TVii still not working.

The notification icon was already there. But now it will work in another way. Like Wii`s notifications!

Anyone noticed the 75% off on Batman games on Eshop? In Europe, at least.

I did and bought Arkham city. I was waiting for a while on a drop on the digital version of Arkham city - still full price since this. I'm not sure if i'm going to get the prequel also.

Today in Nintendo History:

Super Mario Bros 2, aka "The Lost Levels," is released in Japan for the Famicom Disk System! (1986)

Super Mario Bros was a huge hit on the Famicom. Though the Famicom was already the leading gaming platform in Japan by 1985, Super Mario Bros cemented that lead. By 1986, there was no questioning that Nintendo ruled Japanese gaming. Between not only Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber, generic sports titles, Excitebike, Balloon Fight, and even plenty of 3rd party hits like Lode Runner, Pac-Man, Mappy, Xevious, Galaga, Dig Dug, 1942, and Bomberman, the Famicom was a mighty system by the end of 1985.

Enter the Famicom Disk System.

That's right, years before the Sega-CD, Motion Plus, and Kinect, Nintendo was making unnecessary add-ons to their consoles!

To be fair, the Disk System had some major benefits back in the day. Not only were disks cheaper to manufacture than cartridges, they could have data saved on them without any special battery being included. Thus, games like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Kid Icarus could be made at a lower price (new Disk games were sold for aorund 2600 yen in 1986, about $50 of modern American money) and include the ability to save games without long, complex passwords. The only real drawback was the lack of memory: Disks were limited to 112 KB of storage. For comparison's sake, that's about five to ten seconds of a modern MP3 file.

That said, a lot of the early-to-mid Famicom games could be fit into a mere 112 KB. The original Super Mario Bros was only about 32 KB! And more importantly, the original Zelda, at about 64 KB, was also an easy fit. So when the Famicom Disk System launched in February 1986, alongside a bunch of old ports for lower prices, the original Zelda became its killer app.

But enough about this hardware; we're celebrating a game!

After its decent enough launch, the Disk System suffered a drought for a few months until another big game came out: the sequel to the legendary Super Mario Bros, known in Japan as Super Mario Bros 2. Peach was not a playable character in this game; this was a direct sequel to the 1985 original, made with the same engine and graphics. However, there were a few key differences. Mario and Luigi behaved differently for the first time, with Luigi sacrificing agility for jumping prowess. Sound quality and graphics were slightly tweaked to take advantage of the expereince gained from the first game, as well as the cheaper storage offered by a Disk.Enemy AI and the physics were also tweaked.

So, why didn't this game come West until the SNES era as part of a compilation? Well, it was frustrating. SMB2 tried out a few new ideas that just made the game less fun. For example, remember Warp Zones? A couple of the Warp Zones in this game took the player backwards. Half the mushrooms were poisonous ones that hurt the player's character. Unpredictable gusts of wind can ruin a player's jumps, or even knock them off of platforms. Nintendo of America didn't want Mario, their kid-friendly mascot, to become synonymous with frustration. That's why OUR version of Super Mario Bros 2 was an altered port of 1987's Doki Doki Panic.

Despite its flaws, Super Mario Bros 2 was a hit in Japan. It sold something in the realm  of 2.5 million copies, a number that's still impressive to this day considering the mandatory peripheral. Furthermore, although by no means the definitive Mario experience, SMB2 did leave an impact on the series. The appearence of mushrooms in modern Mario games, with a pair of eyes, is based on SMB2's design. This was also the first time the two Mario Bros were given truly different gameplay characteristics, something that's appeared on and off in these games for the past 28 years, including the recent Super Mario 3D World. Even poison mushrooms have reappeared, albeit in a more sinister-looking design.

So all in all, it may be worth checking SMB2 out. It may have been a terrible sequel, and a frustrating game, but it was by no means terrible.

If you want to play SMB2, there are a number of ways to do so. The game was remade for the SNES as part of Super Mario All-Stars with improved graphics and sound. However, a better representation of the original appears as a part of Super Mario Deluxe, the 1999 Game Boy Color game, despite the low resolution. The game is also available on the Wii and 3DS Virtual Consoles, though not the Wii U version. Plus there was that Japan-only port for the GBA. So in short, there are a lot of ways to play this "gem."

Notes:

• This game haunted me back when I was eight, playing the GBC version
• Seriously, mushrooms are supposed to be your friends!
• Except when they're goombas
• Worst Super Mario ever

I don't like this game very much.

Yeah, you really don't like Super Mario Bros. 2, do ya?

It is so needlessly difficult though I concede. Still enjoyed it though

They should kill that icon with fire xD

Cool!? WiiU OS is getting more Wii-like: standby notifications and WiiConnect24.
Next update should cover better BC integration.

With the points from MK 8 and the downloadble game i may have enough money to download one of those games. Gotta check them first, though.

:D

The way they announced those notifications makes me wonder if we will get something before or during E3, through the notifications system.

Oh, i forgot!

New 2DS bundle, now with NSMB 2!
Haven`t seen confirmation that it will hit the States.

Check it here: pic.twitter.com/xwkulnDSzJ

The Wii U 5.0.0 update better fix my locking up issues. Nintendo have tested the console and gamepad and still don't know what's causing it.