We now commence with week 2 of the Path to Wonder with the 2nd Mario game, Super Mario Bros. 2.
Or as some have come to know it… Mario Madness.
All joking aside, I am well aware of this game’s reputation online, especially with regards to its origins. I find it quite tiresome frankly, and I don’t want to add on to the sentiments any further. It’s a common refrain said by normie louts who have just taken a beginner’s course in useless game trivia 101. We don’t need to hear any more about it, although I suppose its origins are inextricably linked to the wider Mario franchise anyways.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was a peculiar little game. It didn’t really follow what Super Mario Bros. set out to do. Instead, it was doing its own thing. And for that I am grateful, for it has expanded the Mario mythos in uncountable ways. It was the game that gave us a plethora of enemies like Shy Guys, Bob-ombs, Pokeys, and many others. It also gave us playable Peach and Toad, Luigi’s defining characteristics, and characters like Wart and… Birdo…
Okay, there is an elephant in the room I have to address here regarding… Birdo.
See, I am of the opinion that Birdo was an OC of Kensuke Tanabe, having been the director and course designer for Doki Doki Panic. He has probably been responsible for her modern redesign in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and all her subsequent spin-off appearances. In particular, he may have also been the one behind including her in his dreadful nu-Paper Mario trilogy of Sticker Star, Color Splash and The Origami King as cameos.
This blog has a real burning hatred for the man, and for Birdo as well. Don’t get me wrong, I actually do like Birdo as a character, but I much prefer her original slender classic design and her Mario Tennis model on the Nintendo 64. I can’t say I’ve really enjoyed her modern 3D interpretation all that much, and I chalk that up to Tanabe being “Novel & Creative” as per usual and making her a garish primadonna. There is also the matter of how Tanabe fits into the greater Mario experiment, and boy what an ill fit it is. See, he was the creator of Doki Doki Panic, the Internet’s favorite throwaway trivia card. Doki Doki Panic is not a fun game compared to its successors by Nintendo EAD. You had a weird collab with a Japanese entertainment company using its characters and likeness, in the form of strange masks and strange dream-related imagery. You had the original mascot crew of Mama, Papa and the like. But you couldn’t run with the B button… And you had to beat the game 4 times with all 4 characters for the true ending! Dear God. This isn’t even accounting for all the other annoying little design decisions that were included.
Thankfully, Nintendo EAD was able to salvage the game and turn it into Super Mario Bros. 2, the game we all grew up with and cherished in its many superior iterations, most specifically Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES and Super Mario Advance on the Game Boy Advance. I am actually of the opinion that Super Mario Advance is the definitive way to experience Super Mario Bros. 2, and it is so far removed from Tanabe that it’s quite hilarious. Therefore, I decree that Tanabe only has a superficial understanding of the Mario brand through his reckless attempts at experimentation and Super Mario Bros. 2 iconography reuse in his terrible Paper Mario games, and may as well not have even played that much of a part in making Super Mario Bros. 2 the good game that it was. That credit should go to Shigeru Miyamoto instead and his Mario team.
But enough of that little side tangent. What do I think of the actual Super Mario Bros. 2?
It’s pretty fantastic. The physics are a little loose and free-spirited when it comes to jumping, but the way you can pick up veggies and enemies to toss them at other enemies is a fun wrinkle to the Mario formula that would eventually be expanded upon much later. The unique bosses are also another highlight of the game, and it all continues the whimsy that was introduced in the original Super Mario Bros.. This game reinforces that sense of whimsy by being based in a dream land of sorts, with dreams and masks being heavily prevalent in the theming and story. You now must rescue the fairies of Subcon from the treacherous frog overlord Wart, who has a distaste for vegetables despite being practically surrounded by them.
For the record, I used only Mario during my playthrough of Super Mario Bros. 2, but that other aspect of having playable characters plays into my other point about the Mario franchise: That this franchise has always been about character choice, and the player expression that can come out of that. Someone can tryhard and do the entire game as Toad, or they can take a breather and abuse Peach’s floating for a more easy mode affair. Depending on who you use, the game’s difficulty alters greatly, which is another great thing about this title. I do sincerely hope Super Mario Bros. Wonder gives back the unique traits of these characters again, because we would welcome it wholeheartedly.
I give Super Mario Bros. 2 a Mario Monk rating of ★★★★☆ 4 Power stars out of 5. It would have been a 5, but I docked a point from it due to Kensuke “Novel & Creative” Tanabe being involved. Yes, I am that petty.
With week 3 concluded, that is all for now. The next game will be the absolute 2D Mario titan that is Super Mario Bros. 3 next week for week 4. You can imagine already how that score will turn out…
May the stars guide you. Monk Tanaka out. 🍄︎
MARIO MONASTERY 