Super Mario Bros. 2 2nd Run is another ROM hack of a classic Mario game. This is a SMB2 hack that was released near the end of 2001 about 2 or 3 years before Super Mario Bros. 3 2nd Run was released. Both hacks were done by Recovery1, and they are both incomplete. Although, SMB2 2nd Run technically is finished there are parts of it that feel like they didn't get done properly. Similar to SMB3 2nd Run, it had the potential to be a good hack because it was fun to play and all, but the fact that it is incomplete makes the game as a whole not as good as it could have been. Like with a lot of my reviews I did for other Mario hacks, I rate the categories the same as I would for Super Mario Bros. 2. It has the classic look and sound of the game I grew up with, but the difficulty is way too much to handle. 

Graphics 8/10: The graphics aren't any different in 2nd Run than what they were in SMB2. The original game was released in the fall of 1988 for the NES. 2nd Run patterns itself after that game which was where Nintendo started to do more with the detail and color of their video games. The objects and sprites still look pretty dated, but compared to the first Mario game on NES, everything has seen quite an improvement.

Music 9/10: SMB2 2nd Run has an almost perfect soundtrack just like in the original game. I did have a problem with how the underground theme was reused so much. Although, even that track was still really good. This game has a lot of variety and beat to it. Many of these songs have stuck with me to this day and were remixed for the Super Mario Bros. Super Show in the fall of 1989 about 1 year after the release of this game. 2nd Run is just as good and stays faithful to the original musically and graphically.

Gameplay 6/10: SMB2 2nd Run is another Mario platforming game that plays just like SMB2. The player can choose to play as either: Mario, Luigi, Toad, or the Princess with each having their own strengths and weaknesses. Once you pick your character, you can't go back after you die unlike in the remakes of this game. It is only through some trial and error that you learn which character is best suited for the level you are playing. 2nd Run is just like the original NES SMB2 with the same cool layout and design that includes 7 different worlds that all have their own theme.

Super Mario Bros. 2 was a very fun game to play but had some repetitiveness to it with its stages. This ROM hack follows the same blueprint from that game, but these levels are not just copied and pasted over from SMB2. Recovery1 went out of their way to make the game more challenging and different, but for some reason, the game stops giving you Bonus Chances after world 4. Just as the game starts to get harder and where you really need the lives the most! This is where 2nd Run goes from being a fun/more challenging version of Super Mario Bros. 2 to being downright impossible! I have never beaten this game and don't know if I ever will. This is a hack that didn't seem to give you much of a chance in hell of beating it!

In some ways, I enjoy the way it is similar to the original game in terms of the layout of the 7 worlds and how creative they were, but with the way it straight up stops giving you coins to use in the bonuses at the end of each level feels incomplete. Those bonus games felt impossible to begin with, but at least with SMB2, you had the opportunity to play them and win extra chances. Without the extra lives, players get a hack that they'll never have the opportunity to learn how to master. I have mixed feelings about the overall design of Super Mario Bros. 2 2nd Run. It could have been better, and the lack of extra chances really defeats the whole purpose of the game.  

Story 10/10: The story of SMB2 2nd Run is pretty much the same as before. It takes place in Subcon where Wart has trapped the inhabitants in a vase. Mario had a dream about the events of this game the night before, and the next day he takes his friends (Luigi, Toad, and Peach) to the cave from his dream. They all 4 end up in Subcon, so this game doesn't take place in the Mushroom Kingdom this time. That is one of the reasons it is better than last time. It is a different plot with more characters and takes place in a totally new setting. The Super Show recycled a lot of these ideas but used Bowser and his Koopa troop from the first game as the antagonist instead of Wart.  

Content 8/10: Super Mario Bros. 2 2nd Run still consists of 20 levels. These levels are broken up into 7 worlds with 3 stages in worlds 1 - 6 and 2 in world 7. They still have their same themes from last time with: World 1 being a Grass Land, Worlds 2 and 6 being Desert areas, World 3-1 taking place at night, 3-2 taking place in a cave, 3-3 being a castle area, World 4 being an Ice Land, World 5-1 taking place inside a waterfall at night along with the rest of World 5 being at nighttime, and World 7 taking place in the clouds with Wart's tower in the sky. For players that have completed this hack, it includes the same amount of content as with Super Mario Bros. 2. Both games take over an hour to finish which is pretty reasonable.

Difficulty 10/10: Super Mario Bros. 2 2nd Run is impossible to complete without save states. I don't see how anyone can keep from getting a Game Over towards world 5 or 6. This game stops giving you coins to use in the bonus games. There is no way to earn extra lives after world 4, and this hack becomes even more difficulty due to more enemies, obstacles, and difficult platforming. This is where the player needs the lives the most, but you don't have them! So, it's basically Game Over here without much of a chance to continue. I guess it is possible, but I've never beaten this game.

Overall 8.2/10: SMB2 2nd Run is a pretty hard game to beat, but it doesn't start getting that bad until world 5. The hack isn't unplayable, but there is no way to learn the ropes without some kind of way to keep playing it. That was a problem with the original SMB2, but it didn't affect the gameplay too much. Here in 2nd Run, it really becomes an issue. All the other parts of this hack are the same SMB2 I came to know and enjoy as a kid. It is still a decent game but not as good as the original.