Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (history and reception)

The game came out in Japan on 3 June 1986, as Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Famicom Disk System. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/release

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Famicom Tsūshin's chart in its 1 August 1986 issue lists the disk card at 2,500 yen. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/price

The manual opens with a letter, "To Super Players", that presents the game as another Mario journey in a parallel world, eight new worlds of varied courses. It says the game has a Mario game and a Luigi game, with Luigi leaping more recklessly than Mario, and warns players not to eat the poison mushroom when it appears. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/parallel-world

The letter's text is read through the scan's OCR, which spaces every character and misreads some; a reader should confirm the manual quotes against the page image.

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The game was aimed at players who had mastered the first. Miyamoto recalls a sticker on the package that said "For Super Players", and a note to Nintendo's NES Classic interview describes it as a tougher challenge developed for advanced players. Nintendo's page today pitches it at people who played Super Mario Bros. to exhaustion, with a higher difficulty. Iwata, interviewing the All-Stars developers in 2010, described it the same way: he said they made it for advanced players, and Sugiyama agreed. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/for-super-players

The Miyamoto line is The Mushroom Kingdom's transcript of the English subtitles of a Nintendo Channel video.

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Nintendo's page counts 52 courses, including those opened by meeting conditions, one and a half times the first game's. It names the poison mushroom and a tailwind that carries the player's body along as new tricks, and says Luigi jumps higher than Mario and slips more. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/courses

{
 "courses": 52
}

Thirteen worlds of four levels (1 to 9 and A to D) make 52; Nintendo Power 52 (p. 18) counts 13 worlds in the Super NES version.

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Miyamoto calls the game Takashi Tezuka's directorial debut. Tezuka says they made it by changing the first game's difficulty and stage design, and Miyamoto that work on Super Mario Bros. 3 began after it, in the spring of 1986. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/makers

No staff list was read; the Japanese Wikipedia's is a lead only.

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Miyamoto recalls that the team used the arcade VS. System, based on the Famicom, to make Super Mario, started changing its levels because they could, and, as they played, made "very challenging levels", and that the game gave infinite 1-ups early to prepare players for what came. IGN's 2010 history says its later stages came from Vs. Super Mario Bros. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/vs-levels

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In America, the Super Mario Bros. 2 that Nintendo released was a different game. Koji Kondo says the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 continued the first game directly, while in America it was a remake of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/us-sequel

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Retrospectives say the game was kept from North America for its difficulty. IGN's 2010 history says Nintendo judged it beyond North American players and canceled its release there; GameSpot's 2007 review puts the call on the head of Nintendo of America; Den of Geek's 2024 article names Howard Phillips. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/na-decision

Disputed: The three accounts name different deciders: Nintendo (IGN), the head of Nintendo of America (GameSpot), and Howard Phillips (Den of Geek). No document from the decision was read.

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Famicom Tsūshin's shop chart in its 1 August 1986 issue placed the game second, behind Makaimura, and its note said the game had appeared at the top only the week before. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/famitsu-chart

The chart ranks by points, not copies sold.

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Famicom Hisshoubon's three reviewers gave it 3, 2, and 2 hearts of 5. Nasubi Kamen asked whether it had only got harder, thought it a cut job, and saw a plain push to sell the Disk System; Tokashiki Minoru, 15, wanted it on a cartridge for friends without a Disk System; Goinkyo no longer felt the first game's fresh surprise and fun, and wondered whether that was because it came across as a pack of bugs and tricks. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/hisshoubon-review

{
 "review": "Famicom Hisshoubon",
 "of": 5,
 "reviewers": [
  3,
  2,
  2
 ]
}

The scan's text layer doesn't carry this page's review text; the quotes and the hearts are read from the page image.

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GameSpot's Frank Provo scored the 2007 Wii Virtual Console release 6.5 of 10, calling it a level hack of the first game whose levels are "infinitely more sadistic". super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/gamespot-review

{
 "review": "GameSpot",
 "of": 10,
 "score": 6.5
}

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GameSpot's October 2007 review says the Wii Virtual Console sold the original, unedited Disk System game for 600 Wii points. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/virtual-console

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Super Mario All-Stars for the Super Famicom collected the game in July 1993, as The Lost Levels, with Super Mario Bros. 1 to 3; it came out in North America in August 1993. Sugiyama, who says he worked on it as an assistant director and designer under another main director, recalls, if he remembers correctly, that Miyamoto proposed the collection; he thinks the idea was to include The Lost Levels to give a game few had played on the Disk System another chance. He says the team added saving, after each level in The Lost Levels, as significant help. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/all-stars

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The name The Lost Levels is the one the game carries in English. The earliest use read here is Nintendo Power's September 1993 issue, whose editor explained that the game had been released only in Japan, as Super Mario Bros. 2; who coined the name isn't known. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/lost-levels-name

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Nintendo Power's September 1993 review of Super Mario All-Stars warned that The Lost Levels was "waaayy harder" than the first game, recommended starting with Luigi for his higher jump, and ran a World 9 Challenge: a photo of World 9, reached without warping, by 31 October 1993 earned an iron-on patch. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/np-reception

The magazine describes the Super NES version. In the Disk System original a skipped world can still be cleared by warping back to it (smb2j/world-9-condition).

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IGN's 2010 history describes the game as looking exactly like its predecessor but much harder, with poisonous mushrooms, warps that send the player back, and weather that blows Mario off course. super-mario-bros-the-lost-levels-history/legacy

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