The original Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in 1986 in Japan for the Famicom and Famicom Disk System. It looked not too terribly different from the first game except that the text had shadows, a new ground texture was used, and there were some new power ups and capabilities. This version was also released as - or called "Super Mario Bros. for Super Players".

The story continues in Nintendo of America when Japan-to-US playtester Howard Lincoln played this release and was quoted as saying he "could not believe Mr. Miyamoto would release such a hard and unforgiving game". This together - with what I assume is the assumption of the rest of the world that American's are a bit "soft" - that Nintendo did not release Super Mario Bros. 2, as Japan knew it at least, in America.

Instead, FCI/Ponycanyon was sponsoring some Japanese event and wanted Nintendo to make a video game for it. The result was a game called "Doki Doki Panic", where a series of middle eastern children (I assume) get sucked into a book to fight Wart and his reign of terror upon the monsters. This game was converted into a Mario Title by changing a couple tunes, re-writing the story, and replacing all the Dream Machine/Dream Factory "kids" with Mario Characters.

So in 1988, we got Super Mario Bros. 2. A story where Mario has a dream one night and now is tasked, with the help of his brother Luigi, mushroom retaininer Toad, and Princess Toadstool, to save the world of Subcon from the evil, Vegitable hating Wart the toad. This made this the strangest, and most ddifferent mario game on the NES. Instead of jumping on enemies to kill them, you were throwing turnips and radishes at them. Instead of powering up with fire flowers and stars, you had 4 hitpoints on the side of the screen and turned to regular mario if you had one left. Instead of Goombas and Troopas, you now had this whole "8-bits Club" thing with the worlds first LGTBQ+ game character (Birdo), pygmies that vomit up bullets like a snub nose 45 (Sniffits), and the children from Pink Floyd's "The Wall" (Shy Guys). INstead of pipes, you had pots to jump into. Doors, some locked by keys guarded by Kubuki masks.

So imagine my surprise on Christmas Day 1990 and I get Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt on multicart - which, by the way, took me over a MONTH to figure out how to get it to Super Mario Bros because, for some reason,it would spawn on Duck Hunt. Anyway, when I played the first game I was like "whuuuuu!?!?", because I was expecting jumping around on green blocks of whatzit with dark green wavy stripes on them, and throwing radishes at enemies, not jumping on turtles and running from some obnoxious cloudman in welding goggles throwing spiny rolly-polliees at me!

Anyway, Mario 2 was one of those games that eluded me a lot earlier on. I never actually had it for my first NES, just Mario 1 and 3. I finally got Super Mario Bros. 2 in 2001 from EB Games in Montgomery, in original sealed box. I had that copy for over 20 years, before I sold it in 2021 to pay for Dragon Warrior IV. I then bought it back in late 2022 for over $30 loose, because I'm done with the whole "boxed collector" thing. Which is the copy I play now.

Level 1-1 - You go through a door, and then start falling, just lean to the right and avoid everyrthing, that's often the best policy in this game, if you can avoid it, why bother. So just drop down, go through the door on the right, and then head into the next part of "Subcon".

Now, head right, just jump over the 2 shy guys and the pidgit, then run up the vine, avoiding the shy guy, and pull the first carrot-top next to the vine, and slap that down and go in - this is "subspace" - where the screen is mirrored, and everything but key objects are blacked out, so simulate night time. Grab the mushroom and as many "coins" by pulling out the radish-tops as you can. YOu need to do this quickly as "subspacE" will time out once the SMB theme hits it's chromatic bit after the main verse.

Now go right, avoid the shy guys, pidgit, actually, just jump right on top of that POW block, and try to slam that down while heading left - to take out as many monsters as possible. If a heart pops up and you need it, grab it. It will restore your health. Now go up the land masses, over the log bridge, and then you will encounter two logs going down a waterfall in a loop.

At the waterfall logs, you have 2 choices, you either need to jump on one or both to make it across (Mario or Toad), or you can float/fly over to the staggered stack of land-masses with a POW block and a One-Up (radish leafs) on top. Pull that one up, slam down POW while going left, and grab the rest of the cherries here too and a starman should show up - grab that, then keep heading left until you encounter a door, go through this door.

Once through the door, you'll need to avoid or toss the Ninji over the waterfall (or toss some radishes at him, usually by this point I get the clock though, which also pauses him - these days I just jump right over). Then climb the vine next to the waterfall - here you have 2 choices.....either go across the waterfall to the other side for a secrert "back entrance" to Birdho's patio in the sky, or go let, and go through the door. I usually opt for the other path, since the secret path requires some skill to get the bombs to land at the right time to blow a hole for the door, and you might lose some health doing this if you're not fast enough.

Once through the door on the left, pick up another potion and slap that down - try and get bwtween the two radishes where you got the potion from, and the row of them next to the vine invaded by a hoopster. Grab the mushroom and as many coins as you can (I'll tell you why later), and then you can either grab hoopster and throw him off the vine, or you can do what I do, just jump above him and head skyward.

Now you'll be in a vertical section of the level where you will be heading upward. Multiple Ninki and shyguys inhabit these platformwars, and towards the etop, you might have a single Ninji that continues to follow you upward - though this does not always happen. Off the top platform, get up onto the cloud above, then climb up, you'll encounter three vines, you'll want to take left or right, and either climb above the hoopster or throw him off and climb up, then one more vine to birdo.

You'll know when you're in Birdo/Ostro, whatever it is, because the frantic music will start. This is your bog standard Ostro, it shoots eggs from it's mouth, one at a time, so you grab the egg, and hurl it at Ostro 3 times to knock it out and steal the flashing egg in it's belly - to unlock the chicken head that acts as a doorway. Seriously, what were they on when they came up with this stuff.

Bonus Games In Between Levels - Remember al those coins you snagged in Subspace? Nows were we use them in a casino slot machine on crack. The thing hurls pictures at a million miles an hour and only certain combinations yield one life. There's almost no way to "cheat" or improve your odds, you're at the mercy of lady luck herself, unless you're the Terminator, HAL 9000, or JOhnny 5. Just hope for the best and keep bangin' that A button, maybe you'll get some lives.

Level 1-2 -Level 1-2 starts with some land masses ahead, and a Pidgit - basically a big fat raven on a flying carpet - flying back and fourth. You need to jump on this carpet, toss the raven off his carpet, and then fly left - avoiding the endlessly respawning Jeff Bezos - okay, Beezoz - who will try to prick you off your carpet into the abyss below. If you have Luigi or the Princess you might be able tot jump off and float a few more video game feet onto the next landmass that has 2 jars and a pair of Ninji, and then a higher up level with a Sniffit and a Pidgit that usually decides to spelunk off the edge at some point.

Go to the leftmost jar, over it, grab the potion before Jeff Bezos snatches you, and toss it down on the right jar. Grab the mushroom, some cherries, and some coins, and then exit out of Subspace. Now go down in the rightmost jar.

Phanto & Keys - My sTrategy - Phanto is a cartoon kubuki mask that guards the keys in Subcon. Nobody knows why, he just does. Anyway, we will grab the key and then IMMEDIATLEY drop it. This confuses Phanto and of course, he runs off. Wait a little bit, and he won't be back until you exit the pot, which then you have just enough time to sprint to the door and get in before Phanto decides to give you the good high flyin hello to health damage or death. And he movees FAST - he makes Angry Sun from this game's sequel seem casual in pace. There are more strategies for Phanto later in the game, so this is not the last time you'll hear of it.

Now that we enter the door rinto this dark room, grab the cherries, throw Sniffit off the ledge, and grab two bombs and blow up the blocks ahead, avoid the sniffet trying to Dirty Harry you from behind the rocks - climb the ladder, grab 2-3 bombs, blow up the rocks at the rightmost side of the landmass you are standing on, grab the potion, drop it near the edge where you blue up those blocks, and then grab the mushroom. Then continue right, avoiding the jogging Ninjis, and get up there, and out.

Now back outside, just head left. No point in grabbing all those coins there IMHO, since this slot machine is literally a gamble anyway. Enter the door, knock out Birdo 3 times, he's on a shorter platform n ow, and now we head to level 1-3

Level 1-3 - Now this level, you'll probably want Luigi or the Princess for this level - lots of high up platforms. Just go right, as usual, head to the log bridge, throw down the potion to the left of it in the middle of the log bridge, grab some cherries and a mushrorom, and continute right. Time your jumps to avoid the trouters ascending climb, and then you'll find yourself at a waterfall with 3 logs. If you can get on top of this platform later on, you can throw down a potion for a mushroom - I usually skip it because it's more of a pain for me than I'dd like to spend. C'mon you guys - live a little.

You can also take that potion to the end of the level to use the pot in subcon to go to world 4, but I don't really see the point of it, there's a much better route beyond this. So go in the door, then head up, then to othe left, toss the shyguy at the spark or off the ledge at least, then grab the three mushroom blocks and throw at least 2 on his platform, stack them, stand on top, squat down to get a power jump, power jump up, and then take eiither the left or right path to get up to the top of the room, and avoid the sparks, and enter into Phanto's room.

Phanto...again - This time, avoid the spark, grab the key, THROW it off to the side, and wait for Phanto to run off. Now grab the key, exit the door, then immediatley drop it again, you should see Phanto buzz off once more. Wait 30 sec, grab the key, then proceed to FALL as much as you can and RUN, just in case phanto comes back. The hardest part will be next up to get ahead of the shy guys enough to make it through the zig zag down - then guide to the right, and a door will be there next to a waterfall with 3 trouters. Then you go through a room full of sparks, cheries, PWS, and a few snifits and shy guys - plus some Ninji. Grab the orb at the end, go through the chicken's beak, and now, we get our first boss - Mouser.

Mouser - Mouser is a giant rat that throws bombs. Two ways to trigger him. One is to throw some bombs at the blocks and blow your way through - the other method is to climb up the blocks and wait for him to start tossing bombs your way. While on the way in, maybe try and snag a bomb mid-air and quickly throw it on the opposide side of his platform so he gets hit. That's the best way, just catch his bombs mid-air, drop em' from underneath next to him 3 times, and then it's onto level 2.

Level 2-1 - This level is a desert theme. This first one is pretty easy, proceed right, avoiding all the Cobrats, Pokey, shy guys, and sniffets, and fire flinging flowers along the way. Also avoid the quicksand if possible because it'll slowly start to suck you down.