compared to the original Super Mario Bros.
Another thing that you could do on Super Mario Bros. 2 was choose one of four characters to attempt a level with. You had the choice of Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach or Toad, and each character had their own unique statistics. Mario was an all-round average character. Luigi was weak but could jump very well. Toad was very fast but had a bad jump. And Princess Peach could hover when she jumped. Now although the idea of four characters was a pretty nice addition I'm not too much of a big fan of it. As far as I'm concerned a Mario game should be played using Mario and nobody else.
The reason though that Super Mario Bros. 2 was so different in comparison with its predecessor was because the game was a rip-off of a Japanese platform title called Doki Doki Panic. In Japan the original Super Mario Bros. 2 was released and it was just like the first game, but it was deemed to difficult to take to an audience outside of Japan. And Nintendo knew they couldn't skip the second game in their mascot series out in America and Europe because of how well received the first title was, so they got Doki Doki Panic, kept the levels and enemies from the game the same (hence why Wart is the last boss instead of Bowser) but changed the character sprites to Mario characters, and that's why the game has four characters. And they did all this just so they could release a second Mario title in America and Europe. But when you think about it, it'd have been a lot less hassle if they just released the proper Super Mario Bros. 2 instead (the proper Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was later released in America and Europe in the Super Mario All Stars pack under the name Super Mario Bors. The Lost Levels). But when you think about it, even though Super Mario Bros 2 was a rip-off of Doki Doki Panic, the Shy Guys and Birdo (two recognisable characters in the Mario universe) were born in Super Mario Bros. 2, but they were actually enemies from Doki Doki Panic instead. So if you like Birdo (but if you do I have no idea why) or the Shy Guys you have to thank Doki Doki Panic for those characters.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a good platform game, but that's all it is, good. Since its release it's been branded the 'black sheep' of the Mario series because of how drastically different it is. If you're thinking about playing this game just go ahead and play it, but be warned, you may think that you wish you had given it a miss.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 7/10