Bonk here, bonk there, bonk everywhere.

What a happy caveman!

To Beat: Reach the ending
Played: 6/12/18 – 6/13/18
Difficulty: 4/10
My Difficulty: 4/10
My Video: Bonk’s Adventure Longplay

The 1990s in video games were all about the mascot platformer. The success of Super Mario Bros. was a very early frontrunner to this trend, and although mascots wouldn’t really hit their stride until well into the 90s, there are some early examples of games trying to piggyback off the success of Mario. The Sega Master System tried keeping step with Alex Kidd. Sega eventually switched over to Sonic, a formidable rival. You could say Master Higgins of Adventure Island is also a mascot with a platformer. The SNES and Genesis generation brought a lot of one-off type games with mascot platformers like Bubsy, Aero the Acrobat, Sparkster, and Ristar to name a few. The Nintendo 64 and PlayStation era stepped it up even further with big names like Crash Bandicoot, Rayman, Banjo-Kazooie, and Spyro the Dragon. Within the days of Mario vs. Sonic and the Console Wars was Bonk, a humble caveman starring in his own adventure on the Turbografx-16. There wasn’t a whole lot of console crossover in the early days, but for some reason, Bonk’s Adventure did receive a very late NES port.

Bonk’s Adventure was released first on the PC Engine in Japan in December 1989, named PC Genjin. The PC Engine became the Turbografx-16 in the US, and Bonk’s Adventure was brought over in 1990. The game was developed by Red Company and Atlus. A Famicom port called FC Genjin released in July 1993 and the NES version launched in January 1994. Hudson Soft published the NES version, however the developer is not clear. Red is mentioned on the title screen, but development has also been attributed to A.I. Company Ltd. There were three Bonk games on the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 and two on the Super Famicom, as well as some Game Boy ports and spinoffs and mobile games in Japan.

Bonk’s Adventure is a side-scrolling action platformer. You play the role of the caveman Bonk who must save the Moon Princess from King Drool. Just another cliché video game story. Bonk’s journey through Dinosaur Land will take him through many locales over the seven worlds in the game. You beat the game once you clear all the levels and beat all the bosses.

You gotta use your head.

You move Bonk around with the D-pad. Use the A button to jump. Bonk has a very strong head and he can use it to hurt enemies simply by jumping into them from underneath. Bonk will grab onto walls from the side with his teeth. In this state, you can climb the wall by jumping repeatedly. The B button is used to attack in two different ways. Press B while standing to headbutt. You can hit enemies from the side this way. While in the air, you can press B to do a flip. This turns Bonk over so that you can fall onto enemies with your head and hurt them that way. If you press B again while still in midair, he will orient himself upright again. You can do a bunch of midair spins in the air by pressing the B button repeatedly while in the air. This causes Bonk to fall much slower and you can use the increased airtime to make long horizontal jumps.

There isn’t much on-screen information to go by while playing Bonk’s Adventure. The top left corner shows three hearts. This is your health meter. Enemies can knock off your health in quarter-heart increments, but typically you lose health by half or full hearts. You can read a little more information by pausing the game. The pause display shows the current round and stage number, the number of smiley faces you’ve collected, and how many lives you have remaining.

There are several powerups to aid you in your adventure. A recurring enemy in this game is the Bani-Bana flower. They are stationary enemies that you can knock with a headbutt either from the side or above to reveal their contents. There are a few variations of the Bani-Bana flower. There are white ones that don’t give power ups, but instead launch Bonk skyward if he jumps on top of them. There is also an enemy that masquerades as a flower that leaps away when you wake it up. Since you are often left vulnerable while attempting to reveal the flower’s item, this means you will usually get hurt by this enemy if you aren’t careful.

Get powered up and crash through the bad guys.

There are many different pickups you get from the flowers. Fruit that is shaped like a carrot restores a quarter-heart of health, while red hearts give you one full heart and a big heart gives you three hearts back. The rare big white heart adds a heart to your maximum health. You begin the game with three hearts and can earn up to six. Smiling faces are collectibles that are redeemed at the end of each round. There are both small meat and big meat that power up Bonk when you eat them. You can also find little Bonk figures worth an extra life.

The small meat powerups give Bonk a head of steam, changing his form to the Grand Bonk. This is only a temporary transformation that is quite useful. As the Grand Bonk, if you do a midair spin and land on the ground with your head, it shakes the screen and damages all enemies. If you take a hit, you will go back to normal, and the effect eventually wears off anyway. If you collect the big meat, or collect the small meat again while Grand Bonk, you become invincible for a short time. You can really plow through enemies and clear a lot of ground in this state. When the invincibility wears off, you remain Grand Bonk until that wears off or you lose it.

You may see a small flower within a level. Grab it to ascend to a bonus area. There are three different bonus areas that have different rules. In the Jump the Canyons game, simply work your way to the right as far as you can while collecting the carrot-shaped fruits. Falling off or reaching the end completes the bonus game. You can earn smileys or even a 1up by collecting as many fruits as you can. You play the Flip Through the Air game by jumping off a tall ledge and flipping with B as many times as you can. The number of flips are counted up when you land on your feet at the bottom and you can earn smileys or a 1up. You earn nothing if you land on your head. The third game, Beat the Clock to Reach the Top, is the easiest one. Cling to the wall and press A to jump as fast as you can to reach the top. You earn more rewards for every second remaining on the timer.

There are bonus games you can sink your teeth into.

Most of the worlds follow a similar pattern. Many levels begin with a signpost with the round and stage numbers written on it. Levels proceed in one direction and there’s another post with an arrow on it meaning you’ve reach the end of the stage. The final stage within a round ends in an elevator that looks like a skull. Stand in front of it and press Up to take the elevator to the boss. These bosses are all large enemies that need to be bonked many times to defeat. After the bosses are defeated, evidently you knock them back to their senses. They each speak a few words of text after you finish the fight. Then you get health restored depending on how many smileys you picked up within the round.

One nice thing about Bonk’s Adventure is you don’t get set back at all if you lose a life. When you run out of health, you roll around and keel over. You can hang out in the death state for a long time while the game continues around you. Press Start to wake up with a new life and three hearts of health right where you left off. If you run out of lives, you can continue from the start of the round. This is a pretty severe penalty if you happen to lose your lives on the end of round boss. Fortunately, it seems like you can continue as often as you want.

This was my first time playing through Bonk’s Adventure. On the NES, this game is well known as one of the most expensive NES games. It’s the most expensive game I’ve played so far for this project. Here in 2018, loose carts sell for an average of $500 and complete in box copies average $800-$900. Bonk’s Adventure has consistently been in or near the Top 5 most expensive NES carts. I scored my copy in mint condition for $150 in 2014. The value of the cart was around $400 then so it was a killer deal. I just happened to find the listing for it on eBay at the right time within a lot of other NES games. That $150 bought me Bonk’s Adventure and 10 other common games.

The bosses are usually huge like this.

I had an easy time with Bonk’s Adventure. There was a learning curve to the momentum in-air. For the first couple of rounds I often missed my target while attacking from above. Powerups and health pickups were plentiful enough to help mitigate most damage taken from missed attacks. I was also bad at the bonus games at first, aside from the wall climbing one that is virtually impossible to lose. I thought the second round boss was the hardest one. It jumps around a lot and I couldn’t hit it when it jumped up into me, which sadly happened a lot. Those were the main issues I had with playing the game and I didn’t have any significant troubles otherwise. My first time through the game required one continue, but the second game through for my longplay video was a no-continue run. I didn’t check on the pause screen, but I think I ended up with about a dozen lives in reserve by the end.

Bonk’s Adventure is a quality game that is fun to play. The graphics and animation are very well done. The boss fights are really fun, though I feel they take way too many hits to defeat. The gameplay is tight and there are plenty of ways to attack enemies within the simple controls. The game can get a little repetitive, but at the same time there are a few stages where you swim or climb and it’s nice to have something different. I am not a big fan of the music. The soundtrack feels a little moodier and depressing than I would expect out of a game like this. The song during the end credits is something that would have given me nightmares as a kid playing games alone at night. It’s not objectively bad music, it’s just not for me. This is a good NES game all around. I would recommend playing the game, even if it falls short of the Turbografx-16 version like I suspect it does. But there is no reason at all to own this game unless you are a collector, grew up with it and still have your childhood copy, or got lucky and found it for cheap.

#90 – Bonk’s Adventure

A much more expansive adventure awaits in Dragon Warrior II.

The gang’s all here!

To Beat: Reach the ending
Played: 3/16/18 – 4/7/18
Difficulty: 5/10
My Difficulty: 3/10
My Video: Dragon Warrior II Final Area and Ending

I know this is a website about old NES games, but this is also a website about nostalgia. Each of these games I’ve been playing has been enjoyed by someone who will remember them fondly. It’s not necessarily about the games themselves, but about the people you played them with, the friends you shared tips with, or the memories you had playing them and what it was like to live your life back then. Perhaps I’ve always been focused on nostalgia because I have made time to play my old games over the years. Sometimes it takes an older game to drop you back in time in a powerful, almost surreal way. Dragon Warrior II is a game that does this for me. It helps that it is a fun game to play even now.

For more information about the Dragon Quest series of games, check out my Dragon Warrior post.

Dragon Quest II: Akuryo No Kamigami was released on the Famicom in January 1987. The name translates to Dragon Quest II: Gods of the Evil Spirits. It was developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix. All the Dragon Quest games on Famicom were brought over to the NES several years later. The NES version was renamed Dragon Warrior II and was released in September 1990. This game was ported a lot more than I thought. There was an MSX version in Japan in 1988 and a Super Famicom version in 1993. Game Boy Color received a combination cart of Dragon Warrior I and II. There are also mobile versions and a Wii version in the Japanese compilation Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection.

The story of Dragon Warrior II is explained through an introductory cutscene exclusive to the NES version. All is peaceful in the kingdom of Moonbrooke until the forces of the evil sorcerer Hargon appear suddenly. The king fights valiantly but is no match for these creatures. He and the rest of the castle are taken down, but not before a single soldier barely makes his escape. This man somehow makes it all the way to the kingdom of Midenhall to warn the king there before he succumbs to his injuries. As the prince of Midenhall, it is your duty to go on a grand adventure to defeat Hargon. Do so and you win the game.

The situation is pretty dire.

Structurally, Dragon Warrior II is a lot like the original game. You still walk around with the D-Pad, press A to open the command menu and give commands, and press B to undo or go back. You are still adventuring around, fighting enemies, getting stronger, exploring caves and towns, upgrading equipment, collecting items, etc. I will still give my traditional amount of detail, but rather than retread a lot of old ground, I will focus more on the differences added and implemented into Dragon Warrior II from the first game in the series.

The first thing you may notice is the Command Menu is updated. There are six commands here instead of eight. Five of these commands are the same: Talk, Spell, Status, Item, and Search. The displays are a little different, but they function the same way. The new command is Equip which lets you swap your weapon, armor, shield, and helmet for a different one you are holding. You may also choose to unequip something and go without if you choose. Three commands from Dragon Warrior are no longer here: Stairs, Door, and Take. You will automatically go up or down stairs when you stand on them, which is an obvious, much welcome change. Door and Take were both redundant commands. Keys are treated as items so you use them through the Item screen, and Take was rolled into the Search command. The popup Status Menu is also streamlined. It appears at the bottom of the screen this time and only displays the first four characters of your name, your HP, and MP. If you want to see Gold or Experience, pull up the Status menu instead.

Some of the basic structures have been changed. You can see the differences from the opening cutscene. All map objects in the first game were all the size of one tile, but that’s not the case here. Castles are four tiles big and towns are two tiles long. That’s all though; everything else is one tile. There are still caves like in the original game. Monuments are special points of interest and are often friendlier environments than enemy-ridden caves. There is a different kind of grass tile that looks like bushes. These are just cosmetic changes, but they do make the environment more interesting. The size differences also help make you feel smaller and the world around you feel bigger.

Slimes and slugs go well together.

Venture out into your first battle to find that you may have more than just a single enemy to deal with this time. It was a logical next step to have more than just one-on-one battles, right? To handle multiple enemies on screen in a fight, the pretty battle background from Dragon Warrior was replaced with a plain black battle screen. Your Status Menu is displayed at the top, and the lower left contains the Command Menu. These options are Fight, Run, Parry, and Item. Parry is the only new one here, which puts you in a defensive stance. You take half damage but don’t do anything else. The lower right display shows the enemy names and how many of them are still active in the fight. Instead of targeting a single enemy when you fight, you get to choose which enemy group to attack. If there are multiple enemies in a group, you attack one at random. If there are no longer any enemies in the group, you will whiff and not hit anyone. Lame, but it happens. When battles play out, the lower half of the screen describes who is attacking who and for how much damage, same as before.

Caves have received a major overhaul. You no longer need to carry torches or use the Radiant spell to see where you are going, so already that’s a huge improvement. Narrow corridors are no more. Caves have the same tile size as the castles on the overworld, so the normal tunnels are always two tiles wide and they are often much longer as well. There are cave entrances where you cannot see where you are going until you walk through to the next room. Then the newly entered room of the cave is drawn while the room you just left is shrouded in darkness. It helps maintain a bit of mystery since you can already see the entirety of the current room. Later in the game, you explore towers that have the same attributes as caves, just with a different tileset.

The most significant change in Dragon Warrior II is the addition of two party members. You will have to go solo for a while before eventually meeting up with the Prince of Cannock. He is given a name at random and you don’t get to change it. My companion was named Esgar. He is not as strong as the main character and he cannot equip as many weapons or armor, but unlike our hero he can cast magic spells. Now you get the ability to heal without resorting to medical herbs or going back to the inn, and you get some extra options in battle as well as another attacker. Sometime later you find the Princess of Moonbrooke. She was named Roz in my adventure. She is the weakest physical attacker but has the most powerful magic. It’s a well-balanced party.

Join forces and help each other.

There are many spells in Dragon Warrior II that can be used by the Prince or Princess, or sometimes both. Some spells are only usable in battle, and some are only usable in the field. When you pull up the Status for a spell caster, the last screen will be a list of spells in each of those categories. If a spell can be used anywhere, then it appears in both lists. The spells can be further categorized into healing spells, field spells, attack spells, and effect spells. Let’s go into more detail!

The healing spells are Heal, Healmore, Healall, and Revive. The three “Heal” spells all restore some HP to one party member. It should be clear by the names that Healmore restores more than Heal, and Healall restores all HP to the affected party member. Revive can bring a fallen party member back to life with a single hit point. The Prince gets Heal, Healmore, and Revive, while the Princess gets Healmore and Healall. HP restoring spells can also be used in battle but Revive is only usable on the field.

These are the field spells: Antidote, Repel, Return, Outside, Stepguard, and Open. Antidote cures one member of poison status so that they don’t take damage while walking about. Repel wards off weaker enemies for a while. Return sends you back to the last place you saved the game. Outside takes you back to the entrance of a cave or tower you are exploring. Stepguard protects you from taking damage from certain tiles that normally hurt you when you walk on them. The Open spell opens doors without using a key. The Prince gets Antidote, Return, Outside, and Stepguard. The Princess learns Repel, Antidote, Outside, Stepguard, and Open.

The Prince has attack spells to aid in combat.

The attack spells are Firebal, Infernos, Firebane, Explodet, Defeat, and Sacrifice. Firebal does a relatively small amount of damage to one enemy, though it is useful in the early going. Infernos and Firebane have the same effect, dealing damage to all members of an enemy group. Explodet does a lot of damage to all enemies. Defeat can be used on an enemy group and may defeat an enemy outright if it works. Sacrifice instantly defeats all your enemies as well as the spellcaster. The Prince learns Firebal, Firebane, Defeat, and Sacrifice, while the Princess learns Infernos and Explodet.

The final set of spells are the effect spells. They are Sleep, Surround, Stopspell, Defence, Increase, and Chance, and they can only be used in battle. Sleep may put members of an enemy group to sleep. Surround generates spirits around an enemy group that causes enemy attacks to miss more often. Stopspell is used on an enemy group and can block enemy spells if it is effective. Defence lowers the defensive stat for an enemy group, while Increase adds defensive points to all party members. The Chance spell has many different effects and one is applied at random when it is cast. It’s a risky spell with the potential for a huge payoff. The Prince gets Stopspell and Increase, while the Princess learns Sleep, Surround, Defence, and Chance.

Having three party members mixes up things somewhat. Menus now include an additional option for which member you want to command. Each character has his or her own set of eight items to hold. Party members may trade items or throw them away through the Item menu. This includes your weapons and armor, unlike Dragon Warrior where they don’t go against your total item loadout. When you buy items, weapons, or armor in the shop, you must choose a member to receive it. The shopkeeper will tell you if the recipient is unable to equip the armor or weapon, which is helpful even though you learn by trial and error. Often you have to shuffle items around to make room for something specific, and those item slots fill up pretty quickly. You can also utilize the House of Healing. Here you can curse poison, remove cursed items, and revive a fallen party member. It costs 20 gold for each experience level of the defeated party member to revive, but it’s often better than losing half your gold when everyone falls.

Drag your partner’s corpse to the House of Healing.

Once you recruit the whole party and explore the world more, you eventually find a ship. This is when the game switches from a linear style to an open world adventure. You can dock the ship at any walkable world tile, leading to vast exploration. This is also where the game takes a sharp upturn in difficulty. Since you can go wherever, you may stumble into an area with much stronger monsters. Go directly east from the port town and you might see something familiar. There’s an island which plays the world music from Dragon Warrior, and indeed it is a more compact version of Alefgard. You can go to Tantegel Castle or pay the Dragonlord’s ancestor a visit in Charlock Castle. It’s a nice throwback that shows just how much larger the world is in Dragon Warrior II. From there, you will need to track down some additional keys, as well as five crests required to reach the end of the journey.

There are a few miscellaneous changes I noticed in Dragon Warrior II. In the first game, you could sell old equipment for half of the original purchase price. In this game you get 75% back. That helps offset the extra equipment you need for the other party members. There are many more quest items in this game that take up precious item slots. I’m not sure if you could sell them in the first game, but you can this time. If it was one you still needed, you can go back to where you found it and get another one. Enemies may drop items after battle. I noticed that you can’t earn two of the better item drops, so if an enemy drops something you already have, you get additional gold instead. You can also get poisoned. This only affects you as you walk, and your experience level is temporarily replaced by “PO” to indicate you are poisoned. This is the only effect obvious on screen. I think it would have been nice to know at a glance if a character is asleep or had spells stopped in battle.

I have played Dragon Warrior II a few times before. The first Dragon Warrior was one of those formative games that introduced me to the genre. I knew there were other NES games in this series, but they were always so expensive to buy even used. Dragon Warrior II might have been the first NES game I played on my PC once I discovered emulation in the late 90’s. I remember sitting at the family computer exploring towers and grinding levels while listening to music. Good memories! Eventually I tracked down all four NES Dragon Warrior carts back when you mostly sent money orders in the mail to buy things from eBay. I’m pretty sure I beat the game on emulator, and I had all the save files used up on my cart copy. I don’t remember exactly but I’ve probably beaten the game at least three times before.

Having a full party gives you the most options.

It’s an RPG of course, so Dragon Warrior II took a long time to finish. I believe I spent 30-40 hours beating the game. The game goes along at a reasonable speed until you get the ship. It’s almost overwhelming to have the entire map at your fingertips, and the new enemies you encounter are quite challenging. The first major goal is to track down the Golden Key, and though I remembered where it was it still took a while to track down. I wrapped up the middle part of the game up quickly. The final cave is really tough to both navigate and fight through. I was under leveled, but this was also the best place to gain experience. For as much time as I spent playing from the start of the game up to the final cave, I spent just as much time getting past it and grinding experience levels before the final showdown. The character levels cap at 50, 45, and 35, and I was 6 or 7 levels shy of that before beating the game.

Dragon Warrior II is a challenging RPG. Even early in the game, some large enemy groups can cause trouble. I already mentioned it gets harder once you meet new enemies after adventuring on the water. Some of the locations you need to visit are out on the open water and tough to find for the first time. A couple of the crests are difficult to locate and require a specific hint from someone likely on the other side of the world. Perhaps the worst of all is the combat near the end of the game. The odds are constantly stacked against you. Enemy effects are always more effective against your party. Your attack spells can miss, while the enemy attack spells never miss. Enemies tend to gang up on one party member, and if a critical hit slips in there, you will likely die. The Prince is the only one with the Revive spell, and though there is an item that does the same thing, you can only hold one of them at a time. Some of the final enemies can cast Defeat and Sacrifice against you. While Defeat usually misses, Sacrifice is instant death and there’s nothing you can do about it except try again. Of course, I rated the game a 5/10 in difficulty because you can reduce the difficulty by grinding longer. It’s just unbalanced at the end of the adventure and there’s not much room for improvising if you get in a bad situation.

Dragon Warrior II is a huge step up from the original. Everything is larger: the world, the dungeons, the characters, the items, the spells, the enemies, etc. The graphics are good. Though they are similar to the first game, this game expands the tileset a bit while adding many new, larger, and more detailed enemies. The music is excellent all around with some great themes that are often underappreciated. On the one hand, Dragon Warrior II is several degrees more complex than Dragon Warrior, but on the other hand it’s not so complex that it becomes overwhelming or unmanageable. New elements are introduced at a reasonable rate and it’s not hard to keep track of everything as you go. The downsides are the spike in difficulty in some combat sequences, getting lost trying to locate important items for the end of the game, and all the level grinding needed to stand a decent chance at the final dungeon. This might be my favorite NES RPG as I find it hits the sweet spot between simplicity and complexity, all while both looking and sounding great. If you like RPGs and haven’t tried Dragon Warrior II, I would recommend giving it at least a few hours of your time to see if it grabs you.

#79 – Dragon Warrior II

Jump into the Mario game of your dreams!

You can already tell the game play will be a bit different!

To Beat: Reach the ending
Played: 10/9/16 – 10/10/16
Difficulty: 6/10
My Difficulty: 2/10
Video: Super Mario Bros. 2 Longplay

I was pleasantly surprised to see Super Mario Bros. 2 at a mere 33 games into this project. This is also the first sequel covered on the blog! Despite significantly changing the style from the original game, this one is a classic NES game and a must play for anyone who may have passed on it back in the day.

Normally I would refer to the Super Mario Bros. post to recap the history of this game and series, but I went pretty skimpy on the words in that original entry and so it’s time to make up for it here. Nearly everyone knows about Mario and many people in all walks of life remember the groundbreaking NES platformer Super Mario Bros from 1985. Mario originally debuted in the arcade smash hit Donkey Kong in 1981, though he was known at the time as Jumpman. He joined with his brother Luigi in Mario Bros in 1983, but it was Super Mario Bros that really put Mario in the limelight. The iconic plumber has more or less been the mascot for Nintendo ever since. Mario is the star of around 20 platformer style games but has also been the poster child for the Mario Party series, the Mario Kart series, several sports games, and more. Include the spinoffs games from all the supporting characters and there are dozens and dozens more games based around the universe of the one and only Mario.

Nintendo designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka quickly set out to create a sequel to Super Mario Bros, but this is not the sequel that we know of in the US. Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Famicom Disk System was released in 1986 and expands on the concepts of the original game. Luigi is a playable character here with a higher jump but slippier momentum on the ground. The game is perhaps best known for its high level of difficulty compare to its predecessor. Nintendo deemed it too difficult for American audiences and decided not to release it in the US. They instead decided to take one of their other games, Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, and update it into a game with Mario characters. This became our Super Mario Bros 2.

No goombas here!

The series in both Japan and the US would converge again with Super Mario Bros. 3 which was identical between the regions. Nintendo would eventually embrace both Super Mario Bros. 2 games in all regions. The original Super Mario Bros. 2 on FDS was eventually released on the Super Nintendo as part of Super Mario All Stars. Here it was named Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. The American release of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released on the Famicom in 1992 and renamed as Super Mario USA. Super Mario Bros. 2 also made it to handhelds in 2001 as the Game Boy Advance launch title Super Mario Advance with a few more enhancements.

Now let’s talk about the NES title! Super Mario Bros. 2 is a side-scrolling platformer game. Mario comes across a land named Subcon in his dreams that he eventually discovers is real. He brings along Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool and they set out to save Subcon from the evil frog Wart.

At the start of each level you may choose from any one of the four playable characters. Once a character is chosen you must use that character until either the level is cleared or you lose all your lives. Each character has different traits and abilities that come in handy depending on the situation. Mario is the straight average character. Luigi jumps the highest with a slow, loopy flutter jump but he is a bit weaker than Mario. Toad is both the strongest and the fastest –especially when carrying an item — but he has the weakest jump. The Princess is the weakest character but she has the very useful ability to float in midair for a few seconds during a jump.

The princess’ float ability is very useful!

The game has standard platformer controls. Use Left and Right on the D-Pad to walk. Press Up and Down and climb ladders or vines. You can also press Up to enter doors and press Down to duck. The A button is for jumping and the B button is for running when held down. The B button also lets you pick up an item or an enemy. You can carry it around for awhile and later throw it with the B button. There is also a special move called the Power Squat Jump. Press and hold down to duck and after ducking for long enough you will start to flash. Jump while flashing to perform a very high jump.

In this game you cannot defeat enemies by simply jumping on them. In fact most enemies can be ridden safely with no damage to either you or them. When riding on an enemy you can pick it up and toss it into another enemy to defeat both of them. You will find grass on the ground all over the place in this game. You can stand on top of the grass and pluck it out of the ground to reveal an item. Most of the time this will be a vegetable that you can throw into enemies, and these come in ripe and unripe varieties. Other times it will be a useful item. You can find turtle shells that slide along the ground when thrown killing enemies just as in the original Super Mario Bros. Bombs will detonate after a few seconds so you need to get rid of them quickly, but they are useful for destroying crumbled blocks to open up passages. Occasionally you will find a Bob-Omb enemy that explodes almost instantly. You can also find 1up mushrooms that give you an extra life. If you happen to pull four ripe vegetables in a level, the fifth one will be replaced with a stopwatch that freezes all the enemies in place for a little while.

The most important item you find from a plant is a magic potion. Throw it into the ground to create a door leading to Sub-space. This is a shadowy, mirrored version of the current screen where the scrolling is locked into place. Here is where you will sometimes find a large mushroom that expands your life meter when you pick it up. You start each level with two points of health and there are two mushrooms in nearly every level that help increase your maximum health to four. These mushrooms are always in the same location when you play so you will need to enter Sub-space near where the mushroom is hidden to be able to grab it. Also in Sub-space any plants you pull up will reveal coins which I will explain what they are used for a little later. You can collect coins in Sub-space only twice per stage. Sub-space ends on its own after a short while unless you go back through the door, returning you back to the normal level to continue your journey.

Some places have both a mushroom and a lot of coins.

There are other useful items that are out in the open. Cherries can be found floating all over the levels. Collect five of them to spawn an invincibility Starman which rises up from the bottom of the screen. For every five enemies you defeat, a small heart will appear that restores one point of health. POW blocks shake the entire screen when thrown on the ground defeating every enemy touching the ground. Mushroom blocks can be thrown over and over again. You can use them to defeat enemies or stack them on top of each other to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. There are also keys that will unlock a nearby door, but beware of Phanto chasing you around whenever you carry the key.

At the end of each level, you must grab a crystal ball to open the mouth of a giant bird head. Usually the crystal ball is carried by the recurring mini-boss Birdo, but in some cases you find it alone. Proceed through the open bird mouth to clear the stage. It’s definitely weird the first time! Here you get to play a bonus chance slot machine game to earn extra lives. Each coin you collect in Sub-space gives you a chance at the slot machine. If you match three of the same icon you get an extra life. Cherries show up here and they award a little differently. If you get a cherry in the first slot you get one life, if you get cherries in the first two slots you get two lives, and if you get all three cherries you get five lives. It is possible to skillfully stop the slots in order to get the best prizes, and if you play well during the game you will have dozens of opportunities to try.

The last level in each world contains a boss battle at the end. There are five bosses in total. Mouser is a large rodent that tosses bombs at you. Tryclyde is a three-headed fire breathing snake. Fryguy is a floating plumb of fire. Clawgrip is a crab that throws rocks. The final boss Wart is a giant frog that shoots deadly bubbles at you. You won’t attack these bosses directly but fight them with the means given to you inside the boss chambers. The fights can be difficult but I find them to be interesting to play.

Fight fire with … mushroom blocks?

There are 20 levels in Super Mario Bros. 2 over 7 different worlds. Each world has an overall graphical theme but the levels themselves often deviate into other caves and areas. There are three levels within each of the first six worlds, and World 7 only has two stages to round out the 20 levels. You start the game with three lives and you are only allowed to continue twice if you run out of lives. The game is pretty long with no passwords or saving, though there are four hidden warp points that will bump you ahead in the game if you are able to find them. The lack of lives and continues does make the game pretty challenging overall, though this is mitigated by collecting coins and getting either skilled or lucky at the slot machine.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the earliest NES games I had growing up, so I have spent a lot of time playing it through the years. I have a relatively good memory of the game overall aside from many of the mushroom locations, but I am good enough at the game that I can get by without them. I knew this one would be pretty easy for me to clear once I sat down to play it.

To spice things up for my run of the game I used a random number generator on the side while playing to help select the character for each level of the game. It made things a little harder as some of the levels are best suited for one particular character. I ended up getting the Princess the most often though each character got a few stages of play. It was not a great run of the game for me as I feel I died far too often, but I managed to spread those deaths out enough that it wasn’t too repetitive. I captured footage of my playthrough and decided to edit out a bit of the backtracking after some deaths for my upload to YouTube. It really wasn’t necessary and maybe only saved a couple of minutes overall on the video.

Toad is not the best suited for tiny jumps like this.

I had a couple of interesting things happen during my run worth pointing out. During the Fryguy boss fight, we both defeated each other at the same time. I got the exit door to spawn during the death animation which was kind of cool. I had to do the battle over again though. I also triggered a glitch that I wasn’t aware of. In the second to last level, I managed to throw a mushroom block inside of a ladder. When that happens the mushroom overwrites the ladder tile but the color palette for that location stays intact, so the mushroom is the same color of the ladder until it is picked back up. I almost got it stuck in a spot where I couldn’t get through. That would have meant replaying the game from the start but I avoided that. A little further ahead I got another mushroom block stuck into the top of the ladder where I could pick it back up. I got it all captured on video!

Super Mario Bros. 2 provided a lot of new characters that persisted in future Mario games, such as Birdo, Shyguys, and Bob-Ombs. It also gave new life and personality to Luigi, Toad, and the Princess. Each of those characters has starred in their own game as well as had major supporting roles in other mainstream Mario titles and spin-offs. This game really left a lasting impression. I don’t think that it is publicly regarded as well as it should be and if true that’s a shame. Super Mario Bros. 2 is not just a good Mario game but a good game period and it’s one that should not be missed.

#33 – Super Mario Bros 2.