The very first game I wanted to beat on my Pi was Super Mario Bros. 2. My absolute favorite games on my NES as a kid was Super Mario Bros 3. And my second favorite was Super Mario Bros. And my third favorite was Super Mario Bros 2 (you get the idea). Mario was such an unbelievable franchise to me. It was colorful. The controls were perfect. The graphics were excellent (and have aged brilliantly). The music was perfect. The balance of fun to challenge was fantastic. And each of the three Mario games had something completely new and unique about them. All three completely blew my mind.
Little did I know that Super Mario Bros 2. in the U.S. was actually mostly a reskin of a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic. Modern day grumpy gamers will use this as an excuse to say that Mario 2 isn't a "real" Mario game. While this may be, I suppose, technically true, that doesn't take away from its brilliance, nor its commonality with the other two Mario games. It was produced by Miyamoto and his team at Nintendo, just like 1 and 3. Its music was composed by the legendary Koji Kondo (composer for the Mario and Zelda series, just to name a few). And most importantly, it's FUN.
No, it's not as ground breaking as 1. No, it's not as fantastically polished as 3. But yes, it is a great game in its own right. The controls are great, music is catchy, the bosses are fun, the levels are inventive and varied, and it introduced a bunch of characters and mechanics that would remain a part of the Super Mario franchise to this day. If you haven't played it, or haven't given it a fair shot apart from the long shadows of 1 and 3, just try it. I think you'll enjoy it.
Now we just need to get Wart a cameo in a Mario game. Or at this rate, he could probably be a playable character in Smash Bros. ;)
He's a villanous frog that hates vegetables. Should be pretty easy to work a Smash moveset around that.
-TRO
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