If that's true about Doki Doki being a test that's a cool factoid if it can be proven.

It's nice to see a thread where people are not being the internet Nintendo hipster rerun of how SMB2 sucks, is a fake and so on. I tired of that childish rant years ago as people seemed to in general have a solid love of it like any Mario title back in the day up until 'the lie was exposed' and suddenly it became one of the early staying Nintendo whinefests.

Howard I think really did make the right choice. When you look at the year SMB1 came out in Japan vs here, and then SMB2 J and how little the game advanced against the look/sound and play quality of other games it was a dated hot mess that was super challenging that would have been a turn off for a lot of kids their target market. It's not a bad game, but even today or even in the SNES era it wasn't a favorite in our region because of how evil it can be, it really was not a SMB2 as much as a (as Nintendo worded it here) Super Mario for Super Players, a set of 'Lost Levels' that were just so advanced only the best of the Mario fans would really enjoy doing it.

Our SMB2 to their SMBUSA really was the KEY game in the franchise as much as the original in molding what IS Mario that has staying power to date. Brighter cartoon worlds, varying different abilities, ability to pick up and carry/throw enemies and items, lands from all over the world (ice, desert, field, etc), and multiple characters like the shy guys and pokey that have stuck around. SMB2 is even getting a nod at the end of the year with the new Super Mario Bros game popping up that has Princess and Toad back with their old floating and speed abilities coming back.