Mario Bros 2 is not your average Mario Game. For one, you can choose to play as Mario, Luigi, Toad, or the Princess. Secondly, Bowser doesn’t exist. Thirdly, you throw turnips at enemies to kill them. Can’t possibly be a Mario game, can it?
It’s a Mario game only because Nintendo slapped the characters into a game called Doki Doki Panic that was released in Japan and called it Super Mario Bros 2. Despite not being a Mario Game from the start, many elements from this game made their way into future Mario titles.
For example, the Bob-ombs and Shy Guys appear in numerous other titles despite the fact that they originated from a completely different designer.
Anyway, the graphics are decent for a game made in the late 80’s. The songs are catchy but nothing amazing. What makes the game truly fun is the gameplay. It is a nifty little platform game in the style of the actual Mario games. Don’t get me wrong, I love jumping from platform to platform in the first one—but being able to pick up the baddies and throw them at their friends to knock them out…that’s fun stuff. Plus, each of the playable characters has unique qualities to them. This was really novel compared to the original game where
Mario and Luigi seemed to be pretty much the same. For example, Luigi can jump high, the Princess can float in the air, etc.
While there are no question mark blocks to get goodies, players can collect cherries which will eventually make those Super Stars appear. Also, the player’s health is determined by the number of hearts they collect. So instead of dying in one hit, the player can take a few. This is a big help to novice gamers but to pros this does not make much of a difference. A player can expand their maximum health by collecting stationary mushrooms (they don’t move around like in the other games).
Just like in previous game, a character gets bigger when they consume the mushroom and get smaller when they get hit by enemies (in this game you shrink when you have only one heart remaining). Another aspect that carried over from the original Super Mario Bros is the idea of warping past levels. The player can enter certain jars to warp themselves to later levels. This might not be very useful to gamers who want to see the entire game, but most of the levels have the same enemies and nothing really unique. (Except for the shy guys riding on ostriches. Yes, ostriches).
Super Mario Bros 2 is not your standard fare in terms of Mario games, but still is fun to play. Check it out!
