SMB2: Doki Doki Panic or Lost Levels?

[Twinbee]

I absolutely love the Lost Levels though. Finished the whole game on 1 life even.

You did? >_<
Like others, I was wondering if it is possible to finnish the game without continues... well, it is possible but there's a chance of you getting insane.
A friend of mine and I are trying to do it... so far we can reach world 6 before game over.

[imanerd0011]

I absolutely love the Lost Levels though. Finished the whole game on 1 life even.

You did? >_<
Like others, I was wondering if it is possible to finnish the game without continues... well, it is possible but there's a chance of you getting insane.
A friend of mine and I are trying to do it... so far we can reach world 6 before game over.

It is definatley possible. I have beaten it before many times, but I usually die once or so. Most of the time it's a fluke, or I quit paying attention.

[Push Upstairs]

I like SMB2 (US). At first it didnt seem right coming from playing SMB 1+3 (i owned them first) but after some time i have grown to love the game and its music.

I never really played SMB much because i got Mario 3 with my Nintendo. I am a person who likes tight controls, and one of the things i didnt care for in the orginal was that movement seemed rather stiff.

Which is why i never bother to play SMB 1 or Lost Levels.

The really ironic part is that if i didnt know any better...i'd think that the Japanese SMB2 was some hacked ROM.

[Jorpho]

SMB2 was a lot more accessible than SMB2j, I think, and brought in a lot more gamers than SMB2j would have.

let's break it down shall we?

(snip)

1992- Super Mario USA (Japanese Famicom)- Japan was pretty much jealous that USA recieved an entirely new Mario game, so by demand they wanted a port of this game for their Famicom...under the re-release name "Super Mario USA!"

I shall take another opportunity to plug the BS Super Mario USA releases. The All-Stars versions of Worlds 1, 2, 4, and 5 were released one at a time through the SNES Satellaview system. Each has unique and amusing timer-related events; be advised that SNES9x 1.29 (or earlier) is the only emulator capable of running them properly. (I'm told they might work with Super Sleuth, as well.)

[whoisKeel]

SM2 (usa) is one of my all time favorite games. I absolutely loved this game when it came out. I've only played the other on allstars when it came out, and I remember enjoying that game as well, I just think that SM2us is a much more fun game. Good move on Nintendo's part imo, though it would've been nice to have both games as well. I remember reading a site about the differences between Doki and SM2 and there are actually quite a few.

[Graham Mitchell]

Not to stray from the main topic but I believe this falls into the same category as the question" Why the hell didn't we get the true Metal Gear 2?". Snake's Revenge is still great,imo, but come on, Metal Gear 2 would have been the nut on the nes. So they would have had to dumb down the graphics for the nes but the gameplay could have been identical. Or perhaps they could have redone it for the Snes, I mean Metal Gear 2 came out less than 2 years before the Super Famicom, give us Snake's Revenge to tide us over until the 16-bit revolution hit full force and then blow us away with graphics that would make the MSX cry.

I thought it did come out on the Famicom. Am I wrong here? We just had a thread about this not too long ago; everybody was pissed because we got Snake's Revenge and no MG2:Solid Snake.

[suppafly]

As much as I dislike how NINTENDO runs their business now...I think they made a great decision with SMB2 in the USA.

I really love SMB2 (doki doki). And the lost levels dont really look that cool on the super mario all starts colelction (SNES)

[Jorpho]

I thought it did come out on the Famicom. Am I wrong here? We just had a thread about this not too long ago; everybody was pissed because we got Snake's Revenge and no MG2:Solid Snake.

Nope, that was MSX only. If it was on the Famicom, we'd have surely seen a fan-translated version spread far and wide by now.

[Jasoco]

I prefer the Doki Doki version of SMB2. The Japanese version is a bit too hard for me, and mostly the same as the original. The Doki one has more variety and introduced the Mario universe to many elements still used today.

[Dr. Morbis]

I picked up SMB2 for my birthday in 1989 based on rave reviews in NP and I was very impressed. It was my favourite game at the time. However, last year Leonk made me a repro of SMB2J and I simply fell in love with it. Exploring all the levels with the proper original graphics again reminded me of the first time I played the original SMB. And I love the difficulty level; it's refreshing. So... my vote goes for SMB2J.

However, I do think the the big N made the right decision back then about porting an enhanced DD Panic.

[Jasoco]

However, I do think the the big N made the right decision back then about porting an enhanced DD Panic.

Just think. Had they decided to bring the Japanese SMB2 out here in the first place, we would have missed out on a whole world of cool Mario-ism's, and instead of getting two great games, we'd have gotten only one and Japan would have gotten one good game and some forgettable game called "Doki Doki Panic". We would have never heard of Doki Doki. And what would SMB3 have turned out to be had SMB2 USA been the Lost Levels? A lot different, that's for sure.

A question I've always asked though is in SMB2 (Doki), why is it in vertically scrolling parts of levels (Since SMB2 only scrolled either left to right or up and down, rather than all four at once like SMB3 does later), it scrolls screen by screen? I mean, a lot of other NES games that came out years before SMB2 could scroll smoothly up and down. Ice Climber, Kid Icarus. It didn't need to move one screen at a time. Yet, Doki/SMB2 did. Is there some technical reason for this?

[daynum]

And what would SMB3 have turned out to be had SMB2 USA been the Lost Levels? A lot different, that's for sure.

It would have been the same I expect, seeming as in Japan the same SMB3 followed the Japanese SMB2.

[Graham Mitchell]

So, inspired by this thread, I unlocked "Super Mario Bros. for Super Players" in Super Mario Deluxe (GBColor) last night, which as somebody mentioned, is basically the Lost Levels.

I then handed the Gameboy Advance right over to my fiancee' (who really likes all the Mario games, but hasn't played that one). I asked her later if she lilked it, and she said "I did, but it's hard!" I then asked her how she would have felt if that game had came out over here instead of the version SMB2 that we got, and she replied "I wouldn't have known any better, I think I would have liked it just fine". Then she complained because I ran my mouth about the story of why that game didn't come out here blah blah blah...she didn't care.

But that was my experiment. It seems the average Joe (or in this case Nikki), maybe wouldn't have really cared which version of SMB2 they got to play.

[rick weis]

SMB2 was not my favorite of the series, but i think it's better then the lost levels. i think it was a great move on nintendo's part.

Rick

[oesiii]

SMB2 was not my favorite of the series, but i think it's better then the lost levels. i think it was a great move on nintendo's part.

Rick

I agree, SMB2 was the one that really drew me into the Mario platform games. SMB1 was fun but after I played it through once I didn't really pick it up again for awhile. SMB2 was a little more interesting to me probably because of its quirkiness.

And did Nintendo make any really big mistakes between SMB1 and Super Mario 64 with Mario games? Sure there was some CD-I games and other shady stuff but the majority of their decisions in Japan and the US were spot on.

[Jasoco]

And what would SMB3 have turned out to be had SMB2 USA been the Lost Levels? A lot different, that's for sure.

It would have been the same I expect, seeming as in Japan the same SMB3 followed the Japanese SMB2.

No, you don't understand. SMB3 would have been COMPLETELY different. Much of what ended up in SMB3 was introduced in the US version of SMB2. Had there not BEEN a separate SMB2, (Had we gotten the same game Japan got) SMB3 would have ended up a much different beast.

As Doctor Emmett L. Brown would say, "You're not thinking fourth dimensionally."

[Graham Mitchell]

No, you don't understand. SMB3 would have been COMPLETELY different. Much of what ended up in SMB3 was introduced in the US version of SMB2. Had there not BEEN a separate SMB2, (Had we gotten the same game Japan got) SMB3 would have ended up a much different beast.

As Doctor Emmett L. Brown would say, "You're not thinking fourth dimensionally."

I don't know about that. I always thought SMB3 had way more in common with SMB1 than it did with 2. A lot of the "3's" were that way, most notably Castlevania. But I felt that SMB3 was more of a direct expansion of the first game, and it pretty much ignored the US version of 2. I'd imagine that American gamers were more surprised by it, therefore, than Japanese gamers.

[Ed Oscuro]

If you look at the cover of SMB2j, you'll see one of the "extra" characters...what would Mario games (for example, the original RPG) be without Kamek? Without the expansion SMB2 provided, the "universe" would be smaller. Nuts on harder levels - if they're giving current gamers trouble, you can consider what they would've been like to younger versions of ourselves.

[slip81]

Just because I'm somewhat of a purist I would say that Nintendo should have released the actual SMB2 here instead.

But I also believe that if they did that they should also have done DDP as well because it's easily my favorite "SMB" game on the NES. Ijust love how different it is and how you have som many gameplay options with the different characters and their unique abilities. I also love the look of it better than the other two mario games. The graphics are great, the music is cool and the locations and enemies are really fun.

The actual SM2 is good, but IMO the DDP version of SMB2 is far better.

[Push Upstairs]

Much of what ended up in SMB3 was introduced in the US version of SMB2.

Like what?

The only thing i notice thats similar between SMB2(US) and Mario 3 is that Mario and the Princess' sprites are the same or very similar. I always figured that since our Mario 2 was "fixed up" while Mario 3 was being made in Japan sprites from SMB3 were used..