Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japanese name: Super Mario USA) is the second (fourth in Japan) game in the Super Mario Bros. series. It originally was for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but was subsequently ported to many other systems.

Development
Super Mario Bros. 2's genesis came about in 1987, when Nintendo of America got its first look at the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo of America believed that Super Mario Bros. 2, which was a slightly altered version of the first Super Mario Bros. game with an increased difficulty level, would not be a commercial success in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

To deal with this, Nintendo commissioned a new Mario game to be made for the US/International market, which would be made by way of taking an existing game (Doki Doki Panic) and modifying it to feature Mario and his friends as playable characters. The game would furthermore be released in Japan, during the wait for Super Mario Bros. 3, under the name "Super Mario USA".

Many characters and abilities from Super Mario Bros. 2 later reappeared in the Super Mario series. Luigi's ability to Jump higher and stay in the air longer than Mario comes from this game, as well as Peach's occasional ability to hover in midair and pull vegetables from the ground (Super Smash Bros. Melee). Shy Guys, Snifits, Bob-ombs, Pokeys, and Birdo were also introduced and would later be incorporated into later Mario Brothers games. Wart, the main villain, never reappeared in a video game, but has made an appearance in the Nintendo Comics System and has been mentioned in later games. He did, however, appear in Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening under his Japanese name, "Mamu".

Playable

 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Peach (Princess Toadstool)
 * Toad

Enemies
*Returns in other Mario games, excluding remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2.
 * Shy Guy*
 * Tweeter
 * Ninji*
 * Hoopster
 * Pidgit*
 * Beezo*
 * Phanto
 * Snifit*
 * Trouter
 * Spark*
 * Cobrat*
 * Panser*
 * Pokey*
 * Ostro
 * Porcupo*
 * Albatoss
 * Bob-omb*
 * Flurry
 * Autobomb
 * Whale

Bosses
*Returns in other Mario games.
 * Birdo*
 * Mouser
 * Red Birdo*
 * Tryclyde
 * Fryguy
 * Mini Fryguy
 * Gray Birdo*
 * Clawgrip
 * Green Birdo*
 * Hawkmouth
 * Wart

Non-Playable

 * Subcon

Remake Exclusive

 * Robirdo (Super Mario Advance version)
 * Yoshi (Super Mario Advance version)

Story
In the game, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad travel through the world of Subcon, the world of dreams, which is ruled by the giant frog Wart. They enter Subcon through a cave they find while on a picnic trip. They were called by the Subcons, who were captured by Wart. Wart had captured the Dream Machine, which controls all dreams. On the adventure, our heroes fight Wart's army, the 8 bits, and his generals, Birdo, Mouser, Clawgrip, Fry Guy, and Tryclyde.

After they reach Wart's Castle, one of the four heroes battles Wart with vegetables, which are flung from the Dream Machine, on the floor near Wart's platform, forcing them into his mouth to defeat him. After defeating him, the hero then advances to the next room where they free the Subcon fairies from a clogged jar. The Subcon fairies then fly around the hero and then the screen reveals a celebration ceremony. As Mario, Luigi, Toad and the Princess celebrate their victory, the Subcon fairies cheer for the heroes (while passing around the defeated body of Wart). Suddenly, the screen focuses on Mario as he wakes up for a brief moment before drifting back into a deep slumber. This concludes that the entire adventure appeared to be nothing more than a part of Mario's dream (though it is not possible that the adventure did not take place before in reality).

Gameplay
Because the game was a clone of Doki Doki Panic, it had little in common with the original Super Mario Bros. For example, in order to defeat enemies, the player could throw Vegetables at them, or jump on them, grab them and throw them away. However, there are elements in common with its predecessor. Many power-ups are similar to that in Super Mario Bros, such as the mushroom, although there is also an item called heart which has the same effect.

At the beginning of each level, the player could choose between the playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool. When entering the next level or losing a life, he could select a different character again. At the end of most levels of the game, the player fought Birdo. The player had to jump on the eggs that Birdo spat, grab them and throw them back, hitting Birdo three times to gain a crystal which opened the hawkmouth gate at the end of the level. There were several colors of Birdos: pink, which only spat eggs; red, which spat eggs and fireballs; green, which only spat fireballs. For the green Birdos, there were mushroom blocks nearby for the player to use instead.

There were seven worlds in this game. The first six had three levels apiece, and the seventh had two. At the end of each world, the player encountered one of Wart's generals. Mouser was waiting at the end of World 1, Tryclyde in World 2, Mouser again in World 3, Fryguy in World 4, Clawgrip in World 5, Tryclyde again in World 6, and Wart himself at the end of World 7. This is modified in Super Mario Advance: first, Mouser does not appear in World 3, as instead the player instead encountered Robirdo. The second Mouser battle is instead moved to World 6, replacing the second Tryclyde fight.

Remakes

 * In Japan, the American Super Mario Bros. 2 was eventually re-released under the name Super Mario USA. It was marketed as the American Super Mario Bros. 2, and the game is unaltered save for the title screen. As such, the cast uses the characters' English names (in the manual, their Doki Doki Panic names are also included). Super Mario USA is also the name of the game in the Korean Virtual Console version.
 * The game was ported to the American arcade machine, the Nintendo Playchoice-10.
 * It was later ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as a part of Super Mario All-Stars, and was, as a part of All-Stars, available in Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World. The All-Stars version showed up with updated graphics.
 * The Game Boy Advance remake of the game, Super Mario Advance features updated graphics, voices for main characters, and new obstacles, such as being able to collect Yoshi Eggs for an extra challenge.
 * The NES version of the game was released on the Wii Virtual Console for 500 points in 2007.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl features masterpieces, short demos of game. One unlockable Masterpiece is Super Mario Bros. 2, here, the player starts out with Peach immediately (however, it is possible to switch to a different character if the player get a Game Over before he/she are forced to quit the game). To unlock it, one must play as Peach five times.

Voice Cast (for Super Mario Advance)

 * Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, Wart, Clawgrip, Tryclyde, Fryguy, Mouser
 * Jen Taylor as Princess Peach, Toad, Birdo/Robirdo

References to Other Games

 * Donkey Kong: Clawgrip tosses rocks in a very similar manner to the way Donkey Kong tossed barrels. Also, Clawgrip frequently bangs his chest like a gorilla.
 * Mario Bros.: POW Blocks appear as usable items. In the remake, Super Mario Advance, Clawgrip was revealed to be a Sidestepper.
 * Super Mario Bros.: The Starman power-up appears in the game, as well as a remix of the main Super Mario Bros. theme in Subspace. Also, the Super Mushroom item, which originated from this game, was in Super Mario Bros. 2, as well as the ability to shrink once the player is down to one heart point. Also, the ability to run by holding down the B button is exclusive to the Mario series, and wasn't present in Doki Doki Panic. The title theme is a remix for the music in the underwater levels and the sub-space theme is the original theme used in the overworld levels of this game.
 * Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels: Players can choose which character to operate though this is a coincidence with Doki Doki Panic. Luigi being a higher jumper than Mario is re-established when he replaced Mama's sprite in what may be a deliberate move by the developers.

References in Later Games

 * Super Mario Bros. 3: Bob-ombs reappeared as enemies. They are the only enemies who debuted in Super Mario Bros. 2 that appeared in the game.
 * Super Mario World: Pokeys, Ninjis, and Bob-ombs reappeared as enemies. Also, when the Special World is completed, Bullet Bills are replaced with Pidgit Bills.
 * The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Wart makes an appearance in this game under the name of "Mamu", which is his Japanese name. Shy Guys also made a cameo appearance.
 * Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Shy Guys appear as common enemies, with a whole bunch of new subspecies. Snifits appear in too, and a new Shy Guy-like enemy Bandit appeared. In the beta version, the Shy Guys and Snifits got similar graphics of Super Mario Bros. 2, and even Bob-Omb tended to appear in.
 * Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: Birdo, Shy Guys, Snifits, Beezos and Bob-ombs made appearances.
 * Kirby Superstar: Phanto made a cameo appearance as a collectible treasure item, which was referred to as a "Phanto Mask".
 * Paper Mario: Shy Guys, Ninjis, and Bob-ombs made appearances.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee: A Super Mario Bros. 2-themed stage is selectable, and Birdo frequently appears at the very right, spitting eggs at the player. This stage also plays the theme song that's played throughout all the outside stages in the game, as well as the boss music (during Sudden Death matches). Also, Princess Toadstool's moveset (floating and picking vegetables) was directly inspired by this game. Also, there's trophies of Birdo, Pidgit, and the vegetables.
 * Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: Pidgits appeared in Yoshi's Island of the past as enemies.
 * Super Paper Mario: Francis mentioned having a comic called, "Cybort Wart", which is clearly a reference to Wart. Also, there were Sammer Guys by the names of "Squatting Birdo" and "Guy Who Fry".
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: As with Melee, Peach contained the same moveset, and there's another trophy of Birdo. Also, Wart and Birdo's names appear in the random name selection.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: The way the characters are able to pick up the items, such as the POW Block.

Reception
Super Mario Bros. 2 has been received positively, with IGN editor Lucas Thomas praising the graphics, sound and replay value, although he insisted that Western gamers could have gotten into the Japanese version of the game. Gamespot critic Alex Navarro agreed, and commented that the game "...shows that veering from the beaten path of a franchise's standard game design isn't always a bad idea". Other journalists were more critical, with gaming site ScrewAttack calling it the 9th worst Mario game of all time, due to the fact that it was too much of a departure from its predecessor.

The game placed 47th in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997. . It also placed 81st in the 200th Issue of GameInformer's "Top 200 Games of All Times". As for sales, it's the third best-selling NES game, with 10 million copies sold worldwide.

Trivia

 * Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was the original Super Mario Bros. 2, released as such only in Japan. The Lost Levels was later released as part of Super Mario All-Stars (and its + World re-release) in 1993, and would also be featured on the Game Boy Color release Super Mario Bros. Deluxe in 1999; both re-releases featured the subtitle For Super Players.
 * The box art for this game changed the emphasis from the original Super Mario Bros. game. In the original game, the words "Mario Bros." were bigger than the word "Super", but with this game, the words "Super Mario" became bigger than the word "Bros.". However, in the title screen of the game itself, the same text is used as the original game.
 * This is the first game to have Princess Toadstool and Toad as playable characters.
 * Interestingly, the Super Mario Bros. 2 manual mistakenly used a few sprites from Doki Doki Panic, such as Phanto's original form, a magic lamp (which eventually became the Magic Potion), and a heart (which became the Mushroom power-up).
 * The end credits contained some errors, such as Birdo mistakenly being labeled as "Ostro" (and vice versa), Hoopster was mistakenly labeled as "Hoopstar", Tryclyde's name was misspelled as "Triclyde", and Clawgrip's name was misspelled as "Clawglip". These errors remained unchanged in Super Mario All-Stars, but were fixed in Super Mario Advance.
 * During the ending celebration sequence in the NES version, there are common mistakes in the number of levels each hero completes.
 * This is the only game from 1983 to 1993 to introduce Luigi as slightly taller than Mario.