Back in the 80's, I had no idea that Super Mario Bros. 2 was a re-skinned Doki Doki Panic... and I didn't care.  The game was fun!  But there was something a bit off about it... something not quite Mario.  And when Mario 3 came out and went back to the series roots, Mario 2 really became the odd man out.

Wasn't until many years later that I realized that the Japanese Super Mario 2 wasn't released here and we got a reskinned other game.  And it wasn't until years after that, that I got to play the real Japanese Super Mario 2.

And the game is haaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrddddd.  Hard to believe the company that now has the "Super Guide," and is trying to make games easy enough for little kids and grandparents to play, once sold a game as off-putting as the Lost Levels.  But I digress...

IMO, 20+ years after the fact, I think Mario 2 is a great game.  And Lost Levels, while a fun challenge, wasn't nearly as good.  It added almost nothing to the series, and some of the challenge was a bit cheap/ridiculous.  Oh, and Doki Doki Panic was a Miyamoto game, while he was less involved in Lost Levels!  Therefore, American Super Mario Bros 2 > Japanese Super Mario Bros 2! 

I don't like it, gameplay is so not mario (how the hell can you jump on something and not kill it!)

But I like the characters... Wart, Mouser, ShyGuy, Birdo... they should all return to a main mario game.

Agree. Super Mario Bros 2 has nothing in common with other mario games, but it's still very good. Lost level is also good but it was insanely difficult and not as fun as the first one.

Both Mario 2's are great games. I still have never beat The Lost Levels though argh@

When I was younger, Mario 2 (Doki Doki) was my favorite Mario.  As I've gotten older, that's not the case.  I kind of like Mario 1 and Mario 3 equally now, though I still like Mario 2 a lot.

Mario: The Lost Levels however is just too frsutrating to enjoy on the same level as all the others.  Yes I can get far into it and I've played a lot of it.  But its almost like you need to do the 100 lives trick or read a guide for thw warps just to beat it.  And it just doesn't become fun anymore when that's the case.  Mario 1 was hard back in the day...but at least it was beatable.  This game takes all your skill just to beat a couple levels and by that time, you have no lives left.  Because it doesn't give you any extra lives (aside from a couple levels where you can do special tricks to get them).

Well, I play Lost Levels on Wii.  There are unlimited continues, and the Wii lets you save-state when you power off, so unlimited lives are not necessary.  It's still difficult, but at least there's that.  And if you play on SNES, there is a save game option, too.

I'd say great game. Created a lot of memorable characters too.

The problem is, when you use a continue, you only get 3 lives.  And if you die 3 times, you have to start over from the beginning of that world (aka, dying in Level 4-3 means you start over on level 4-1).

Yes, you can eventually beat the game doing this, but its very frustrating.

I made it through.  There's a lot of trial and error and memorization in these levels, so usually you'll get better and better at 4-1 then 4-2 so that making it through them isn't too bad.

Hey this is how all games used to be, so I'm just grateful for the unlimited continues and save states at all...