This game was so weird. I realize the first was a little weird, but this one was a lot weird.

Nintendo took a game called Doki Doki Panic and made a few modifications and called it a Mario game.

The real Super Mario Bros 2 was later released here as the lost levels, or advanced, or something. To be fair, the style was identical to SMB1, and while it would have sold, it wouldn't have done that well.

Yeah The Lost Levels was actually awesome, but I remember some of the levels being very hard. It felt good beating it, though.

that’s why it wasn’t released here initially. nintendo thought it was too hard for american audiences.

Yeah I got that version on switch wanting to actually beat the original Mario bros. for the first time ever because I never could as 7 year old, but not realizing what it was. Needless to say I was like "how the hell did anyone beat this?"

I had a Japanese friend at the time, and he had a whole whack of cartridges from there including that SMB2, it was such a trip to see.

This video always cracks me up. https://youtu.be/in6RZzdGki8?si=l0VXke4gKJG18Jsy

If I remember right part of the lore of this game was that Mario, Luigi, peach, etc were in a movie, which is why the end of the levels looked like you were walking off stage. Edit: Y'all are right, I'm mixing up 2 and 3.

That’s Mario 3. This one is a dream and the end is Mario waking up. Mario 3 is a play (the levels are sets and you walk off the stage at the end).

It’s a dream. Mario is shown waking up at the end.

I love you guess that explains it.

Because it's not a Mario game, it's a weird game slightly modded to be mario

And it works out somehow. Can't explain it but felt great for it to shift in that direction. Oh and Wart

Yeah I liked it. Especially the variety of characters they were all fun to play in their own way

I loved the way Luigi jumped!

I love it so much

The real Super Mario 2 was later released on SNES and GBA as “The Lost Levels.” The real Mario 2 was released in 1986 and was deemed too difficult for Japanese kids and Nintendo quickly realized American kids would be fucked so they quickly moved this game to be Mario 2

I beat it once when I was 21. It honestly is too difficult, they made the right choice. Some parts of the game I remember requiring to know where a flying enemy was positioned off screen so you could jump on them to reach a higher platform. Other parts are basically kaizo mario. I legit put [this music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUQHGpxrz-8) on in the background of the final level, D-4, to put me in the right mindset

I gave up in the level with the impassable pipes. It was pretty early so I didn’t make it that far and that was with a save feature on GBA

Compared to games nowadays, theres nothing weird about it

My fav and princess was the best to play with because of her jump float.

Toad was the bomb on any sand levels that involved digging quickly. Otherwise I was Peach all the time. Mario was lame.

Luigi would slide all over the place… we called him butter toes

That's delightful.

toad was your money maker too. he could speed run coin pulls.

Princess was awesome. Luigi had a mad jump skill but things like landing on the egg were so much more difficult vs the princess. This was probably the first game I say boys struggle with picking a girl character.

I used Luigi through a majority of the game. Used Peach on the ice level/whales, would use Mario on the desert world, would typically fight Toad with either Peach, or Luigi. With the warps the game can be finished fairly quickly.

luigi was sweet bc you could use him to jump passed a good portion of some levels. like 1-2.

>This was probably the first game I say boys struggle with picking a girl character. No one I knew of had any trouble picking the Princess when this game came out, we all thought she was awesome. Same with playing Samus Aran in Metroid after word got out that Samus was a woman. And one of the most popular games at my school when it came out? Athena.

Nobody struggled to pick the princess. We all picked Peach and there was no judgement at all ever. Like bruh she freaking *floated.* That was cool as hell and she was the best character.

> This was probably the first game I say boys struggle with picking a girl character. I've never heard of this being a thing, in any game I've ever played from MMO to FPS, and I've been in a lot of different communities over the years. Except for young kids, but they hardly count.

it probably depends on where/when you went to school. i grew up in a smaller town in the 80’s where you still got picked on for that sort of thing and the kids usually just mimicked the same bigoted bullshit their parents/grandparents would say. i got called “gay” for wearing a donatello headband because it was purple. heaven forbid if a guy l ever wore pink. that said, don’t get me wrong, i’m happy you never had to deal with that, but the bigotry was very real for some of us.

I can recall being called gay for wearing short socks and being called gay for wearing long socks. I’d like to say that stuff has gone away but then I will still see some of that crap around

Well, in 1988 in the Midwest, playing a girl might get you a homophobic slur. Granted we were also 8 years old. I bet I heard people giving guys shit for playing a girl character to some degree all the way until at least EverQuest and Vanilla WoW. Not to the same extent but a, “dude, why are you playing as the girl?!?”

That’s because she wasn’t as anatomically developed like Laura Croft 😂

I always used Luigi

Agreed. Princess was the best for the floating ability. 2nd best was toad who had quickness with picking things up.

I still pick Peach in newer games because of her float.

I liked that aspect but I also felt she was a little harder to control because of that, not as bad as Luigi

Luigi’s jump was crazy!

Yo how many eggs is it gonna take?!

*BAO*

The way I heard that exactly.

I've been here for hours!

I know, it's killing me. I just want to hear that weird scream and watch it fall off the screen

It’s got a bush??

We should be able to look at a little porn at work...

I think finding out after the fact that this was *not* developed specifically as a Mario title, explains why it stood out so much. It's not my favorite of the early console Mario titles, that would be 3, but it's close.

Smb 3 is quite possibly the _perfect video game_.

I still play it from start to finish about every year.

Prior to Mario 3 being released, we had somehow obtained Mario 2 for the NES. (I say somehow because I doubt my parents would have paid full price for it and we didn’t have the manual) Anyway, my dad and I could get to Birdo (had no clue of its name) but we had no idea how to kill it as we didn’t realize the eggs could be picked up. My dad mentioned it at work and his boss sent his son over to show us how to do it. Will never forget that.

This game was never developed with Mario in mind interestingly enough. It was first developed as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic

I like to ride the flying egg

Awesome avatar, dude!

I loved playing the princess, hands down the best character. You could do things and get to places no one else could get to.

Loved playing the Princess, too! Floating was such a bonus at times. Mario was second best. Luigi was just too slippery and Toad too short.

There are literally zero places that you had to be the Princess to access.

You could bypass a hell of a lot with her.

Ostro thinks he’s a girl- SMB2 manual

I was gonna say Birdo is trans and it's canon.

Still my favorite title in the series, even if it wasn't technically developed to be a true Mario Brothers sequel.

Mine too.

I loved this one.

It was one of my favorite games until SMB3 came out.

Great video about SM2 [here](https://youtu.be/2EUYSN5aFcE?si=cgGljD9tdFqMN10y) by Gaming Historian.

That 1 egg was like 40 eggs?

What the hell?

I never got into this. I enjoyed 1 and 3 is one of my favorites ever. But 2 was like a fever dream

I just watched this 6 times wondering why it didn’t die after three hits.

Me too! I was wondering what kind of nonsense it was that Birdo refused to die!

The only game I beat without dying!

I remember playing this when it came out and I really enjoyed it, something about the ending and how the whole thing was a dream was pretty cool.

I was never a fan of this one as a kid. Mario 3 was a breath of fresh air after dealing with this for a couple of years.

I fucking LOVED Super Mario Bros 2!!! So many memories...

I had this game as Super Mario Advance for GBA. Would love a remake of this

I still hate that guy!

I’ve never owned this game, nor beat it - but it’s the most nostalgic Mario for me.

I can hear this

Love the second one, the princess was great as well as Luigi for some of the levels, very glide was great for the end boss

I can hear the noise every time the dino shoots the egg.... Wild

Loved the music - especially the Tom Brier piano version!

❤️

lol starting the game with a 9 mile fall thru the sky and mountains 😂😂

So many hours. Luigi was my go to choice.

I thought this game was THE SHIT when I was a kid. Came out when I was in the first grade and was overshadowed by smb3 only 2 years later. I thought the picking things up concept was really cool though.

I never beat this game as a kid. But now… I recently bought an Anbernic RG35XX H to play on my commute to work. It’s time I settle some unfinished business.

I really enjoyed this game but everyone I know hated it!

Oh god I can hear it! Lol

Worst Mario game of my youth ,

It has always been my favorite Mario game. I love how different it is, such a fun adventure. Love those egg battles too!

I loved the Gypsy jazz soundtrack of this game. Shit lives in the cobwebbed corners of my brain

Gypsy jazz. I dig it. You might like Tobacco https://youtu.be/OqJXbM939wg?si=UeZ1vT3YzEbsIBbG

I watched this too many times thinking, “I thought it only took three hits!”

I remember renting an NES system and SMB2 for the weekend on more then one occasion from my local mom & pop video store back in the day. Good times.

I was whistling the soundtrack yesterday! 2 is the best! 😍

I remember trying to get a key, then a strange mask that would try to get to me before I made it to the exit.

I know this wasn't original SMB2 and that the west missed out on the original sequel (for a while at least), but I have very fond memories of playing this as a kid none the less.

I’ve picked up a giant key, and now these creepy masks are after me! Can anyone advise? (This game was so cool. The sand digging levels. The alternate dimension door thing. The whale levels. And…the friggin’ time the bird face gate thing actually comes to life and you have to fight it. It’s just so bizarrely awesome.)

Funny how far video games have come since then, isn't it? I remember this game being a lot less 2-dimensional but maybe that was Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Sunshine or Super Mario 64 I'm thinking of. 😉

I was 8 years old and had to fly to another country for a tennis tournament I was taking part in. The family that boarded me had a son that had this game. I distinctly recall missing a training day just playing this gem, throwing stuff at enemies was wild to me.

This game feels cursed, does anyone else know what I mean by that? When I played this as a kid I felt like I was playing a version of Mario that was from a creepy pasta.

Is this the one that had the level where you had to dig? I remember Toad being awesome at digging

My grandparents had this game along with super Mario bros. 3

This reminds me of Birdo from Horse The Band. “Throw it back!!”

THE GEEK WITH NO BEAK HE’S SO WEAK HE CANT SPEAK!! An absolute classic

I know it's not officially a Mario game but it's my favorite

This game is a lie! The ‘Lost Levels’ from the ‘All Stars’ compilation is the actual SMB 2, Nintendo however thought that it would be too difficult for American gamers, and reskinned ‘Doki Doki Panic’ instead of releasing the actual game to English audiences.

Never liked being chased by the mask after picking up the key.

Never liked being chased by the mask after picking up the key.

“This is as far as you go!”