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Reviewing the Real Super Mario Brothers 2
An anonymous reader writes "When Mario Brothers 2 for the NES came out in the U.S. in 1988, many people were surprised at how different than the original Mario Brothers it was. The second Mario Brothers title that U.S. audiences know was never designed to be a Mario title at all. Instead, it's a game called Doki Doki Panic that's been modified with Mario sprites. Here's a review of the original Super Mario Brothers 2 as designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and released only in Japan. Nintendo felt that the poison mushrooms, blowing wind, and warps that took you backwards made it too difficult for North American audiences."
I think most of us knew this ages ago. The "real" Super Mario Bros. 2 has been available in collections since the SNES era.
the same reason that geeks look at porn...
I've always found it odd that even though the US SMB2 wasn't considered canon, some parts of it have managed to make their way into the real Mario world anyway, Birdo, Shyguys, the fact that Luigi can jump higher than Mario, Princess Peach floating...
The Mushroom Kingdom is the best site I've seen for the Marioverse... they have a very good Doki Doki and SMB2 comparison.
Nintendo had a few oddball "2"s... I'm one of those oddball gamers who preders Legend of Zelda 2 to the original, I really dig SMB2 (it was the first game that made me think 'wow, THIS is a VIDEOGAME???', it looked that good).... and the way that Starfox 2 was never released is a serious tragedy, it really was poised to take the series in some interesting directions, N64 is just pedestrian eye-candy in comparison...
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