Here's a fun bit of history. The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was a punishing remix of the original, built for players who had already mastered it, and Nintendo of America looked at poison mushrooms and wind gusts and decided American kids would return it in droves. So they reached for something else on the shelf.

That something was Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, a 1987 Famicom Disk System game Nintendo had made as a tie-in for a Fuji Television event. Reskin the four protagonists as Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad, redraw a few sprites, and you have Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).

It's worth being precise about how much actually changed, because the "it's just a reskin" line undersells it. The characters were rebalanced, the physics tuned, cherries and the invincibility star added, the Mushroom Blocks reworked, and a new final scene built. The game got a coat of Mario and a real editing pass at the same time.

The result is the weird, wonderful black sheep. You pluck vegetables out of the ground and throw them, because there's no stomp attack here at all. You pick from four characters who handle differently: Peach floats for a second and a half, which breaks several levels wide open; Luigi has the flutter jump and the worst traction; Toad is strong and fast and can't jump worth anything; Mario is the compromise. Choosing per level is the strategy.

And you ride magic carpets through a dream world called Subcon, ending at a frog king named Wart who is defeated with vegetables because he is allergic to them.

It plays nothing like the others, and that's exactly why it's beloved. The "mistake" gave us Birdo, Shy Guys, Bob-ombs, Pokeys and Ninjis, all staples ever since. Japan eventually got our version back as Super Mario USA, and the original hard one reached us in 1993 as The Lost Levels. Everybody got there in the end.