Super Mario Bros. 2: beat for the very first time tonight.

[treismac]

When Super Mario Bros. 2 came out I was all of nine years old. As much as I loved the game I never saw it through to the end, settling for watching the vicarious victory of my childhood best friend, Kyle. Now, at thirty-three years of age, I decided to dust it off and finally beat it. This was long overdue to say the least, and I feel a palpable sense of satisfaction wash over me now that I stand victorious after all these years. I've vanquished Bowser many, many times over on many different Mario games, but never have I stood victorious over Wart. I reckon that bastard was never dethroned from my Super Mario 2 cart because of how much trouble the sinking desert sands of 6-1 gave me. Now, the sands and the rest of Subcon are mastered, and I can look back at my nine year old self and say, "We did it. We finally did it."

I almost beat the game earlier in the day playing it all the way through without using warps, but a (platonic) girlfriend of mine showed up earlier than expected to go out for dinner, so I turned it off on 7 mutherf*cking 2 with sixteen extra lives waiting in reserve (I was killing the cherries on the slots, boy!!). I'm not kidding. When she dropped me off home tonight, I warped my way back where I left off and finished it.

[sloan]

Congratulations.

I bested Wart in the late 80's. I only want to play Doki Doki Panic now to experience the real version of this game.

[Aussie2B]

Congrats. The first time I beat Super Mario Bros. 2, while my heart was still racing, I hurriedly called the Kidstar phone line, got on Great Scott's extension (my favorite DJ), and left him a recording gushing about my victory, haha. If any of you lived in the Seattle area in the 90s, you might have some idea what I'm talking about, but Kidstar was a radio station, phone line, and magazine for kids. I was really big on it back then and even co-hosted with Great Scott several times.

[FoxNtd]

I only want to play Doki Doki Panic now to experience the real version of this game.

Excellent, just be sure to play for the true ending. (You can see it by beating the game with all 4 family members.)

Save feature's nice too.

[InsaneDavid]

Congratulations. Still to this day my all time favorite Super Mario Bros. game due to the design of the characters / world and the down right flexibility of the game itself. While (other than warping) there is always one specific exit to each stage, how you go about getting there is so open. From manipulating the environment with things like mushroom blocks, tricky jumps that allow you to take different routes, hidden shortcuts, using enemies to reach specific areas, having to figure out where to go into subspace to both pickup the mushrooms as well as the best places to pull coins, even mixing up tactics to defeat bosses and sub-bosses. There have been some great Super Mario Bros. games since but to me SMB2 is one of the most fully realized 2D platforming games ever created. There is very little "oh, the game won't let me do that" and a ton more "I wonder if I try this..."

[The 1 2 P]

I beat this game several times back in the 80's and it is still my favorite of the three Nes Super Mario Bros games. As a matter of fact, it's probably my favorite Mario game period. The thing I remember about the second time I beat it was that one of my friends was watching me play because he wanted to trace the image that appears during the ending. So I beat it and he's standing there with tracing paper over the tv drawing Mario's outline. Fun times.

[InsaneDavid]

Also is it just me or is the Valley of Bowser music in Super Mario World a remix of the underground / vase music from Super Mario Bros. 2?

[M.Buster2184]

Congrats. The first time I beat Super Mario Bros. 2, while my heart was still racing, I hurriedly called the Kidstar phone line, got on Great Scott's extension (my favorite DJ), and left him a recording gushing about my victory, haha. If any of you lived in the Seattle area in the 90s, you might have some idea what I'm talking about, but Kidstar was a radio station, phone line, and magazine for kids. I was really big on it back then and even co-hosted with Great Scott several times.

Wow I had forgotten about that Aussie. I grew up in the Tacoma area and didn't think anyone remembered Kidstar. Good stuff.

[Tanooki]

Congrats and better late than never right?

I always loved the game and hated how all the online posers started to hate on the title once they learned it was a so-called 'fake' Mario release. Just this summer in an interview when someone asked Miyamoto what his favorite Mario game of all time is, I felt vindicated. He said he couldn't decide between Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario USA (ie: Super Mario Bros 2 for us.) The original because it was just that and it was his baby he designed alone, but the other added all the familiar mechanics we got adopted into the later Mario games, the better a/v package, and the neat creatures that came back in later releases like Pokey and the Snyguy/Snifit types.

It is a really sad shame they don't bring back Wart and the crew just because they were so non-mario unique and kind of really are. It's not well explored either and definitely not beaten to death like Koopa so it would be a blast. Like what if something happened to Mario and his subconscious mind escaped into the Mushroom Kingdom and Wart wanted some payback along with his thugs. That would be pretty slick.

[Bloodreign]

Once I got used to the game and memorized how the slot machine worked between levels (I don't have the rhythm for that anymore, used to get lives in the alphabets range, over 100. Used to get something like O5 lives, that's well over 150 lives), I could beat the game consistently. Came to the point I'd never see the Game Over screen again, don't get as many lives these days, but can still clock the game.

Once you surpassed 99 lives, the game would count 100 as A0 up to A9 then start with B0.

[DragonMaster Sam]

Congrats, dude! I remember it took me forever to beat Super Mario Land, until my senior year of high school (2002). Super Mario Bros. 2 is still one of my favorite Mario games. In fact, I'm probably due for a game session - either the original NES version, or the All-Stars version.

[frogofdeath]

SMB2 is my second favorite sidescrolling Mario game (World gets a very slight edge). Love everything about the game and really wish they would revisit some of the concepts for the newer Mario games. I know some of the enemies have become Mario mainstays, but it would be great to see more return, like Mouser and Wart!

Also is it just me or is the Valley of Bowser music in Super Mario World a remix of the underground / vase music from Super Mario Bros. 2?

Not sure off hand, but I did always find it odd that two of the star enemies (think they were called Ninjas?) from SMB2 were in only one place in SMW: right at the end of Bowser's castle.

[MarioMania]

Congrats, Now play the Japanese version

Even know SMB2J is hard, It's my fave SMB in the series

[Aussie2B]

Wow I had forgotten about that Aussie. I grew up in the Tacoma area and didn't think anyone remembered Kidstar. Good stuff.

Yeah, it seems to be practically forgotten even on the internet. Of the small amount of people who mention it online, it seems like a lot are former employees. Kidstar was a big part of my childhood for the few years it was around, so I'll always look back fondly on it. It's a shame that kids don't have stuff like that anymore, that tries to teach them things and engage them in the local community. All the local stuff is dying around this country, being replaced with mainstream drivel. Oh well, at least I can still watch Almost Live on Youtube, haha.

[BlastProcessing402]

SMB2 used to be the only Mario game I could beat. Later I did finally manage to beat SMB3, and of course later on SMW came out and while it's my favorite in the series it's also pretty easy relative to the others to beat, but for some reason the one that eluded me the longest was the very first SMB. I never did beat it on an actual NES, when I finally conquered Bowser for good it was in the AllStars version.

I doubt I could beat any of them today. The decades have taken their toll!

[Rickstilwell1]

I remember my first time playing it. My 2nd cousin's half sister had the game and she couldn't beat it. She could get pretty far but not quite to the end. Late at night during that summer vacation I remember she would go to sleep while she would let me stay up and play it in her room. By the end of my 2 week stay there, there came a night where I woke her up and exclaimed "look! I beat your game". I think she was kinda jealous that I beat her own game before her with much less practice, but she still thought it was cool. Of course back then I used to warp. When I got a little bit older I stopped using warps altogether because I felt I was missing out on too much of the game's experience and enjoyment if I did.

[kainemaxwell]

I think first SMB game I finished when I was younger was SMB3. Considering plugging SMB all-stars in or dust off the emulators to fix this.