Super Mario Bros. 2

Honest and Unpopular Reviews No. 48 Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) One of my earliest memories is my parents taking me to Toys "R" Us to buy a game for Christmas in 1988. I picked out Super Mario Bros. 2 (honestly, my mom probably picked it out because she was a huge fan of Mario Bros. at the time). I remember this game being so different than the first, but I liked it anyways. I was also only 5 years old, so I didn't really know any better. For those of you unfamiliar with the backstory of Super Mario Bros. 2, it started out in Japan as a game called Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo decided to reskin the game as a Mario game for the United States because they thought Americans would struggle with the real Mario 2. This version of Mario had a slight difficulty bump over SMB1 and even SMB3. I could never beat it on my own until years later. I was disappointed when I found out there was a *real* Super Mario Bros. 2 and the one I owned wasn't actually it. I discovered this several Christmases down the road at my cousin's house, where they had Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES. That's the exact moment I found out about The Lost Levels. Nintendo turned out to be correct, because once I played it, The Lost Levels was absurdly difficult. People treat this one like the black sheep of the series. I replay this game from time to time because I just love how weird it is. It's like Mario was on some acid trip in between SMB1 and 3. I rate Super Mario Bros. 2 a 4.5 out of 5.