From what I gather, this was never meant to be a Mario sequel, but was an unrelated Japanese game appropriated by Nintendo, given a quick facelift, and re-released in the west as Super Mario Bros 2. That’s Nintendo for you. Most of the time they’re competent businessmen, but every now and then they do something completely bizarre for completely inexplicable reasons (for more on this phenomenon, check out the Nintendo-licensed CD-i games).

The game’s dubious pedigree shows in virtually all aspects of its graphics and gameplay. It looks and plays rather different to Super Mario Bros, there are none of the old enemies and other than Mario himself there’s not much familiar about this game. The main problem here is that although it’s very different from Super Mario Bros, it’s not better. Picking up and throwing enemies instead of stomping on them isn’t what I’d think of as a massive improvement. Frankly, for a sequel to one of the company’s greatest games, we were entitled to expect more than this, although Mario 2 is mostly good in its own right.

But enough whining, Mario 2 brings a host of new things to the table. You can enter doors, ride logs falling down waterfalls, and explore the game in all four directions. The developers took a page out of the Gauntlet playbook and allow you to play as multiple characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad), each with different abilities.

The game is harder and gnarlier than ever, with a large of puzzles and challenges. Although there’s a life meter this time around, the game is very miserly about giving you new health. Graphically, I marginally prefer the original Super Mario Bros. This game’s palette looks washed out and pale at times. Still, things like explosions are very well done.

I can’t glowingly recommend this. It’s a fairly solid game, but not a brilliant one, and certainly not a worthy sequel for the original Super Mario Brothers. Get SMB3 for the real deal.