Super Mario Bros. 2

1001 Video Games

The NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bosses

Super Mario Bros. 2 replaced Doki Doki Panic's third Mouser boss with a rock-tossing giant crab called Clawgrip.

However, Clawgrip's name is spelled wrong in the SMB2 credits (it's spelled as "Clawglip"). Interestingly enough, this small flub was not fixed in Super Mario All-Stars!

Cover

The picture used on the cover incorrectly has Mario's shirt as blue and his dungarees as red! This mistake is just on the cover art as Mario's in-game color scheme is the correct blue dungarees/red shirt.

Influence

Though not originally designed as a Mario game, the further Mario games used many elements from this game, mostly enemies. Shyguy, Bob-omb, and Pokey are notable examples.

Mario and Luigi

By inheriting attributes from the Doki Doki Panic characters they replaced, the appearance of Mario and Luigi are differentiated by more than a palette swap for the first time in this game. Though they were again palette swaps in some later games, Super Mario Bros. 2 set the precedent for Mario to be the shorter brother and for Luigi to be lanky.

Release history

The Japanese Super Mario Brothers 2 was an updated version of the original title, complete with harder levels and new enemies. The US SMB2 was a conversion of the Nintendo title, Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic, simply replacing the characters in that game with character from the Mario universe.

Nintendo later released the Japanese SMB2 in the US (titled Super Mario Bros. : The Lost Levels) as part of the compilation title, Super Mario All-Stars, on the Super Nintendo (SNES).

Japan gamers would also receive the US version of Super Mario Bros. 2, released as Super Mario USA in 1992.

Awards

• EGM
  • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #108 in the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
• Game Informer
  • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #30 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
• Power Play
  • Issue 01/1990 - #2 Best Nintendo Game in 1989

Information also contributed by Big John WV and j.jones, Joshua J. Slone, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, WWWWolf