Retro Corner: Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (NES) Review · 8:01am Sep 12th, 2020
A new edition of Retro Corner Reviews is up and as the 35th Anniversary of Mario continues we check out The Lost Levels for the NES. When us Golden Age Gamers think of SMB2 we see the one that came here first for the NES in 1988. However, when Super Mario All Stars released on the Super NES in 1993, we were taken back to see a different Mario game included. Through the 90s many of us wondered if this was a bonus game Nintendo put together for the collection’s release. Today, it’s no secret what happened with the Japanese SMB2 being too hard for North American players. That is the reason North American gamers got the Doki Doki Panic version because it was easier to digest. Pulling this move only helped the series continue its success and why SMB3 would sell 18 million units in 1990. The thing that makes the Japanese version stand out is it’s actually a true Mario game unlike the American version.
Now, there are at least three different variations of the Japanese sequel and these only have a few key difference I came across. These are the original Famicom title, the remake on All Stars and the one in SMB Deluxe on GBC. All three play exactly the same with the difference being visuals or screen resolution. The first time I tried the original Famicom title was through Deluxe on GBC and it felt different from All Stars. The screen size being smaller with no back light made playing Deluxe difficult. It wasn’t until the Game Boy Player came out that made the port easier to enjoy. Just playing something that never came to the States but only through a remake gave me a different outlook on this game. When the TLL came to the Virtua Console in 2007 on the Wii, I finally experienced the Famicom version. If anything, this title comes off more of a true second quest mode then a sequel.
