Super Mario Bros. 2

s from Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. The playable characters can now also lift and throw things to defeat enemies. Super Mario Bros. 2 is a 2D side-scrolling platform game. The objective is to navigate the player's character through the dream world Subcon and defeat the main antagonist Wart. Before each stage, the player chooses one of four protagonists: Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool. All four characters can run, jump, and climb ladders or vines, but each character possesses a different combination of abilities that causes them to be controlled differently. Toad has the greatest speed and strength, allowing him to pick up items quickly, but has the lowest jumping height; Luigi can jump the highest, but moves slightly slower and has weaker strength; Princess Toadstool can float for short distances but has the lowest speed and strength; and Mario has intermediate speed, jumping height, and strength. Unlike Super Mario Bros., this game has no multiplayer functionality and no time limit. The original only scrolls from left to right, but this game can also scroll right to left, and even vertically in some areas. Unlike other Mario games, the characters cannot defeat enemies by jumping on them but can stand on, pick up, and throw most enemies at each other to defeat them. Other objects that can be thrown at enemies include vegetables pulled from the ground and mushroom blocks. The game consists of 20 different levels across the seven worlds comprising Subcon. Each world has three levels, except World 7, which has two. Each world has a particular theme that dictates the obstacles and enemies encountered in its levels, such as desert areas with dangerous quicksand and snowy areas with slippery surfaces. Levels contain multiple sections or rooms that are connected via doors or ladders. Some rooms are accessible by entering certain jars. Magic potions found in each level are used to temporarily access "Sub-space", a reflected, unscrollable area where the player can collect coins and Mushrooms that increase the character's maximum health. In addition, certain jars, when entered in Sub-space, will warp the player to the later worlds, skipping levels altogether. Other items available include cherries, which are collected in order to acquire a Star; the POW Block, which can be used to destroy all the enemies visible on the screen quickly; and a stopwatch that can stop enemies from moving for a short period of time. The player must defeat a boss enemy at the end of each of the first six worlds, then defeat Wart himself at the end of World 7 to complete the game. The player starts Super Mario Bros. 2 with three lives, one of which is lost each time the player's character loses all health from enemy or hazard damage or when the character falls off the screen, represented by hearts. The player can replenish health by collecting floating hearts that appear upon defeating a certain number of enemies. The player will receive a Game Over upon losing the last life, though the player may continue up to twice in one game. Extra lives may be obtained by collecting hidden 1-Up Mushrooms or by using the coins collected from Sub-space to play the Bonus Chance minigame between the levels. == Plot ==

Mario has a dream of a staircase leading to a mysterious door to a mysterious place. A voice identifies the world as the dreamland of Subcon, and asks for Mario's help in defeating the villainous frog named Wart, a tyrant who has cursed Subcon and its people. Mario suddenly awakes and decides to tell Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, who all report experiencing the same dream. The group goes on a picnic, but discovers a cave with a long staircase. Through a door at the top, they are transported to Subcon, revealing their dreams to have been real. After defeating Wart, the people of Subcon are freed and everyone celebrates. Mario suddenly awakes in his bed, unsure if these events were a dream. He soon goes back to sleep. == Development ==

Background and conception Nintendo originally released a different game called Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Family Computer Disk System in 1986 (later released as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels for Super NES as part of Super Mario All-Stars). Its engine is an enhanced Super Mario Bros., with the same gameplay and more complex level designs, character features, and weather features. Some of the advanced level content had been culled from Vs. Super Mario Bros., a 1986 coin-operated arcade version of the original Super Mario Bros. for NES. All of these factors combined to yield an incremental game design with significantly higher difficulty. Also that year, the young subsidiary Nintendo of America was just beginning its launch of the new Nintendo Entertainment System and its flagship game, Super Mario Bros. This international adaptation of the Famicom platform had been deliberately rebranded in the wake of the American video game crash of 1983, a regional market recession that had not directly affected the mature Japanese market. Nintendo of America did not want the increasingly popular Mario series to be too difficult to a recovering, transfiguring, and expanding market — nor to be stylistically outdated by the time the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 could be eventually converted to the NES's cartridge format, localized, and mass-produced for America. Utilizing its regional autonomy to avoid risking the franchise's popularity in this nascent market, Nintendo of America declined the Japanese sequel's localization to America and instead requested a newer and more player-friendly Super Mario Bros. sequel for release outside Japan. An early prototype with vertical scrolling was developed in two months by Kensuke Tanabe, designed by a team led by Shigeru Miyamoto, and programmed by Nintendo's frequent partner, SRD. and saying "Maybe we need to change this up ... As long as it's fun, anything goes". The prototype software was too complex for Famicom hardware at the time, and the gameplay was still considered lacking, especially in single-player mode. in Japan on July 10, 1987. The title is derived from "doki doki", a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a quickly beating heart. The title and character concept were inspired by a license cooperation between Nintendo and Fuji Television to promote the broadcaster's Yume Kōjō '87 event, which showcased several of its latest TV shows and consumer products. Summarizing Tanabe's recollections within a 2011 interview, Wired said "Although the initial concept for the game had been scrapped, the development of that original two-player cooperative prototype inspired all the innovative gameplay of Super Mario Bros.2". The R&D4 staff modified the character likenesses of Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, building them over their respective counterpart models of Imajin, Mama, Lina, and Papa. This marked the first time that Mario and Luigi had noticeably different heights, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic needed only a few alterations for its conversion into the Mario series because its gameplay elements were already so heavily rooted in it: Starman for invincibility, the sound effects of coins and jumps, POW blocks, warp zones, and a soundtrack by Super Mario Bros.composer Koji Kondo. To reduce the game's overall difficulty, the designers made minor technical changes. They opted not to retain Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panics ultimate requirement to complete each level using each protagonist; therefore, this new Super Mario Bros.2 can be completed in only one pass by any combination of characters. A late prototype of the game covering these changes was exhibited in the first issue of Nintendo Power, dated July/August1988. In the tradition of the Mario series, they added the ability to run by holding the Bbutton. Super Mario Bros.2 was first released in North America on In PAL regions, the game released the following year. It was such a commercial success and its contributions so substantial over Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, that it was eventually re-released in Japan on with the title Super Mario USA. Likewise, Nintendo later re-released the Japanese Super Mario Bros.2 in America in the form of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, a part of the 1993 re-release compilation Super Mario All-Stars on the Super NES. Nintendo has continued to re-release both games, each with the official sequel title of Super Mario Bros.2 in their respective regions. == Re-releases ==

Super Mario All-Stars In 1993, Nintendo released an enhanced Super Nintendo Entertainment System compilation titled Super Mario All-Stars. It includes the Super Mario Bros. games released for the Famicom/NES. The version of Super Mario Bros. 2 included in the compilation has modernized graphics and sound to match the Super NES's 16-bit capabilities, as well as minor alterations in some collision mechanics. It is possible to change the character after losing a single life, while the original version allows changing it only after completing a level or when the player loses all their lives and chooses "Continue", making the game more forgiving when choosing a character not adept at some specific level. The player begins with five lives instead of three, and the slot game gains an additional bonus: if the player obtains three sevens, the player wins 10 lives, which is something that was not featured in the original NES version of the game. The game has a 99-life limit. BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge In March–April 1996, Nintendo's partnership with the St.GIGA satellite radio station released an ura or gaiden version of the game for the Satellaview system, titled . Like all Satellaview games, it was released episodically in a number of weekly volumes, only in Japan, and only in this format. • and was a launch title for the Game Boy Advance. The Super Mario Advance version of Super Mario Bros. 2 includes several new features such as the addition of the enemy Robirdo, a robotic Birdo, replacing Mouser as the boss of World 3; the addition of the Yoshi Challenge, in which players may revisit stages to search for Yoshi Eggs; and a new point-scoring system, similar to that used in the aforementioned BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge. Graphical and audio enhancements appear in the form of enlarged sprites, multiple hit combos, digital voice acting, and such minor stylistic and aesthetic changes as an altered default health-meter level, boss-order, backgrounds, the size of hearts, Princess Toadstool being renamed to the now-standard "Princess Peach", and the inclusion of a chime to announce Stars. The game was released for the Wii U Virtual Console on July 16, 2014, in Japan and later in North America on November 6, 2014. It was released for the Nintendo Switch as a part of the Nintendo Classics service on May 26, 2023. Super Mario Advance received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom. == Reception ==

Upon release, Super Mario Bros. 2 was the top-selling video game in the United States for fourteen consecutive months, from October 1988 through late 1988, into 1989 through spring and summer, to November 1989. By early 1990, copies were sold in the United States, eventually totaling million copies worldwide, making it the fourth highest-selling game ever released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Although only the fourth highest-selling NES game overall, it is the best-selling standalone NES title that has not been a pack-in game. While The Lost Levels was widely considered overly difficult to play, Super Mario Bros. 2 received critical acclaim. Nintendo Power listed it as the eighth best Nintendo Entertainment System video game, mentioning that regardless of its predecessor not being in the Super Mario franchise, it was distinguished on its own merits and its unique takes on the franchise's signature format. GamesRadar ranked it the 6th best NES game ever made. The staff complimented it and other third-generation games for being a greater improvement than sequels around 2012, which they thought had seen only small improvements. Entertainment Weekly picked the game as the #6 greatest game available in 1991, saying: "The second and still the best of the Super Mario franchise". In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked the All-Stars edition as the 14th-best console video game of all time, calling the level designs "unlike anything you've seen before" and highly praising the boss challenges. In the Pak Source edition of Nintendo Power, which rated all NES games released in North America from October 1985 to March 1990, Super Mario Bros. 2 was among the only three games (aside Metroid and Mega Man 2) to receive the maximum score of 5 in at least one of the categories evaluated, which was not awarded to either Super Mario Bros. nor Super Mario Bros. 3. It was awarded the score of 5 for both "Challenge" and "Theme Fun". One reviewer concluded "all nostalgia and historical influence aside, Super Mario Bros. 2 is still a game worth playing on the merits of its gameplay alone", and that "the only reason you may not want to pick it up is if ... you already own it in another form." both games were eventually also remade as part of the Super Mario Advance series. Conversely, IGN praised the choice, calling it "one of the most polished and creative platformers of the era". ScrewAttack named Wart's battle theme in a list of the top ten best 8-Bit Final Boss Themes. Game Informer placed the game 30th on their top 100 video games of all time in 2001. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 27th on a list of greatest Nintendo games. Next Generation reviewed the Game Boy Advance version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "This classic probably shouldn't have been brought back. It's well translated but hasn't aged gracefully." == Legacy ==

Many elements in Super Mario Bros. 2 have endured in subsequent sequels and in related franchise. The ability to lift and toss enemies and objects—a defining feature of its earliest prototype Many characters and features of Super Mario Bros. 2 have been assimilated into the greater Mario universe, such as Birdo, Pokey, Bob-omb, and Shy Guy. with the former being voiced by Luis Guzmán. == Notes ==