My #2 is different from your #2!

I know this issue isn’t really important and I know there are more important things in life to complain about, but it’s my blog darn it, and I’m going to get this out.

I know that the Super Mario Bros. 2 released in North America is not the ‘real’ SMB 2 and that Japan had the ‘real’ game.

A little history from Dr. Wik E. Pedia: Super Mario Brothers was released in North America with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1986 by the Japanese game company Nintendo. To put it mildly, the game was a success¹. Because it was so successful, a sequel was planned. In the same year, Super Mario Brothers 2 was made and released in Japan. However, the North American Division of Nintendo thought it was too hard and that it was just a modified version of the original.

Nintendo of America did like the looks of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, and converted it into a Mario game and released it in North America in 1988 as Super Mario Bros. 2. The original game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was released in Japan in 1987 and the North American Mario version was released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. USA in 1990. The ‘real’ Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was packaged in Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo (SNES) in 1993. Confused yet?

So that is how we have two different games under the same name. Or one game under two names. Or, wait, how does this go?

 Now that you mention it, I do see some similarities

Anyway, what bothers me are the little smart-alecks that feel the need to feel important and remind us that “The North American version is not the real one!” Go to hell. It’s like those little assholes that try to tell me George Washington was not the first President because they read it on a placemat. (FYI, as defined by the Constitution under Article Two, he was the first president of the USA. The nation and the powers associated with the office did not exist before Washington; therefore, no one before him was “President of the United States of America”).

Getting back on topic, North American SMB 2 is the real SMB 2. We grew up with it under that name. It was sold with the intention of being the second game. Also, MOST OF THE WORLD knows it as SMB 2. The Japanese version was only released in Japan and the one we know in the US was also known as SMB 2 in North America, Europe, and Australia. AKA, the rest of the freaking world that has a video game console! (Sorry Africa, South America, and rest of Asia, you don’t deserve it). I know I don’t like the “majority rule” argument, but really, most people don’t live in Japan.

Proof of Evolution

Also, I like the refitted game better. I have played the original Japanese SMB 2, and the original criticism holds up; it’s too hard and it’s just the same game with a few tweaks. Hell, it even has the same music. The North American, I mean, World Outside Japan version is an entirely different game, with different looks, music, game play, enemies, etc. I like how each game released for the NES were very different from each other. Mario 2 was the exotic game in the trilogy that was rented from Wegman’s every other weekend. Each game is a unique experience. The Lost Levels looks like a mod someone made to frustrate some gamer online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in6RZzdGki8

 Oh Come on! That's Photoshopped, right?

So please, all you annoying trolls out there; Super Mario Brothers 2, known outside Japan, is Super Mario Brothers 2. Whether or not it was originally intended as the real sequel, it is in the hearts of millions of gamers, so shut up.

¹It probably helped that Super Mario Brothers was packed in with most NES's. I'm sure Blank Cartridge would have been a hit had it been bundled in with the NES. Super Mario Brothers 3 should technically be the best selling game as it was not sold with the NES.