Super Mario Bros. 2
1988 · Platform · NES
Overview
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a 1988 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. After the smash hit Super Mario Bros.
Deep Dive
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a 1988 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. After the smash hit Super Mario Bros. in 1985, Nintendo quickly released an adaptation of the original with advanced difficulty titled Super Mario Bros. 2 for its market in Japan in 1986. However, Nintendo of America found this sequel too similar to its predecessor, and its difficulty too frustrating, for the nascent American market. This prompted a second Super Mario Bros.
Developer Story
Super Mario Bros. 2 (Western version) was developed by Nintendo EAD in 1988. The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was considered too difficult for Western markets, so Nintendo reworked Doki Doki Panic — a licensed Fuji TV game — with Mario characters. The result was a game structurally unlike any other Mario game: four distinct characters with different abilities, no Koopa Troopas, and a dream-world framing device.
Did You Know?
- Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally a different game — Doki Doki Panic — with the characters reskinned as Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach.
- The four playable characters each moved differently: Luigi jumped highest, Peach could float, Toad ran fastest, Mario was balanced.
- Enemies were defeated by picking up and throwing objects rather than jumping on them — a complete departure from the Mario formula.
- The "it was all a dream" ending, where Mario wakes up and the adventure is revealed as a dream, became a beloved gaming cliché.
- The real Japanese sequel (Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels) was eventually released in the West as part of Super Mario All-Stars.
