Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (known as Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan, Super Mario Bros.: For Super Players in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and Super Mario Bros. 2: For Super Players in the Japanese version of Super Mario All-Stars) is a direct sequel to Super Mario Bros., and is not to be confused with the game released in Western markets as Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mario Bros. 2 was initially released in 1986 for the Japan-only Family Computer Disk System. It uses a slightly altered Super Mario Bros. ' s engine, with some new features, altered graphics and new enemy behavior, and different, significantly more challenging levels. Nintendo of America originally deemed this game too difficult and too much like the original to sell well in Western countries, so in order to prevent the early series being associated with frustration and staleness, it adapted Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and released it as Super Mario Bros. 2. This game (known as the "Western" 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, where it gained its title Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. The original unaltered release was not available until the debut of the Virtual Console, over two decades later.

Story
Despite being considered a direct sequel to Super Mario Bros., the storyline of the game is completely identical: Koopa and his forces have transformed the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom into inanimate objects and have kidnapped its princess, the only person who can undo the spell, so Mario and Luigi set off to save them.

A message from Mario's Staff in the original Japanese manual explains the setting as being a "parallel world" to the original game.

Gameplay
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is divided into 13 new worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom, each of which have four levels like in Super Mario Bros. 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 or Luigi 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 the enemy flag and enters the castle, completing the level. The higher the spot that Mario hits the flagpole, the more points he receives.

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 (which is retained in Super Mario Bros. 2 and some other Mario games). On the downside, Luigi has slippery traction, so he could prove to be unruly at times.

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels includes the same enemies from Super Mario Bros.: Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Buzzy Beetles, Koopa Paratroopas, Bullet Bills, Hammer Brothers, and leaping Cheep Cheeps. 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 hide in their shell when jumped on, which Mario can kick to defeat other enemies and hit blocks or Brick Blocks. Koopa Paratroopas 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 have replaced green ones in later games) found in pipes, the Spiny-throwing Lakitus and the Hammer Brothers. 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 Bloopers and Cheep Cheeps, with the inclusion of Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Buzzy Beetles, Koopa Paratroopas, Hammer Bros., Lava Bubbles, Fire Bars and Piranha Plants; Mario can only defeat these creatures by shooting them with fireballs. In some levels, Bloopers are found floating in the air.

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 hit from below. 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. Lost Levels introduces a tricky opposite versions of the Super Mushroom, the new Poison Mushrooms, which 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 a life; he can also get an extra life by collecting 100 coins. With the rarest item of all, the Super Star (which can only be found in Brick Blocks), Mario turns invincible for short of time and can kill enemies by touching them.

If Mario takes a hit or Poison Mushroom while Small, falls down a pit, or if the time runs out, he loses a life and restarts the level. The point where Mario continues depends on his progress 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 Fire Bars and Lava Bubbles. At the end of a castle level, Mario is confronted with a Bowser Impostor in Worlds 1 - 7, 9, & A - D and the real Bowser in World 8. To defeat a Bowser Impostor or the real Bowser, Mario has to either touch the axe to destroy the bridge, causing either the Bowser Impostor or the real Bowser to fall into the lava, or hit Bowser with a number of fireballs, which produces the same result and reveals the true forms of the fakes.

After defeating a Bowser Impostor, Mario frees one of the seven 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 proceed to the next world. At the end of the castle in World 8, Mario or Luigi frees the grateful Princess Peach and completes the adventure.

Unlike the first game, there are hidden worlds to discover. Playing through the game without warping forward will take the player to the Fantasy World. Completing the game eight times will also unlock Worlds A-D, with Princess Peach waiting to be rescued from a Bowser Impostor (the actual Bowser in Super Mario All-Stars version) in the last level.

Differences and Additional features
Although the mechanics in The Lost Levels adhere closely to those of Super Mario Bros., the game does feature some significant changes and additions.

Graphical and sound additions and changes

 * The background graphics, block tiles, and ground tiles are different (jagged hills, cloud and bushes have faces, fences are now mushrooms, ground is rockier, bricks have shading, etc.).
 * Mushroom sprites (including Super Mushrooms, Poison Mushrooms, and 1-Up Mushrooms) are changed to have eyes, a feature that has stuck with the franchise since.
 * Lifts are now made from mushrooms instead of metal.
 * The giant mushroom platforms (found in 4-3 and the 4-2 Warp Zone of Super Mario Bros.) are changed into clouds, and form the level theme of World 8-3 and World A-3.
 * A skidding sound for Mario and Luigi's sliding is added. This would later be reused in Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * Shadows are added to the text font.
 * The ending music has a second verse four steps above the original pitch, and uses the FDS's hardware capabilities to make it richer in sound.
 * Princess Peach is given a new sprite.

New game features

 * Poison Mushrooms are introduced. Touching one is equivalent to colliding with an enemy, except the mushroom is consumed as usual. They can be found in either Question Blocks or invisible blocks. Their color palette matches the Goombas of that level (brown on overworlds, blue in undergrounds, gray in castles). In the Super Mario All-Stars version, Poison Mushrooms are blue with a skull on the cap, making them more visible.
 * Invisible blocks may now hold power-ups, including Poison Mushrooms. These are either put in secret areas to aid the player, or (in the case of Poison Mushrooms) sometimes placed in locations easy to accidentally hit in order to obstruct the player.
 * Red Piranha Plants are introduced, a more aggressive variant of the usual Green Piranha Plant that will attack even if the player is standing next to their pipe. They will stop attacking only if the player stands directly on top of their pipe. These first appear in World 4.
 * Upside-down pipes are introduced, appearing first in World 5.
 * Red Piranha Plants may be found in upside-down pipes. They attack and retreat more frequently than those in right-side up pipes, and there is no way to stop them from attacking (since the player cannot stand on top of their pipe; they will continue to attack even if the player stands directly underneath their pipe). These also appear in underwater stages.
 * A strong wind blows in certain parts of some levels. It usually blows the player forward, enabling longer jumps but making it difficult to space them.
 * While the original Super Mario Bros. only had three Warp Zone areas, The Lost Levels features a total of 11, all of which have only one destination pipe. Two of them are now harmful, and will warp Mario back to a previous world: 3-1 to 1-1 and 8-1 to 5-1. Like World 4-2 of the original game, some levels have more than one Warp Zone location.
 * Two-player mode has been removed, and the player can instead choose between Mario and Luigi on the title screen. Mario controls as in Super Mario Bros.,, while Luigi can jump higher than Mario, but has significantly worse traction. These characteristics would be carried over to many future Mario games, including Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario 3D Land, and ''Super Mario 3D World.
 * If the player beats the game while completing all 32 of the game's standard levels (this usually entails using no Warp Zones), they will unlock the secret World 9, but will have only 1 life to complete it with. The world features bizarre underwater landscapes not found in any other level, such as an underwater Goal Pole and castle. In the Super Mario All-Stars remake, the player may keep any lives they had left after World 8-4. All secret worlds were removed in the Super Mario Bros. Deluxe port.
 * In the original FDS (and Virtual Console) release only, the game will add a star on the title screen each time the player beats World 8-4. The number of stars the player earns is saved on the disk, and the title card can display up to 24 stars.
 * If the player earns a total of eight stars on the title card, he or she can unlock four more secret worlds, Worlds A through D, by holding the button at the title screen (or the  button in the GBA version) before pressing Start. In the Super Mario All-Stars re-release, the levels may be accessed after just one successful playthrough, beginning automatically after World 8-4 (or 9-4 if the player unlocks World 9). All secret worlds were removed in the Super Mario Bros. Deluxe port.
 * Green Jumping Boards are introduced, appearing in Worlds 2, 3, 7, B, and C. (However, in Super Mario All-Stars, the trampolines in World B were changed to red.) These bounce Mario/Luigi so high that he disappears from view for several seconds, allowing the player to cover great distances without touching the ground but also making it very difficult to track his trajectory.

Tweaked game features

 * A significant physics modification is added: Mario now bounces much higher after stomping on an enemy, and Luigi bounces even higher than Mario now does. This extra height is sometimes critical to clearing large gaps. If Mario or Luigi manages to stomp the top of an enemy while moving upwards at the right trajectory, the changed physics will cause them to soar very high, sometimes off the top of the screen. This "Super Jump" would later be properly introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * Bloopers can float above water. They behave the same way they do underwater and can be stomped for 1000 points.
 * Koopa Troopas (and more rarely, a few other enemies) can be found in the water in some levels, such as World 3-2. They walk more slowly than usual and like other underwater enemies, cannot be stomped (Mario/Luigi will instead take damage; they cannot be defeated without a Fire Flower or Super Star).
 * The "right path, wrong path" system now occurs in some non-castle levels, looping the level until the correct path is chosen. These levels include World 5-3 and World 7-2.
 * In Worlds 7 and 8, Hammer Bros. now continuously charge forward while still throwing Hammers, making them extremely difficult to dodge. If Mario passes over them, they will turn around and then behave normally (they will continue to jump and throw hammers, but will no longer run). In All-Stars, this behavior also occurs in Worlds A-D. Hammer Bros. also occasionally appear underwater.
 * Lakitus now sometimes appear underwater, along with Spinies. In certain levels, they will also appear at lower altitudes, making them easier to stomp.
 * A Bowser Impostor can be found in the corridors of two castles. He has a darker, greenish blue coloration, and does not stand on a bridge over lava. The player can avoid this Bowser without defeating him. In the Super Mario All-Stars version, encountering this enemy cues the SNES-exclusive boss music until finishing the level. These are just regular Bowser Impostors; the palette changes are due to not being close to the axe. Unlike in Worlds 1-7 and Worlds A-C, these impostors don't change into generic enemies when defeated (with five Fireballs as usual); they'll still look like the real Bowser.
 * Beanstalk vines can lead to not only a Coin Heaven or a Warp Zone, but even to the Flagpole.
 * Luigi's increased jump height sometimes enables him to jump over the Goal Pole. In a few cases, this leads to a Warp Zone beyond the pole; in most other cases, the screen will simply stop scrolling after the pole. It is no longer possible to get stuck behind the Goal Pole like it was in the original Super Mario Bros..
 * Fireworks are no longer triggered by having the last digit of the timer be 1, 3, or 6, but rather by having the last digit of the timer match the last digit of the coin counter. Additionally, if both digits of the coin counter match the last digit of the timer, Mario/Luigi will receive a 1-Up.
 * In overworld and underground levels, some Piranha Plant pipes are now flush with the floor rather than extending above it, making them more difficult to notice and avoid.
 * In addition to the obvious Poison Mushrooms, many actual power-ups are now traps: in castles with ceilings, a Super Mushroom may make Mario too tall to make some long jumps (as his head will hit the ceiling and cause him to fall into a pit or lava); and in athletic levels, a Super Star may prevent Mario from stomping atop Koopa Paratroopas in midair to complete some extra long jumps (causing him to fall into the pit below).
 * Holding A+Start on the title screen is no longer a continue code; instead, the player is directly given the option to Continue on the Game Over screen, and cannot return to the title screen without being forced to restart from World 1-1. (As the secret World 9's Game Over screen features a special message in place of any options, the player effectively cannot use any continues at all in that world.)
 * After beating the game, pressing B on the title screen no longer allows the player to start from any world, and there is no "second quest" where the player travels through the same levels but with tougher enemies. (The latter is essentially replaced by the secret worlds A-D.)

Items
With the exception of the newly introduced Poison Mushroom, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels features the same collectible elements as the original Super Mario Bros.:

Playable Characters

 * Mario
 * Luigi

Supporting Characters

 * Princess Peach
 * Toads

Enemies

 * Blooper
 * Bill Blaster
 * Bullet Bill
 * Buzzy Beetle
 * Cheep Cheep
 * Fire Bar
 * Goomba
 * Hammer Brother
 * Koopa Paratroopa
 * Koopa Troopa
 * Lakitu
 * Lava Bubble
 * Piranha Plant
 * Spiny
 * Spiny Egg

Bosses

 * Bowser Impostor (Worlds 1 - 7, 9, A - D)
 * Bowser (World 8)

Reception in America
The 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 "Super Mario Bros. 2" based on the considerably easier Family Computer Disk System game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was made.

Development
In an interview, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was made due to how much fun the development team had creating new, difficult levels for Vs. Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario All-Stars
The Super Mario All-Stars (as well as Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World and Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition) version of this game had a few differences from the original:


 * Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels do 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 the ground is mainly covered by dirt in this version. 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 endings of both games were also made uniform.


 * Many levels that had snow in the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 do 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 an aesthetic difference.


 * The game can be saved at any time. Unlike the Super Mario Bros. on the same cartridge, the game remembers the exact level the player is on, and not just the world. This is because the game is much harder than the original.


 * Players only have to beat the game once to reach worlds A through D.


 * In the secret section of World 1-2 (where the player enters 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.


 * In World 8, the Hammer Bros. perpetually charge at the player. On the SNES, this behavior was added to Worlds 7, 9, and A-D as well.


 * In the original game, Bowser only has hammers in Worlds 6-8. The SNES remake gives him hammers in Worlds 9 and A-D, as well. Strangely enough, these Bowsers lose their ability to breathe fire.


 * The Bowser Impostors in Worlds A-C now have new true forms (a red Koopa Troopa, a Cheep Cheep, and a Bullet Bill, respectively), and Bowser's death animation in World D is corrected.


 * The castle walls of World 9-3 (whose background is sky blue instead of black) are now recolored brown instead of gray like in the original (and in the ending cutscene).

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was marketed as a Game Boy Color enhancement of Super Mario Bros., but 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 are removed, as is 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 and A-D, although they are all at least somewhat present within the game's coding.

Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros. 2
Released only in Japan, this is an exact duplicate for the Game Boy Advance of the original game.

Virtual Console
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was released on the Virtual Console in Japan on May 1, 2007 for the Wii, on July 25, 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U in Japan on August 8, 2013. It was also released for the Wii in Europe and Australia on September 14, 2007 along 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 available to most English-speaking audiences. 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 in Japan on July 25, 2012, and outside Japan on December 27, 2012. It was released on the Virtual Console for the Wii U in Japan on August 8, 2012, in Europe and Australia on January 23, 2014 and in North America on March 13, 2014.

Wii Shop description
''Originally 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!''

References in later games

 * Paper Mario: Color Splash - When Huey finds out the Mini Paint Star in Ruddy Road has most of its color missing, he exclaims "What in the Lost Levels is going on here?"

Directors

 * Shigeru Miyamoto
 * Takashi Tezuka

Original Music

 * Koji Kondo

Designers

 * Shigeru Miyamoto
 * Takashi Tezuka

Programmers

 * Toshihiko Nakago
 * Yasunari Nishida
 * Kazuaki Morita

Glitches


Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels contains several glitches; the most famous glitch is the Infinite 1-Up Trick, which can be performed several ways using a Koopa Shell. Another glitch can be performed by touching the Axe while the timer is at zero, looping it to 999.

Quotes

 * "Peace is paved/with kingdom saved/Hurrah to Mario (or Luigi, depending on the character) /our only hero/This ends your trip/of a long friendship." - Poem recited by Princess Peach after defeating Bowser, after which the player is rewarded with 100,000 points for each life left (also seen in Vs. Super Mario Bros. and All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.)
 * "Thank you Mario/Luigi!" - Princess Peach and Toads, following the above
 * "We present Fantasy World let's try “9 World” with one game." -- World 9 intro screen
 * 「アリガトウ!」 (Arigatou!, translated from Japanese, meaning Thank You) -- coral in World 9-4
 * "You're a super player! We hope we'll see you again. Mario and staff." -- Game Over screen for World 9

Trivia

 * In Worlds 3-1 and 3-2, it is possible to jump over the flagpole by jumping on a trampoline and hitting invisible blocks, respectively. In World 3-1, jumping over the flagpole will take the players to a backwards Warp Zone to World 1. In World 3-2, when the players are on the other side of the flag, they can finish the level by simply touching the flag, the same way as normal.
 * World 9 was rumored to be based on an incident of a Japanese gamer's antenna being hit by lightning while playing Super Mario Bros. during a thunderstorm, causing his Famicom to show a bizarre level taking place underwater but with overworld scenery and enemies. However, Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview that it was based on an exploit that would let the player access 256 extra worlds in Super Mario Bros.
 * At the end of the Mario Kart 8 April 30 Nintendo Direct, when the Nintendo fan pulls out his "Things to do before I die" list to write "Buy Mario Kart 8", one of the other notes on the list is "Beat Mario 2: The Lost Levels", which is a joke about how difficult the game is compared to other Mario games.