- This article is about Super Mario Bros. 2 (Mega Drive). For games with a similar title, see Super Mario Bros. (disambiguation).
Super Mario Bros. 2 is an unauthorized port of the Super Mario All-Stars version of the original Super Mario Bros. video game for the Sega Mega Drive. It was first released some time in 1998 as Super Mario 2 1998. While unconfirmed, it was likely developed by Gamtec. An alternate version of this game that is more well-known, titled Sonic Jam 6, would be released in the same year that features Sonic the Hedgehog as the only playable character.
Both Super Mario Bros. 2 and Sonic Jam 6 were by the same developer, which is evident from the games peculiarly featuring content from or references to both franchises (i.e., sprites of Mario appearing in Sonic Jam 6 and text referencing Sonic in Super Mario Bros. 2). These oddities make it apparent that the game was always intended to be a Super Mario Bros. game, but also make it unclear which game was finished and released first or what the development process of both games were like.
Overview[]
Super Mario Bros. 2's gameplay.
The game is a direct port of the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. on the SNES. It retains the two-player mode from the original game and also has a few notable differences from the original. The level intro screen now uses a background and shows the Mario sprite used in the background of the bonus rooms of the original game. In the event that it is the second player (Luigi)'s turn, Mario's hat is colored green on this screen (the sprite as it appears in the bonus rooms in this port color it red regardless of who is playing).
The gameplay in this port is near identical to the original game, with all the levels, enemies and powerups from the original game being intact. The graphics in this port are directly sourced and converted from the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros., and the music is directly based on the songs from the original game as well. Unlike the original game, though, Mario and Luigi's small sprites are scaled down versions of their "Super" sprites, and most notably, the physics for both characters are completely different, which is particularly evident with actions that involve running. In addition to these differences, the Piranha Plant and Spiny enemies as well as Bowser can now be jumped on like a standard enemy, although Spinies cannot be defeated this way. This port also contains glitches not present in the original game, a prime example being the enemies glitching in certain situations.
When Bowser is defeated for the last time in World 8-4, Princess Peach can finally be saved. When the player reaches the Princess, the text "THANK YOU SONIC THE KINGDOM IS SAVED NOW TRY AGAIN" is displayed. When playing as Mario, this is followed by a full screen animation of Peach kissing Mario on the cheek.
Sonic Jam 6[]
Sonic Jam 6 is an alternate version of Super Mario Bros. 2 that removes the two-player mode and features Sonic instead of Mario as the playable character. It was developed by the same developers as Super Mario Bros. 2 and first published in 1998 by the publisher of that game as well, being released under the name Super 1998 Sonic 6.
This version features a new title screen that uses graphics from the Sega Saturn game Sonic Jam and replaces the Mario sprite on the level intro screen with a vertically stretched frame from the intro of the Sega Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D Blast. The in-game Mario sprites from Super Mario Bros. 2 are replaced with sprites of Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In his "Small Mario" state, Sonic is colored red. When Sonic picks up a Super Mushroom, he will gain his original blue colors. While Sonic's palette does not change when picking up a Fire Flower, he can still shoot fireballs. The game is otherwise identical to Super Mario Bros. 2, including the presence of Bowser as the boss and the "THANK YOU SONIC" dialogue used for Princess Peach.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Super Mario Bros. 2 (Mega Drive)/gallery
Trivia[]
- Sonic Jam 6 has been compared in concept to Somari, which is an infamous Famicom port of Sonic the Hedgehog that features Mario instead of Sonic.
- Super Mario Bros. 2's cartridge has an ID number of ES48002, while Sonic Jam 6 has an ID of ES48001.[1] This implies that Sonic Jam 6 possibly was the first to be released.
- On older emulators, the game may sometimes crash during any level with a Lakitu. Whenever the Lakitu throws a Spiny, it may leave a trail of them behind causing the emulator to lock up. This does not happen in Kega Fusion and more modern accuracy-oriented emulators such as BlastEm, as well on real hardware.
- However, some dumps of the game may not be playable on BlastEm as it reportedly sets off the game's copy protection/checksum check.
- The cover art of the original "Super 1998 Mario 2" release of Super Mario Bros. 2 would notably be repurposed for the box art of a standalone "Game Boy Color" release of the Game Boy hack Super Mario 4. The back of the box of this release also shows screenshots from the Super Mario Bros. hack of Squirrel King, an unlicensed Mega Drive game that is confirmed to have been developed by Gamtec. Despite these aspects, this specific release is unlikely to have been made with the involvement of Gamtec or the original developers of the hack.
- There exists a glitch that causes Red Sonic to lose a life when jumping on a Koopa shell repeatedly.
- In a similar manner to another game attributed to Gamtec, Super King Kong 99, there exists a stage skip code which can be done by pressing the Start button, then Left/Right/Up/Down, Down then C, or Down, Left/Right/Up/Down C (This can be done in both versions). If this is done after the final segment of 8-4, the game crashes no matter the version.[2]
- Several unused samples exist in the game's sound driver data that seem to have been ripped from Super Mario World. This includes a sample of Yoshi's tongue attack, Mario spin jumping, etc.
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ http://bootleg.games/BGC_Forum/index.php?topic=1657.msg16689#msg16689
- ↑ https://x.com/koopa_gaming/status/1792649378798162088 (Note: the source contains information from before the other direction methods were found)