Sometimes, there are things that you didn’t even realize had a lasting effect on your life and video games in general. Sure, players love to come together and laud the things and events that made up their childhoods in a big way. But what about the things that went on in the background that you never even realized? Yeah, the zookeeper who showed you how an eagle eats was awesome and lead you on the path to become a wildlife conservationist (or at least get a sick tattoo when you were 18), but what about the bus driver who managed to not hit the Volkswagen Golf that stopped suddenly at the traffic light? If that accident had happened, you never would have become fascinated with raptors and zoos in general. So it’s sometimes what didn’t happen, not what did, that shapes the future. Which brings us to Super Mario Bros. 2.

That…that mushroom doesn’t look right.

A lot of people in North America at this stage in time finally know that their beloved Super Mario Bros. 2 was not, in fact, an actual Mario Bros. game originally. If this is the first you’ve learned this information, I am honored to bestow that nugget upon you. When the SNES decided to become home of the fantastic Super Mario Bros. All-Stars, fans in the United States were finally treated to this long lost title that was dubbed Super Mario Bros. – The Lost Levels. Fans were quick to realize that this version of Mario was not what they were comfortable and used to. There was an incredible spike in difficulty, both from level design, enemy timings and brand new obstacles that hadn’t existed in previous iterations. It drew praise and ire from people all over, wondering what on Earth they had stumbled into. 

Turns out, when it was time for an official sequel to Super Mario Bros., Miyamoto had passed it off to his protege and previous Mario assistant director, Takashi Tezuka. Tezuka had a pretty clear path to follow: make more Mario, and enjoy the benefits. But he wasn’t satisfied simply putting out the next iteration of the formula. He wanted to create more, and he wanted players to really enjoy themselves and feel challenged by a game that, already, players were beginning to memorize and execute with incredible alacrity. So he brought in new elements. He created the poisonous mushrooms that would damage Mario and even kill him if he wasn’t ready. Tezuka went and added juiced up versions of the springs from the first game that now would send you clear off the screen, making it hard to calculate your landing. He didn’t hold back one iota in design.

I am barely shooting fireballs, what the HELL is this retaliation??

Unlike a lot of sequels that would come in the future, Super Mario Bros. 2 didn’t bother to hide the fact that it was replaying some of the previous title’s concepts. You were rescuing Peach, there were castles, and Toads were holding space for where a princess should be. Player one could get big with mushrooms and then fiery with flowers, and that’s the whole idea. This was deliberately set up as something to raise the bar for players who truly loved the initial experience and just wanted/needed more of it. Nowadays, there’s this idea that even direct sequels need to improve, expand or innovate beyond just a painted on number. While Mario 2 certainly innovated, they kept the central idea as purist as possible. When you look at future sequels where we shift the protagonist from Mario himself to Yoshi (Mario World to Yoshi’s Island), it’s completely different.

However, there is a minor element that often gets overlooked because of the niche degree of Super Mario Bros. 2. Tezuka did acknowledge that Luigi was a different character from Mario, and, as such, would handle differently. Are you used to Luigi being able to jump a bit farther and float around a bit more? You can thank Tezuka for making that decision and adding elements to finally separate Luigi as more than just “player 2.” Was this important? Absolutely. Does it get acknowledged nearly enough? No, because Super Mario Bros. 2 is hard as balls, and is consistently remembered as a deeply unfair game. With twisted level design, tons of hazards and genuinely pixel-perfect spots of survival, Nintendo sent this game off into the world to see what would happen next.

Missing from the poster: the hole in the wall where my Famicom exited the house.

The result was nothing that could have been seen coming. While Nintendo fans in Japan gobbled up more of the same with an added level of pain and unfairness, Nintendo of America visibly balked at the concept. While Japan openly celebrated and even ran commercials promoting Super Mario Bros. 2 as being “for Super Players,” NoA shut the whole affair down for localization entirely. It was so broken, in their eyes, that it made more sense to choose a game that had NOTHING to do with Mario (Doki Doki Panic), make brand new sprites to resemble existing Mario lore characters, and then proceed from there. So many things that players know about Mario nowadays are a direct result of the actual Mario 2 being too difficult to come out of Japan. Hell, a major plot point and several characters of the excellent Super Mario Galaxy Movie would be absent had Tezuka toned down the difficulty a bit.

But Super Mario Bros. 2 is also a direct link to so many other excellent titles that came as a result. For example, Tezuka wanted to take the next title in a completely different direction, and that led to Super Mario Bros. 3, easily one of the best NES titles and definitely in the top five Mario games to date (I will absolutely die on this hill). This was the advent of players in the know really lording information over the more ignorant and less globally minded. While anyone could talk smack about their Power Glove, it took a special kind of insufferable jagoff to have an imported copy if Super Mario Bros. 2 and be able to flex that over their friends. The entirety of the gray market started to really get going because people in the know wanted to bring over the “real” second Mario Bros. game, even if it led to broken controllers.

Yes, the poison mushrooms were EVERYWHERE.

Also, you can see the bones of it in how players approach Mario games nowadays. There’s this unfounded belief that Nintendo, in spite of everything, is still a gaming console and company for younger audiences. It’s only been in the last couple of years that fans at large acknowledge there’s a degree of difficulty and maturity that comes with Nintendo (goodness knows Mad World didn’t solve the problem). For a whole generation that watched games go from “Nintendo hard” to “games for babies,” Super Mario Bros. 2 became a benchmark for how far you could push players with outlandish requirements to simply play. Players became fascinated with this, and there’s a direct pipeline from Super Mario Bros. 2 to Mario Maker and all the insane, muscle twitch gameplay moments that fill your YouTube algorithm.

While Super Mario Bros. 2 might be one of the least popular and lowest ranked titles in the long Mario history, it still has an important place in the hearts of many, and serves as a shining example of the importance that comes from learning from mistakes. Tezuka and Miyamoto both went on to direct and create incredible titles, remembering that pivoting and changing direction can be important for growth. Best of all, this early misstep galvanized the core elements of Nintendo’s mantra: make it fun. Challenge is important, but challenge for punishment’s sake will alienate most players. So go ahead, fire up the NSO copy today, and make sure your Switch at least has somewhere soft to land when you throw it: here’s to the hardest Mario game ever.