Video Game Memories: Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988)

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm pretty good. We finally got some rain here, which is nice, otherwise things are basically the same as they have been. Today I'm going to talk about what I remember about Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario Bros. USA in Japan). I didn't play the game quite as much as my siblings and my mom did, but I think I tried it out once or twice. So let's get into it.

After Nintendo of America decided not to translate Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels because test players were like, "dude, this is hard!", they also decided they needed a sequel to Super Mario Bros. here in North America too. So they took a game called Doki Doki Panic, that also didn't get ported over to the NES despite being on the Nintendo Famicom in Japan, changed the four hero characters to look like Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach (Princess Toadstool at the time), and Toad, and slapped the Super Mario Bros. 2 title onto it. They actually did a little bit more than that, but this is about my memories about the game, not a deep dive into the game's history.

I don't think we ever rented the original 8-bit NES version at all, but of course we had the 16-bit Super Nintendo version on Super Mario All-Stars when I was growing up. I think I only played it once or twice personally. But like with Super Mario Bros. I sat on the floor in our living room and watched my mom play it a number of times. And then later on, I remember sitting in our basement, watching my brother play the game.

I thought it was a unique game since it's the first time, and one of the few times, where you got to play as anyone other than Mario or Luigi in a Mario game that wasn't Mario Kart or Mario Party. Also, the lack of Bowser is bizarre. Then again there's always at least one game in these franchises where you fight a different villain other than the one that most people know the most. I thought it was pretty cool that each of the four characters had different abilities that the other characters didn't. Like Princess Toadstool could hover for a moment when you jump with her, Toad is stronger than the other characters, Mario can jump farther than the other characters, and Luigi can jump higher than the others. Which is nice, because in the previous game, and in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, Mario and Luigi are identical in their abilities, so it doesn't matter quite as much which character you play as. 

That's going to be it for me for today. Like I said, I don't really have a whole lot to say about this game since we didn't play it quite as much as we did Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. I will be back either tomorrow or Friday for my review of the Anime Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.