Not this game, not this game...well I reviewed Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now it's time to take a more...adventurous turn to...Super Mario Brothers....The Lost Levels. Or Super Mario Brothers 2. The original sequel...let's just get this started...Oh and by the way, I have to review a hacked version of the game because this game was never released outside of Japan. Making a sequel to an over-arching game is almost always an intimidating task, so let's see how this worked out for the better or worse, if appropriate.

Story: 4/10

I'm not really gonna say anything about the story because I think at this point you all understand the under-arching story at this point. Bowser kidnapped Princess Peach and Mario has to save her. Nintendo didn't really add anything new, so this is why I'm giving the story a low rating.

Depth: 6/10

Okay, this game offers a lot more than its predecessor. Remember when there was 32 levels in Super Mario Brothers? Well, now there's 48 levels. There has been four new worlds added. Worlds A - D. This is a long game because you need to beat worlds 1- 8 to even progress further...three times. Well let's see what this sequel has to offer. We still have our same-old power-ups. The Power Star, Fire Flower, and Mushroom. This game introduces the Poisonous Mushroom, which is still long remembered from the 16-bit version of this game revealed on the SNES game, Super Mario All Stars. Touching this power-DOWN is just like touching an enemy. So...don't touch it. What else has been added? Well, you know how in modern Mario games, you can perform a higher jump after stomping on an enemy if you pressed the jump button right when you hit the enemy? Well you can now do that in this game. And this has been added because you'd need to execute this a LOT of times throughout this game. What comes a new mechanic is times when you have to USE it, right? There's also been some graphical changes, but we'll get to that later. Another small change we have that I'll go into more detail about is the new Hammer Brothers and new flavor of Piranha Plants added to this game. Other than this, everything from the prequel is still here, except the continue cheat. I guess the Famicom Disk System wouldn't allow it, the system this game was originally released on. 

Difficulty: 8/10

Oh, boy, this is a gang-breaker. Remember how Super Mario Brothers was fairly simple? Well, not anymore it isn't. You're probably wondering why this game was only released in Japan! Why? BECAUSE THE GAME WAS DEVELOPED BY SATAN HIMSELF. I mean come on! If there was a contest for most difficult sequel, THEN THIS GAME WOULD WIN THE AWARD FOR MANY YEARS IN A ROW. The wind, the obstacles, the level design, OH, THE LEVEL DESIGN, it's all relentless! When this game was created, it was ready for international release. The United States and Europe declined the project due to its difficulty. And what's added to this game is that you could have the choice of playing as Luigi. Luigi jumps higher, but it's like he's always walking on ice. So if you want this game to be even MORE difficult, you play as Luigi. But Mario is still the same. He looks like Mario, plays like Mario, but the level design in this game is not Mario. It's a fan hack that costs money to play. And that's a pity. Someone in the development of this game must have REALLY loved bottomless pits. And what makes this game even harder is the fact that technically this game has a total of 144 levels because you have to play levels 1-1 to 8-4 three times to progress to A-1. WHY? What's even worse is that the stuff this game expects you to do is just relentless. World 1 levels can be as hard as World 8 levels from the last game, and it only gets worse from there. Invisible blocks, which were in the last game, jumps that you have to time right, you either get it RIGHT or you DIE. And back to the agenda of the new enemies. Hammer Brothers will come towards you until you pass them, red Piranha Plants have been added, and they have a faster tempo, and they still come out of their pipes even when you're next to it, but not on top of it! Okay, making a good game is hard. But is it really hard for your game to be forgiving? If you plan on getting this game on the Virtual Console, don't do it. It's six dollars, and I can just say it's not worth it. The All Stars version of this game is a lot easier with its save feature. I highly recommend doing the 1-up trick on level 1-1, because YOU WILL NEED ALL OF THOSE LIVES. And this is hard enough to pull off. Overall, this game is way too difficult for my tastes, and you will know this game is DIFFICULT as can be.

Graphics: 8/10

I'm surprised they actually made a few graphical updates to this game. Clouds and bushes now have smiles, the text in this game has black highlights, because apparently kids had trouble reading the text in the previous game, bushes also have a black silhouette. and Mushrooms have darker eyes and are darker in colo-....mushroom....you killed me? Oh right, the poisonous mushroom. The ground now looks like dirt. Since I'm reviewing a hack that's supposed to resemble Mario 2, let me explain this hack. Mario looks like his appearance in Super Mario Bros 3, and bricks have gotten a bit more detail. I couldn't explore more of this because this game is too hard. I couldn't get past the second level! I guess you'll have to find the rest by yourself.

Sound: 7/10

Every song is recycled from the prequel, and I do legitimately  enjoy every piece of the soundtrack. The Castle level theme, the Ground theme, the Underground theme, the Underwater, the Death theme, Game Over, you name it. This soundtrack is still good after 29 years.

Replay-ability: 3/10

Since this game is relentlessly hard, this game is not that addicting. This game is only addicting if you're actually good at it, and I've never seen somebody that's actually good at this game. Nobody's tried to speed run this game, and the longplay I found of this game revealed the player playing ever so slowly. Challenging games can sometimes be addicting, but this one sure isn't. I'd rather just play the US version of Super Mario Bros 2.

Overall: 4/10

Overall, I'm rating this game a 4/10. This is one of the worst Mario games I've ever played by far, and because of this game's difficulty, Super Mario Bros Deluxe's port of the game dubs this as Super Mario Brothers for Super Players. Should I recommend this to the casual gamer? NO WAY. I'd recommend this game to game enthusiasts that are interested in such a non-linear game as this. Warp Zones that send you back, invisible blocks, more invisible blocks, this game holds a LOT of difficult challenges. And you NEVER know what to expect from this game. I'd rather just move on to the next game at this point.


MechaMento : Here. My review is shorter
mohammedroxx3 : Review is done
Razor-987 : I like your comments
tgags123 : Just wanted to see if you liked this one
Eniitan :
 

Well Done Pixel. This review is much better than your previous one on the original Super Mario Bros game. 
I liked how you kept the same writing style, you keep it in between Formal and Informal making it fun to read. I am glad you did your best to stay on topic, I always seem to end up doing that on a first draft. I think there were one or two exceptions but on the whole you did good.

I think the only thing you need to improve on is the balance of your review. You spent a lot of time on the first few paragraphs of your reviews and it is almost as if your are becoming lazier towards the end. I am not suggesting you drag everything out but I am sure there was more to say on some of the topics. For instance you were, again very brief on the story. Of course there wasn't much more to say on that not but I know I could add at least another couple of sentences.

Well done but im not too sure this is the hardest sequel ever. Im sure the award for that goes to the Kaizo series from Japan.