The Impact of the American Super Mario Bros. 2 Is Still Felt 35 Years Later

Ever since it was released for the NES in America 35 years ago today, Super Mario Bros. 2 has more often than not been the butt of a joke. Videogamedunkey includes it as his game of the year in his annual best-of list as a gag. People reflexively dismiss it as an impostor in the series any time it’s brought up; the trite interjection, “Well, you know Super Mario Bros. 2 isn’t actually Super Mario Bros. 2” feels borderline Seinfeldian at this point. Unfortunately, that’s often where the discussion begins and ends. It deserves better.

Those with a purist, borderline fetishistic, bent will tell you that it isn’t a Mario game at all, instead favoring the unbearably difficult, Super Mario Maker troll-level-gone-wrong Japanese version of the game (dubbed The Lost Levels in its Stateside release) as the one true Super Mario Bros. 2. The US version may technically be a re-skinned port of the game Doki Doki Panic, but it’s a significantly better game than the original 2 and helped to set a distinct tone for the franchise’s future. Its towering verticality, surprisingly complex secrets, tight controls, multiple playable characters, and clever level design put it far more in line with the spirit of what we know Mario as today.

In true Super Mario Bros. spirit, Mario 2 is rarely content to stick with one idea for too long. Presenting you with puzzle-like platforming challenges that continually push the envelope, there’s so much raw creativity on display here. It introduces idea after idea before interweaving them and pushing them in a new direction and then moving on. One level might introduce a magic flying carpet while another might completely reframe the way the picking mechanic works, letting you dig your way through a cave.

Some connections go beyond the spiritual, though. One of Super Mario Bros. 2’s trademarks is its doors, which open up to different rooms based on the level around it. Some reveal an environmental puzzle while others house power-ups or opportunities to get extra lives. The puzzles are very similar to truncated versions of Super Mario World’s Ghost House levels, which often take similar cues from their environments.

Levels also divert from Super Mario Bros.’ inflexible left-to-right pattern. Goals lie in every direction; sometimes you have to climb, dig, fly, or even pass through a number of doors before finding the boss fight at the end of a level. Playing the 2D Mario games in the order they were released further reveals Super Mario Bros. 2’s legacy. Sure, the first Super Mario Bros. is a wildly inventive display that continues to define the platforming genre to this day, but aside from the occasional Warp Zone or secret pipe or invisible block, its focus lies on platforming and platforming challenges. Mario 2, on the other hand, prods the player to explore and break the firm left-to-right rules found in the original, dangling bigger, more fleshed-out secrets.

No, it’s not on the same scale as Super Mario World’s abundance of obscured endings or Super Mario Bros. 3’s bounty of skybound surprises, but it does point to the potential for the much deeper experience that we’ve come to love and expect from those more celebrated 2D Mario games.

Even more than its secrets, the 35-year-old platformer introduced a much more vertical sensibility that Super Marios 3 and World took and ran with later on. Revisiting every 2D Mario game in anticipation of World reveals just how much of a revelation Super Mario Bros. 2’s verticality was: some of its most memorable levels capitalize on climbing to the skies or digging deep.

Fast forward to one year later to Super Mario Bros. 3. Levels have a higher ceiling and savvy use of the Tanooki Suit lets you scour every inch of every level. You’re constantly rewarded for pushing the game’s upper boundaries and both Super Mario 3 and World feature towering levels that push you higher and higher. You’ll climb mountains and pyramids and more, and it’s all thanks to the groundwork laid down by Super Mario Bros. 2.

Even if it is just Doki Doki Panic with a new coat of paint and a few quality-of-life fixes, Super Mario Bros. 2 gave Nintendo’s designers an opportunity to play with new ideas that established a foundation for future Mario titles—games that proved to be some of the greatest ever made. For example, Kensuke Tanabe, who played a key role in creating some of Nintendo’s all-time greatest games like Super Mario Bros. 3, Link’s Awakening, Metroid Prime, and Kirby Super Star, was one of three level designers who worked on this game. Yasuhisa Yamamura has a similarly star-studded portfolio, credited with designing levels for a majority of Mario’s 2D outings.

Super Mario Bros. 2’s creativity and heart didn’t just open doors for the future of the franchise. It’s also just a really fun game, and beyond its legacy or what it might have inspired, that’s probably the most important thing about it. Iit doesn’t look the most at home among other 2D Mario games, but Super Mario Bros. 2 captures the series’ playful spirit and commitment to fun with veggie-picking aplomb.

Charlie Wacholz is a freelance writer and college student. When he’s not playing the latest and greatest indie games, competing in Smash tournaments or working on a new cocktail recipe, you can find him on Twitter at @chas_mke.