Super Mario Retrospective #3
Released:
– 1988 for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
– Remade as part of ‘Super Mario All-Stars’ in 1993 for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
– Ported as ‘Super Mario Advance’ in 2001 for Game Boy Advance
The gameplay
a.k.a. the American Mario 2. This is pretty much the polar opposite of The Lost Levels. Instead of a sequel that plays like a harder version of the original, here we have an easier but ultimately very different game. Making the contrast even wider is that none of the foes from the first game return. The enemies and bosses here are completely new. Mario games typically make it a tradition to have a lot of recurring enemies and other familiar faces, and thus Mario 2 stands out for not doing that. (Although some of Mario 2’s own creatures would reappear in future games, but several others wouldn’t.)
And in fact, this doesn’t just have a different playstyle from the first game, but it’s different from any other Mario game out there.
Albeit, this game only truly became an oddball in the series with the passage of time. I don’t think it would have seemed as much of an oddball back in the day when it was originally released. Despite its differences from its predecessor, at the time, it was only the first and second Mario games released with no other points of comparison (The Lost Levels didn’t see a western release until many years later). It wasn’t until Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World came along and built upon the first game’s style, mostly disregarding Super Mario Bros. 2’s unique mechanics. Later 2D platformers would take many of their own cues from Mario 3 and Mario World, further contributing to Mario 2 feeling like an outlier. And then finally, when Super Mario Maker was released, the four level design templates are based off Mario 1, Mario 3, Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U; once again leaving Mario 2 all by itself.
That said, Mario 2 has nonetheless been frequently referenced in later games and has influenced the series in a lot of subtle ways. It’s hardly been full-on ignored. But I do emphasize the word “subtle,” as there’s never been another game in the franchise quite like this one, and it would’ve been interesting if there had been.
I have a bit of a funny history with this game. The first few times I tried it out as a little kid, I didn’t even know how to properly play it. The different playstyle compared to other Mario games is what threw me off. In any typical Mario game, you defeat enemies by bouncing on their heads. But that doesn’t work in this one, and so I’d jump on the enemies’ heads to try and defeat them, only for it to do nothing as I simply rode atop them as they walked. This also left me unable to complete World 1-1 when I made it to Birdo at the end and I couldn’t figure out how to defeat her either.
It wasn’t until my parents helped me out by reading from the game’s instruction booklet (anyone remember when games still had those?). That’s when I learned about the game’s unique “pick up and toss” mechanic, and then I was able to start making some real progress.
Although still quite challenging in places, once I got the hang of it, I found this to be the easiest of the four games on the All-Stars compilation. Case in point, it was the first of the four that I was able to fully beat as a kid.
“You’ve never seen creatures like these! You’ve never had an adventure like this! It’s everything you’ve dreamed of, and worlds more!”
The setting
Unlike the previous two games, this one takes place in the land of Subcon. It has a different look and style than the Mushroom Kingdom, but both places have a lot of similarities too. They’re both bright and colourful and inviting, and they have some of the same biomes.
In Mario 1 and The Lost Levels, the concept of themed worlds hadn’t been established yet. While there were several different level/biome types, they weren’t really divided up per different worlds. The placement of the biomes was more scattered and a bit random.
Mario 2 is where you can see the idea of themed worlds beginning to form. Although it wasn’t quite a “one new biome for each world” deal yet, as Worlds 1, 3, & 5 are all grasslands. But you still get a setting change each time you enter into the next world; Worlds 2 & 6 are deserts, World 4 is the ice world, and World 7 takes you up into the sky. You can see a few of the classic Mario world archetypes coming together; grasslands, deserts, snow/ice worlds, and sky worlds. Mario 3 would take this idea even further, with each world having its own unique biome, which would became a tradition in games to come.
Character tidbits
Although this is only a single-player game (unlike Mario 1 which is two-player), there are now four playable characters instead of two. Alongside Mario and Luigi, Toad and Peach have been added to the roster.
It’s interesting that Toad and Peach make their playable debut here, this early in the series. It might make a newcomer to Mario games think that, from this point on, Toad and Peach would be playable more often. But in fact, they aren’t, and their playable appearance here is somewhat of an oddity. Most of the upcoming games tend to stick to Mario and Luigi, or else just Mario alone. After this, it would take quite a long time before either Toad or Peach would be playable again (in the main series, at least; there’s been plenty of spin-off titles featuring them). It wouldn’t be until 2009 when Toad (or rather, two Toads) would be playable in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. As for Princess Peach, she would not be playable again until 2013 with Super Mario 3D World.
The other fun detail in this game is that each of the playable characters has their own distinct control style; sort of an extension of Mario and Luigi’s differing control styles in The Lost Levels. As with The Lost Levels, Mario has the most ‘average’ control style here, while Luigi has superior jumping. Luigi’s disadvantages this time around are that he moves a bit slower than Mario and takes a bit longer to pick up vegetables and enemies (which is different from Lost Levels, where Luigi instead had worse traction than Mario). Toad, meanwhile, has the shortest jumping ability of everyone, but walks/runs the fastest and picks up vegetables/enemies the fastest. Whereas Peach has the best jumping; she has a distinct hovering ability which you can control the timing of, which helps a lot to adjust where you land. In contrast, she has the slowest speed and slowest vegetable/enemy pick-ups of the four characters.
This game also stands out for being one of the few Mario platformers to not have Bowser as the main villain. Instead we have Wart. While Bowser is a gigantic dragon/turtle creature, Wart is a gigantic toad-like creature, and both of them rule over their own army of minions. Indeed, Wart seems very much like a counterpart of Bowser. I always thought it was interesting then that, while Bowser would go on to become the main villain of the franchise, Wart by contrast appears only in this game and then disappears from the franchise. Bowser is definitely a great villain, but I do wish we’d seen more of Wart as well.
The All-Stars (& Advance) treatment
As with Mario 1 and The Lost Levels, this game got a fantastic facelift on the Super Mario All-Stars compilation. Everything is just so lush and colourful and great to look at.
Also like with Mario 1 and The Lost Levels, there is a third version of Mario 2 that was done as a handheld port. With the former two games, they were re-released as Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for Game Boy Color. The success of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe would inspire similar enhanced remakes to follow. The next one up was Super Mario Advance for Game Boy Advance, the enhanced remake of Mario 2. This itself kickstarted a sub-series of “Advance” games, each one based on a classic Mario title.
We have…
• Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
• Super Mario Advance
• Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
• Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3
• Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was based off the NES versions of Mario 1 and The Lost Levels. Whereas the Game Boy Advance ports of Mario 2 and Mario 3 are based off the SNES/All-Stars versions. (And Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island, meanwhile, were released as SNES games to begin with.)
The first Super Mario Advance in particular has some cool new additions and gameplay shake-ups to differentiate it from both the NES and SNES versions of Mario 2. The most noteworthy changes are the new giant versions of certain enemies, lots of added hearts to make replenishing your health much easier, a brand new points system, the jar interiors have been redesigned, and a couple of the boss fights have been changed. An extra Mushroom has also been added to each stage, making it possible to get a maximum of five hit points now instead of four.
With Mario 1 and Lost Levels, the SNES versions are undoubtedly my favourite of the three versions. With Mario 2, I’m torn between whether the SNES version or the Game Boy Advance (GBA) version is superior. The SNES version is already very solid. The GBA version brings in a few positive changes and a few negative ones. The added points feature is a nice touch, although I don’t care for the lowered difficulty due to all the added hearts. The game already had a good difficulty balance and it didn’t need to be made easier. I do like the addition of a fifth Mushroom/hit point to discover in each level; even though that technically makes the game easier too, but the fifth Mushroom at least is something I appreciate.
The GBA version does feel a little more polished and complete overall, with a bit of added content in it. Although the jar redesigns feel like a downgrade. The insides have a more cartoony and silly appearance, with silly music to boot, which makes it less atmospheric compared to the SNES. This one isn’t a huge deal or anything, but it’s still something I liked better about the SNES version. Both of them are still great and you really can’t go wrong either way.
Overall assessment
It’s a very different, but still very fun Mario game, and it holds up nicely against the other titles despite (or maybe even because of) its offbeat nature. Recommended for sure.