Super Mario Bros. 2 — The Beautiful Mistake

Pluck a vegetable, float as Peach, and meet the oddest Mario.

Super Mario Bros. 2 — The Beautiful Mistake

Here's a fun bit of history: the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was deemed too brutally hard for Western players, so Nintendo reskinned a different game, Doki Doki Panic, with Mario characters and shipped that as our Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).

The result is the weird, wonderful black sheep: you pluck vegetables to throw at enemies, pick from four characters (Peach floats! Luigi has a flutter jump! Toad is strong!), and ride magic carpets through a dream world called Subcon.

It plays nothing like the others, and that's exactly why it's beloved. The "mistake" gave us Birdo, Shy Guys, and Bob-ombs, staples ever since.

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