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"An oddball, but still a worthy sequel."

Mario, Luigi, and all of the friends of the Mushroom Kingdom are joyous and care free after Mario saved Princess Toadstool from Bowser, which is where we were left at the end of Super Mario Bros, the precursor to this game. Super Mario Bros. 2 picks up the storyline of the ever-changing Mushroom Kingdom right after these events. Super Mario Bros. 2 provides players with a game much different than the original game that literally saved the video gaming industry from its demise in 1985. While this is an excellent game, it still receives a lot of scrutiny for the fact that the game play was so much different from the original turtle smashing Mario that we were used to at the time.

There isn't really any introduction to this game prior to playing meaning that the player is just told to pick a character and the game begins. While this was more acceptable in SMB 1, since this version is so different compared to it, I felt that the programmers made a mistake by not adding some type of intro just to give the player a sense of what the heck is going on. However, from what I have gathered, the storyline goes something like this. Mario has a strange dream in which he was walking up a seemingly endless staircase. When he finally reaches the top of the stairs, he enters a large door. He sees a world wildly different from his own that stretches as far as the eye could see. He then hears faint voices telling him they need his help to break the curse that one name Wart has put on them and that Wart hates vegetables. Mario awakens at this point, however he is deeply affected by this dream. To clear his mind, Mario decides to round up his three best friends, Luigi, Toadstool, and Toad to go on a picnic. During this day out touring the Mushroom Kingdom's landscape, the group found a cave and to their surprise see the same large seemingly endless staircase that Mario discussed. They ascend the staircase and find themselves in the same world with the same problem as in Mario's dream. Like most people, I was expecting the game to be more like the original SMB, but I guess such a story isn't so bad. It isn't very original at all, but it's really the game play that counts.

The first thing you will notice about this game when you start playing, is that instead of playing as Mario, you have the choice to play as any of the characters in the group mentioned above. Each character has physical advantages and disadvantages unique to themselves. For example, Mario is a well-balanced character, while Luigi can jump very high, but is greatly affected when he is holding and item. Toad has low jumping power, but his speed or jump heights aren't affected by items. Princess Toadstool has low jumping powers, however she can float in the air for nearly two seconds. All characters also have the ability to do a powerjump that will greatly exceed their normal jumping powers.

Since this game takes place in a completely different world than SMB did, we are also introduced to an entire new cast of enemies. We are introduced to Shyguys, Tweeters, Snifits, Beezos, Hoopsters, Phantos, and Ninjis, just to name a few of the dozens of enemies. These new enemies were a refreshing change from the monotony of turtles, goombas, and extremely angry fish from SMB. Enemies can be defeated in a variety of ways, however they cannot be defeated simply with a bop on the head as in SMB. In fact, if you jump on top of just about any enemy, you will simply stand on top of them while they go about their normal business. Like Wart, your enemies have their own personal Kryptonite, which happens to be vegetables! Vegetables are hidden in the ground and can be picked up by players. Like vegetables, you can also pick up live enemies and use them as weapons against their own kind. The final way to defeat enemies is to use POW blocks or bombs, which are also picked up at various points.

Nintendo decided to take special powers like flower power out of this second installment in the SMB series, but they replaced it with the ability to increase your characters life bar. When every level starts a player will start with two units of health. By getting hit, a player will lose one unit of health, and when at one health unit, a player will change to small version of their character. To gain more maximum health, a player must use special potions found buried in the ground, which when used will turn into magical doors. These doors will transport you to an alternate dimension that looks just like the one you were just in. Here you can collect mushrooms, which increase your life capacity and also coins can be collected. These coins can be traded in to play a slot machine type game at the end of each level, which can win you extra lives.

There are a total of twenty levels contained in this game, which comprise seven different areas of this dream world you are in. At the end of each level there is a small boss, at the end of every third level there is a larger boss, and at the end there is Wart. The level, while not terrible, were not quite as dynamic as they could have been. The best part about the levels is that each area of the game has a different theme. For example, there are jungle, desert, and ice age type themes in different areas. The levels were clearly drawn as a grid, meaning every object is the same size as every other object, and large objects are made by putting smaller objects together. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is extremely obvious. Many levels seemed to be just bland and devoid of interesting little quirks. Battling bosses wasn't particularly interesting. Most of them were very easy, and fighting Birdo time and time again gets very monotonous.

Graphically, this game was a big upgrade from SMB 1. All of the characters got huge upgrades graphically and are a heck of a lot more defined as compared to their almost 4-bit looking counterparts in SMB 1. In fact, most of the game got the same graphical upgrade. Almost everything in this game looks better graphically than SMB 1. Most of the time, good bright colors were used, however in quite a few places there were some weird looking coloring. I was also disappointed by the boring backgrounds. The skies were all a single, boring color and looked quite primitive. Nintendo could have done the courtesy of adding a few nice looking clouds or something to help out with the graphics, but it seems like they put all their eggs in one basket so to say, and improved the graphics only on the foreground.

As in SMB 1, this game was very strong in the audio department. Many of the musical pieces in this game are similar to those in SMB 1, just upgraded slightly, and others are original pieces. While the newer musical pieces in this game aren't quite as memorable as the original musical pieces, they are still enjoyable and add to the lightheartedness of the series of Mario games. The sound effects were also well done. Most of them were high pitched noises which also adds to the theme and effect that this game has on people. The sound effects were at a perfect volume level and tone so that they were not annoying, but were still noticeable.

In this sequel, players see many new actions that can be executed. With the addition of super jump, throwing things, running, and picking things up, you may think that controlling Mario or his friends would become a little complicated, however, Nintendo did a flawless job on programming the game so that the controls were numerous, yet still very straightforward and simple. In my review for SMB 1, I mentioned that it is very hard to move Mario from a standstill, however this problem seemed to be fixed in the sequel as moving Mario around the world is overall much easier and a lot smoother.

I am really torn between myself on whether to say the game play in SMB 2 isn't as good as SMB 1 or if it is better. I have always been disappointed with this game in the sense that it is so different from any other game starring Mario and his friends however, the game play in this game is still phenomenal and is still better than ninety percent of other NES games. All in all, this game is an excellent one, however it doesn't live up to the name that was established by other Mario games.

The replay value attributed to this game also does not have the same prestige that SMB did, or almost any other Mario game for that matter. Of all the games starring Mario, this one probably gets the least play from me. Don't get me wrong though, this game is pretty fun to play and if you buy it, you will definitely play it quite a bit, but after you beat it once or twice, you won't find yourself playing it too much.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a worthy sequel to a very worthy series, but the game is definitely the oddball of the series. Any Mario fan will love to play this game, and any die-hard fan will want to add this one to their collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/06