The Super Mario Bros. franchise It is full of varied deliveries for all kinds of tastes. The main series is characterized by its platform games, and among them there are some more popular than others.
in 1988 Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES in the West hoping to survive in a declining market. The title followed a very different formula than the other games, with enemies and unique ones. It also offered us the possibility of play with other characters like Princess Peach and, oddly enough, Toad.
Due to their crazy designs and absurd plot, this installment is considered by many to be the “worst” of the series. We put it in quotation marks because for many others, the fact that Super Mario Bros. 2 be so different and unique make it one of the best plumber games.
Whether it’s the best or the worst, the truth is that Super Mario Bros. 2 hides multiple curious facts that you probably did not know about this installment, such as the ones we will see below.
It was released at a watershed moment for video games
Today, Nintendo can throw any Mario game with the certainty that it will be a success in the market. However, in the 1980s the video game industry suffered one of his worst seasons with market saturation and revenue falling to 97%.
This happened after 1983, but after the atari tragedythe market gradually recovered thanks to the success of Nintendo. However, the industry was still on a tightrope and the success of the games was unpredictable. Even in the midst of all the uncertainty, Nintendo launched the daring Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1988 in the United States and in 1992 in Europe.
Super Mario Bros. 2 had two versions
Though the video game industry seemed in decline in the West, the market in Japan was stable with Nintendo dominating sales. Because they were different markets, Nintendo of America he needed to make decisions separate from those made in Japan.
The original sequel of Super Mario Bros. 2 it was actually very similar to the first game, only more difficult. Luigi could jump higher, although he slid more on the platforms. Furthermore, the scenarios they were full of traps throwing you back and poisonous mushrooms.
A Nintendo of America worried that the game was too difficult and unattractive in the West, where the market did not finish stabilizing. That was how he was born Super Mario Bros. 2 that we all know, made especially for audiences outside of Japan.
Introduced a health meter
maybe already we have gotten used to to calculate our health with the classic franchise system: Mario little boy has a life, Mario big has two Thereafter, any enhancement of Mario gives him another life.
Nevertheless, Nintendo wanted to make things clearer for the US public, so he added a health meter. In this, the characters have two hearts, and throughout the game can be expanded up to four.
Each character has different skills
We already mentioned that the game allows us to play with Peach and Toad, in addition to the brothers Mario and Luigi. What you may not have known is that unlike other games in the main saga, in Super Mario Bros. 2 each character has its own attributes.
For example, Luigi makes a move as if running on air that he allows to jump more than others, while Peach could glide. In other games Super Mario Bros.the different characters are nothing more than an aesthetic change that does not affect the gameplay.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was a financial success
In a market that was reeling, Nintendo gained a foothold in the industry in part thanks to the success of SSuper Mario Bros. 2.
No one would have guessed it, because the title it didn’t look like much to the first game. Super Mario Bros. 2 It had different controls, strange enemies, and many players were left wanting to see Bowser. Despite this, the critical praised the NES game which managed to sell more than 100 million units worldwide. The version of the game for Japan also became a benchmark in that territory and its sales almost reached 3 million.
the game that started as an experiment it ended up becoming a success. If it had gone wrong in the times that were running, it could have been the end of the Super Mario Bros series.
The art swapped Mario and Lugi’s clothing colors
A pretty fun fact about Super Mario Bros. 2 is that in official art we could see an interesting change in the plumber brothers. Traditionally, Mario wears a red long-sleeved shirt. with a overalls blue. Luigi wears the same, but with a green shirt.
In the art of the game, Mario and Luigi had blue shirts, and what changed was the color of their overalls; Mario’s was red and Luigi’s was green. Quite curious considering that those weren’t the colors they used inside Super Mario Bros. 2.
The rare gameplay has an explanation within the lore
Usually the games Super Mario Bros. they are a theatrical performance, and all the characters are talented actors. However, in Super Mario Bros. 2 the act seems stranger than in other games.
Mario and his friends they behave differently, and instead of just jumping on their enemies, they have to stun them, pick them up off the ground, and throw them. Also we can see mario using turnips to hit his opponents and some pretty scary creatures.
The explanation? In the end all the adventure transcurren in the kingdom of dreams known as Subcon, and is basically a dream of Mario. Although if certain enemies appeared later in the series, the plumber may have some precognitive powers.
Birdo is not a female
Taking into account her pink color, long eyelashes and her striking bow, the players they assumed Birdo was a female. However, he is actually a male Subcon villain who manages to escape to Nimbus Land.
In the original game manual Birdo is described as male that “she thinks she is female and spits eggs out of her mouth.” She also specifies that she likes to be called Birdetta.
After multiple appearances in video games, Nintendo happened to classify Birdo as a girl. In Mario Kart: Double Dash!! it is even stated that she is the girlfriend of Yoshialthough the possibility is left open that he is actually her boyfriend.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is another game with Mario skins
this is probably the fact that most impresses the fans. We already mentioned before that Nintendo of America I wanted a continuation of Super Mario Bros., but was afraid that the official sequel would be too difficult. He needed a different game, but they couldn’t invest a lot of money with the market hanging in the balance.
The solution was to take an existing game and put Mario skins on it. It was about Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic!, a Nintendo game created for the Famicom Disk System that had not left Japan.
The game was about a storybook and it was carried out by the children Bag y Climb. In this, the game mechanics for which it is known were created. Super Mario Bros. 2such as characters with multiple abilities or the ability to dig up and throw objects.
For Super Mario Bros. 2 characters were added Mariomodifying enemies like the boss Mouser Albino by Clawgrip. They were also made multiple graphic changes which ranged from textures and animations, to a new loading screen. Still, it’s essentially the same game.
What happened to Wart?
Wart was the ultimate villain of Super Mario Bros. 2the feared antagonist who leads the 8 Bit Club. His mission was quite simple: to become the supreme king of Subconthe world of dreams.
Worse unlike other villains and even many secondary characters, Wart has not reappeared in the main series. This is because Wart resides in the Subcon and he doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving the realm of dreams.
Despite this, Wart is seen in other games, including in The Legend of Zelda: Link Awaking, Super Mario Adance, Super Mario All-Stars and of course in the original Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic!.
Whenever there is a dream in between, Wart could appear in the plot.
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