As a top-seller for many years, Super Mario Bros. 2 proved to be a massive commercial success for Nintendo. Over the years, Super Mario Bros. 2 has been re-released several times, including on several compilations like the Super Mario All-Stars release on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the game is even available today on the Nintendo Switch Online Service. actually was very different depending on if you played it in the United States or Japan at the time.
Here are six facts about Super Mario Bros. 2, which actually was very different depending on if you played it in the United States or Japan at the time.
6 Super Mario Bros. 2 Facts
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- Super Mario Bros. 2 marks the debuts for several longtime characters within the Mario universe. (source) There are several classic enemies from the world of Mario that were first seen in Super Mario Bros. 2, including Bob-Omb, Shy Guy, Ninji, Phanto, Pokey, and Birdo. Characters like Birdo and Shy Guy are even playable in modern classics on the Nintendo Switch, including Mario Party Superstars and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe respectively.
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- Super Mario Bros. 2 was the 4th best-selling game ever on the Nintendo Entertainment System. (source) With 7.46 million copies sold, Super Mario Bros. 2 was a huge success for Nintendo, and in terms of sales only came in behind Super Mario Bros. 3 (17.28 million), Duck Hunt (28.31 million) and the original Super Mario Bros. (40.24 million).
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- Super Mario Bros. 2 was a different game in the United States than it was in Japan. (source) Super Mario Bros. 2 is the second installment in the Super Mario Bros. series for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). However, it was determined by Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, that the game, which was very similar to the original Super Mario Bros., was too difficult for the American audience. Therefore, the game as it was created released as Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan, but Nintendo had other plans for the game’s release in the United States. Nintendo took a game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, and essentially reskinned it with characters from the Mario universe and called it Super Mario Bros. 2. Because of this, the game was much different than any that gamers would ever see then or ever in the Super Mario Bros. series.
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- Until 2007, Super Mario Bros. 2 was the only mainline Mario game where the first player could play as a character other than Mario. (source) When Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in the United States in 1988, the first player could choose to go on their adventure as Mario, Luigi, Toad or Princess Peach. Between 1988 and the 2007 release of Super Mario Galaxy on the Nintendo Wii (where the first player could eventually select Luigi), no main line Mario game gave the first player any other options to select besides Mario.
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- Gamers in the United States wouldn’t get to play the true version of Super Mario Bros. 2 from Japan until 1993. (source) It wasn’t until 1993 that gamers in the American market got to experience the original version of Super Mario Bros. 2 from Japan. It was in 1993 that Nintendo released “Super Mario All-Stars” for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), which was a compilation of updated versions of the original three games in the Super Mario Bros. series in the United States, along with what was called “Super Mario Bros. – The Lost Levels,” which was the version of Super Mario Bros. 2 that gamers had received in Japan back in 1986.
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- Super Mario Bros. 2 is the only Super Mario Bros. game that didn’t feature Bowser. (source) Bowser is undoubtedly Mario’s biggest adversary, but that wasn’t the case in Super Mario Bros. 2. In the NES release of Super Mario Bros. 2, the main villain to conquer at the end of the game is an obnoxious, giant frog that’s referred to as Wart.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the classic releases that hit the Nintendo Entertainment System! What are your memories of it?
Featured image photo credit: Megan Morris, 2010. Originally found on Flickr.com. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 2.0.
