75 Things: Beat Super Mario Bros. 2 (S(NES)
Sep 11
games, retrospective Mario, nintendo, SMB2, Super Mario 2 3 Comments
I’m continuing along with my quest to beat every Mario in order. I’ve reached my 3rd installment in the series – Super Mario Bros. 2. Technically, this is the third game in the series, but it was the second game released in the United States. This little gem of a game was released on October 10, 1988 in America. For the sake of entertainment value, I played this game on the All-Stars package. Like the lost levels, the game feels much less dated when playing it in all of its 16-bit goodness.
This game is less like any other game in the Mario series because it originally wasn’t even a Mario game. It was a game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (DDP). in Japan. Those clever executives at Nintendo thought us Americans couldnt handle the challenge of the lost levels. They were probably right, seeing as the true sequel was a pain in the ass, but this game became a classic in it’s own right.
Unlike the other games in the series, before each level you get to choose one of four characters. You get to play as either Mario, Luigi, Toad, or Princess. Each character has their own individual strengths and weaknesses depending on what level you’re playing.
The premise of the game, and excuse for the variation, is that Mario has entered a ‘dream world.’ and is under a curse from the evil toad king Wart. In order to wake up, Mario (or the other three characters) must play through the seven different worlds.
Overall, this is a pretty fun game, but gets repetitive fairly quickly. It was reminiscent to play through this game one final time. I enjoyed the ice levels, hated the desert levels, and was pretty indifferent about the other levels.
Playing through this game brought back a lot of childhood memories, specifically when I reached Mouser. I remember watching the cartoons as a kid and hating this character more than anything. It was nice, though brief, to relive kicking his ass one more time.
I say one more time because although playing through this game was relatively enjoyable, I don’t really see myself taking the plunge into this particular adventure again. It was always my least favorite game in the franchise and so far.
I’ve finally gotten past my least favorite games in the series. I have a feeling things are about to start speeding up on this here blog!