Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
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Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (named Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan, and more recently Super Mario Bros. For Super Players) is a Mario game which closely resembles its predecessor, Super Mario Bros. and is not to be confused with the European and American Super Mario Bros. 2. Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System to Japan only. It uses a slightly altered Super Mario Bros.'s engine, with different levels and new features including altered graphics and new enemy behavior. Nintendo of America originally deemed this game too challenging and too much like the original to sell well in Western countries, so it adapted a popular Japanese game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and released it in those parts as Super Mario Bros. 2. This game (known as the "American Super Mario Bros 2.") was later released in Japan under the title Super Mario USA. The first time this game was released outside of Japan was its remake in Super Mario All-Stars. Here it was named Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels with text under the box title reading For Super Players.
[edit] StoryPromotional artwork from the Super Mario All-Stars release of the game After Mario and Luigi saves Princess Toadstool, the Mushroom Retainers and the Mushroom Kingdom from the evil King Koopa's evil spell, Bowser kidnaps her with the Mushroom Retainers and invades the Mushroom Kingdom again. This time, Mario and Luigi have to travel in many different and dangerous worlds of the kingdom to rescue the princess and the inhabitants from the False Bowsers. Though the lands seem very familiar to Mario and Luigi, they are much more dangerous and inhabited by more enemies than they had ever experienced before. Despite that, the Mario Bros. go through the nine new lands of the Mushroom Kingdom, fighting the Koopa Troop and False Bowsers in each castles when freeing the mushroom retainers until they reach the real Bowser and Princess Toadstool. After that, they defeat him and rescue the fair princess once more. [edit] GameplaySuper Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is divided into thirteen new worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom, which each have four levels like in its predecessor. Mario and Luigi have to get to the end of the level by jumping over various gaps and avoiding or defeating the members of the Koopa Troop on their way. The Mario Bros. can use several platforms (some of them collapse when Mario lands on them), stairs in the level, as well as Jumping Boards. There are also Warp Pipes along the way, some of which Mario can enter to visit various secret coin rooms before returning to the level, a bit further ahead than when he left. At the end of each level, a castle stands with a flagpole nearby. When Mario reaches the flagpole, he takes down Bowser's flag and enters the castle, completing the level. The higher the spot that Mario hits the flagpole, the more points he receives. Small Luigi in World 1-1. Unlike Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels doesn't have two-player mode in the game. Mario or Luigi has to be played alone. Mario retains the same abilities as Super Mario Bros., but Luigi returns with the ability to jump higher than Mario can. Fortunately, Luigi's high jump capability is available in the USA version of Super Mario Bros. 2 and other Mario games, except Super Mario Bros. 3, although his high jump was later included in its Game Boy Advance remake, Super Mario Advance 4. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels includes the same enemies from Super Mario Bros., Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Buzzy Beetles, Koopa Paratroopas, Bullet Bills, Hammer Bros., and jumping Cheep-Cheeps. However, all of Bowser's Koopa Troop have improved to be harder to deal with after their first invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom. All these enemies can be defeated when Mario jumps on them once, except for Koopa Troopas and Buzzy Beetles, which now run faster than in Super Mario Bros. and cover in their shell when jumped on, which Mario can kick to defeat other enemies, hit blocks or Brick Blocks with. Koopa Paratroopas also lose their wings and fall to the ground when Mario or Luigi jumps on them. Other enemies include Piranha Plants (including new red Piranha Plants, which are now the most common in the Mario series) found in pipes, the Spiny-throwing Lakitus and the Hammer Bros., and Mario has to either shoot fireballs at them or just avoid them. There are a few levels which take place underwater. In the water, Mario can swim freely from the top to the bottom of the screen. The enemies in underwater levels are Bloobers, Cheep-Cheeps with the included Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Buzzy Beetles, Koopa Paratroopas, Hammer Bros., Podoboos, Firebars and Piranha Plants; Mario can only defeat these creatures by shooting them with fireballs. In some levels, Bloobers are found floating in the air. Fire Mario in World 5-2's Warp Zone. Mario or Luigi can get special power-ups out of ? Blocks or, uncommonly, Brick Blocks. Most of the ? Blocks in which Mario can find these items are visible, but some are hidden and only become visible when Mario hits them from beneath. With the Super Mushroom, he turns into Super Mario. As Super Mario, he can survive the hit of an enemy one time, at the cost of turning back to Small Mario. He may also destroy empty Brick Blocks by jumping beneath them. Although the tricky opposite versions of the Super Mushroom, the new Poison Mushrooms, injure Mario or Luigi by simply touching one. Additionally, he can also get the Fire Flower. With the Fire Flower, Super Mario turns into Fire Mario, which allows him to shoot fireballs at enemies to defeat them from a distance. With the 1-Up Mushroom, he gains an additional life; he can also get an extra life if he collects 100 coins. With the rarest item of all, the Starman, which can only be found in Brick Blocks, Mario turns invincible for a short amount of time, and can defeat enemies by simply touching them. If Small Mario takes a hit, falls down a pit, takes a Poison Mushroom or if the Time Limit runs out, he loses a life, and restarts the level. The point where Mario continues depends on how far he ran through the level before getting defeated; either from the beginning, or at one of several invisible "checkpoints" throughout the level. The fourth level of each world plays inside a castle. They are usually filled with Firebars and Podoboos. At the end of a castle level, Mario is confronted with a False Bowser in Worlds 1 - 7, A - C and the real Bowser in World 8 - 9, D. Mario ordinarily has no way to hurt a False Bowser or the real Bowser, and has to either use the Ax to destroy the bridge, causing either the false Bowser or the real Bowser to fall into the lava, or pelt Bowser with a number of fireballs, which produces the same result and reveals the true forms of the fakes. After defeating a false Bowser, Mario frees several Toads from the castle, at which point they say their iconic sentence: "Thank you, Mario! But our princess is in another castle..." and Mario will go to the next world and save it as well from a False Bowser's invasion. At the end of the castle in World 8, Mario or Luigi frees the grateful Princess Toadstool and completes his adventure. Unfortunately, the Mario Bros.' adventure to save the kingdom and the princess is far from over. There are still False Bowsers and Koopa Troop soldiers left to defeat, including a second Bowser. Mario and Luigi have to go through the next new five lands of the Mushroom Kingdom and save the remaining Toads with the real Princess Toadstool by defeating the False Bowsers and the real Bowser once and for all. In the end, the Mario Bros. defeat all of the Koopa Troop, False Bowsers and Bowser, save the Mushroom Kingdom, all of the Mushroom Retainers and Princess Toadstool. Now their adventure is finally over. [edit] Differences and Additional featuresAlthough the mechanics in The Lost Levels adhere closely to those of Super Mario Bros., it did feature some significant changes and additions.
[edit] ItemsSuper Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels introduced some elements that made subsequent appearances in later Mario games:
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[edit] Reception in AmericaThe Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was intended to be a game for expert gamers that had mastered the original Super Mario Bros. and were looking for a new challenge. In the book Game Over by David Sheff the author quotes then-Nintendo of America CEO Howard Lincoln relating his considerable frustration over Super Mario Bros. 2, describing it as an irritatingly challenging game with many "cheap" gimmicks that add excessive difficulty (such as changing winds that can easily ruin precise jumps). Believing the game would not sell well in America due to this, the decision to ignore the original Super Mario Bros. 2 in favor of a new, special American SMB2 based on the considerably easier Famicom game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, was made. [edit] Remakes[edit] Super Mario All-StarsMario stomping on a Goomba in the Super NES remake from Super Mario All-Stars. The Super Mario All-Stars version of this game had a few differences from the original. Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels did not have the same graphics as each other to begin with. For instance, the ground is covered by blocks in most of the levels of the original, whereas in the Lost Levels, the ground is mainly covered by dirt. In Super Mario All-Stars, the graphics of all the games were improved, and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was made to look exactly the same as the graphically-improved version of Super Mario Bros. released on the same cartridge. The sound was also enhanced. Many levels that had snow in the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 did not have it in the Lost Levels edition, including 3-3, 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 8-1, C-3, D-1, D-2, and D-3. Snow was mysteriously introduced into C-1. (However, the snow is only a graphical element and has no effect on gameplay whatsoever.) Also, the game could be saved at any time. Unlike the Super Mario Bros. on the same cartridge, the game would remember the exact level the player was on, and not just the world. This was because the game was much harder than the original. Players only had to beat the game once to reach worlds A through D. In the secret section of World 1-2 (where the player would go to the pipe to World 4), the water pools were replaced by lava. However, the effects are the same : if Mario falls in, he loses one life. Similarly, the water in the first pit encountered in the level (after the Koopa Paratroopa) is removed in the SNES version. [edit] Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario WorldThe compilation title Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World contains all the games from Super Mario All-Stars, and Super Mario World, so it contains a remake of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. [edit] Super Mario Bros. DeluxeSuper Mario Bros. Deluxe was a remake on the Game Boy Color of Super Mario Bros. If a player gets on the high score table with 300,000 points or more, a Luigi head appears on the main menu. Players may select the Luigi head to play The Lost Levels under the name of Super Mario Bros. for Super Players. In this game, as in the Super Mario All-Stars version, the player may save and resume at any level. However, most changes removed features from the original release. This remake removes the graphical changes from The Lost Levels and thus looks just like Super Mario Bros. Additionally, Luigi's higher jump and lower traction were removed, as was wind. As a result of the lack of wind, some levels are modified to make the jumps possible. Another change is the removal of Worlds 9-D, although they are all at least somewhat present within the game's coding. [edit] Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros. 2Released in Japan only, this is an exact duplicate for the Game Boy Advance of the original game. [edit] Virtual ConsoleSuper Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was released on the Virtual Console in Japan on May 1, 2007 for the Wii and on July 25, 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS. It was also released for the Wii in Europe and Australia on September 14, 2007, alongside with Mario's Super Picross and Neutopia II as the part of the Japanese Hanabi Festival and in North America on October 1, 2007, making the first time the original version of the game was released outside of Japan and it costs 100 Wii Points more, as usual for imported games. Unlike other games, however, the PAL version was removed from the Wii Shop Channel on October 1, 2007, before being re-added permanently on August 22, 2008. It was released on the Virtual Console for the Nintendo 3DS outside Japan on December 27, 2012. [edit] Wii Shop descriptionOriginally released in Japan as Super Mario Bros.® 2, this game has previously made only brief cameo appearances in the Western hemisphere. Now available on the Virtual Console in all of its original splendor, Mario fans will appreciate the familiar look and feel of the game, while finding that its updated game play creates an entirely new challenge. No longer content just to wear different-colored overalls, Mario and Luigi also possess different skill sets (Mario can stop quicker, while Luigi can jump higher). In addition to the classic enemies already known to fans worldwide, there are also Poison Mushrooms, backward Warp Zones, and the occasional wind gust (which can help or hinder your progress) to take into account. And if that's somehow not enough, expert players can go looking for the game's secret worlds. So get ready to put your Mario skills to the ultimate test, and save the Princess again. Just don't be surprised if she's in another castle! [edit] Super Mario All-Stars Limited EditionThe limited compilation title Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition contains all the games from Super Mario All-Stars, and the Super Mario History booklet, so it contains a remake of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. [edit] Staff
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