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Super Mario Brothers 2 NES Nintendo 1988 This is one orphan that NEVER shoulda been adopted. Lots has been made of drug references in Mario games over the years. It all started in the beginning: flowers for the hippies, and shrooms giving you all kinds of power, fire coming out of your nose like Robert Downey Junior's latest coke bender, and the list goes on and on. After playing Mario 2, it seems the drugs weren't on the product side of the game, but rather on the production side, i.e. whoever made this game was coming up with ideas with a pencil in one hand and a crackpipe in the other. Most of you know the alleged story, so I'll keep it brief: Japanese Mario 2 too much like Mario 1 and too hard, Mario characters added to random game (Crazy Crazy Panic) and released as Mario 2 in America. What I liked: Four characters. Cool. Some cool bosses, sorta. Very, uh, creative, for bett..oh hell...just for worse. What I didn't: The game The ending The game The vegetables The game Controls: 7. Luigi's jumping can be tough, and sometimes you get hit when it seems you shouldn't. Graphics: 8. Solid. Colorful and fairly detailed, improvement over the first. Sound: 8. Pretty good for the time. Style: 5. 10 for originality, 0 for execution and slandering Mario's good name. 1st hour: 6. Whoosajiggawhatnow? 2nd hour: 7. Woohoo. Warping. Progress. 1st week: 4. What is this? Digging sand sucks, and so do the little shock things that circle platforms. 2nd week: 2. WHAT IS THIS?!? Is nothing sacred? 1st month: 1. So hard at the end, just because they pelt you with enemies. It's challenging in the really bad way, like if you were a soldier in a war and your commanding officer told you to kill China. The number one reason I HATE THIS GAME is that it tortures and kills a classic, burns its corpse and pisses on the ashes. I can't think of a better way to describe my feelings regarding this game.
A great sin has occured that must be penanced. If you read the title of this review, and have read the other review of this game on the site, you know why I'm writing this. Well, unless you are a drunken Amish like Evil X, "CURS TEH EVOL SOOPER MAREEO TOO BECUZ IT IZ NOTT LYKE TEH FURST!!11!" Come on, we all know that if the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, which is basically the clone of Mario 1, would have come out in America, we wouldn't have Mario anymore. It would be just another Megaman-type series, and even I, a dedicated Nintendo/Mario fan would have to admit that Megaman 2 is a TON cooler and more original than the Japanese version of Mario 2. I mean, I've been playing American Mario 2 since about 1990, and as a 14-year-old I like it even more as I did when I was two, even though I loved it at the time. The fact is, that game never gets old. Does it really matter if it wasn't even designed as a Mario game in Japan? I'd still play it, even if the characters were Barney & Pals. I'll tell you who's on the crackpipe, buddy. It's you. To this date it's the only Mario game with all 4 of the main characters playable, the worlds have a TON more variety than Japanese Mario 2, tons of great concepts like magic carpets, potions that create doors, and what kind of videogamer could hate Luigi's jump? I mean, if you are too drunk to control a jump, and too Amish to like this game, then don't badmouth a classic. If you didn't like this game because it's too "un-Mario", then I doubt you'll like Super Mario Sunshine, Amish X. Truth be told, I liked this game so much that I own it on three different systems. What I liked: It's really fun to play through over and over, whether you take 3 or 4 hours doing it the hard way, or taking warps and going fast and beating it in about 30 minutes. For a NES game, there is a lot of variety between the characters. Even Evil X said it was very creative, and yes it is for the better. What I disliked: Facing the same boss twice in the same game= gay. A giant frog that has nothing to do with Mario as the main bad guy= not cool. No story whatsoever= stupid, even though it's pretty neat that the game was all Mario's dream. What to expect:The most unique Mario game to date. What not to expect:A regular Mario game. What sets it apart from the genre:The potions that create doors. Enough said. Ratings on: Controls: 9. Simple controls. Jump, run, pick up vegtables, chuck vegtables, etc.1st hour:9. First few worlds rule, the Princess can fly? 5th hour:8. Okay, now it is getting really tough, especially that one ice stage. 1st week:10. Beat it, it was so fun I played it again. 2nd week:8. Beat it a few more times, now it's just fun to try to beat my best time beating it. 5th week:8. Still fun, but I don't play it as frequently as I used to. NOTE TO READER: I don't hate Evil X, I've never even spoken to him. Just the fact that someone could dislike this game pissed me off. He might be drunk, but he's probably not Amish. Sorry if I offended anybody out there. #1 thing I hate about this game:It's different from other Marios so some people don't appreciate its greatness. by Nick
Here is the problem with Nick's counter review. While he does present an interesting idea that if Mario 2 of Japan had been released in America, the Mario series could have turned into a simple rehash of older games, like MegaMan is famous for. The problem with this idea is that his basic facts are not entirely true. Let's start with this... Mario 2 of Japan did in fact come out in America. Yes, translated and everything, not as an import. Mario 2 was released in the SNES pack Super Mario All Stars. There it was called Mario Lost Levels. Basically all Mario Lost Levels was was Miyamoto had made an instant classic with Super Mario, and his boss at Nintendo told him to make a sequel to gather more money from the fans. So he was forced to make a sequel quickly, and since he had limited means, money, and time, he used the same engine, added mushrooms that can hurt you and wind, and made the game a much harder version of Mario 1. It was released with great enthusiasm in Japan, for all the people wanted was more levels, they weren't looking for innovation just yet. Now when Nintendo of America picked up the game, they were afraid it would be too difficult for the American audience. So they had Nintendo of Japan take another game they had just made, a game Miyamoto had nothing to do with, Doki Doki Panic (Also called Crazy Crazy Panic) and edit some character designs and such, and sell it in America as Mario 2. This game never came out in Japan as Mario 2, and continued to be sold as Doki Doki Panic there. So then Miyamoto made a true sequel to Mario 1 a few years later. With improved graphics, more powers for Mario, and hub-worlds, Mario 3 was the true successor to Mario 1. And in many ways it never really strayed from Mario 1's ideas. The levels were still 2-D platformers, and only mild innovation was added. But enough of it was, and Mario 3 sold extremely well, as it should, for it is an amazing game. So basically, Mario 2 did nothing in any way to spur the Mario games into any type of innovation. Miyamoto continued on making his Mario games not knowing much about Doki Doki Panic (I suppose he played it, but I really don't know.) So basically, if Mario 2 hadn't ever come out, and we in America got Mario Lost Levels as Mario 2, the Mario universe that was made in the future still would be the same as it is today. Nothing would be changed. Just clearing up that issue. Hawke, cleaning up the hate. |
