Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is the Western name for Super Mario Bros. 2, released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan on 3 June 1986 and labelled "For Super Players". It was Takashi Tezuka's directorial debut; development began in January 1986 and took about four months.
The game builds on the first Super Mario Bros. with much harder stages. It introduced the Poison Mushroom and gave Luigi his own traits: a higher jump and less ground friction. A hidden World 9 opens if you finish without warping, and Worlds A–D unlock after clearing 8-4 eight times. It is seen as a precursor of the ultra-hard "Kaizo" ROM hacks.
Nintendo of America judged it too difficult for the US and released a reworked Doki Doki Panic as Super Mario Bros. 2 instead. Western players first saw the original in 1993, remade as "The Lost Levels" in Super Mario All-Stars for the Super NES.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JP | スーパーマリオブラザーズ2 | Famicom Disk System | Jun 3, 1986 | Nintendo | 1 |
| None | Super Mario All-StarsRemade version, first release outside Japan; in Japan part of スーパーマリオコレクション | SNES | 1993 | Nintendo | 1 |
| None | Super Mario Bros. DeluxeUnlockable cut-down bonus mode | Game Boy Color | 1999 | Nintendo | 1 |
| JP | スーパーマリオブラザーズ2Famicom Mini series, Japan only | Game Boy Advance | 2004 | Nintendo | 1 |
| WW | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost LevelsVirtual Console; per-region dates not verified | Wii | 2007 | Nintendo | 1 |
| WW | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost LevelsVirtual Console | Nintendo 3DS | 2012 | Nintendo | 1 |
| WW | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost LevelsVirtual Console | Wii U | 2013 | Nintendo | 1 |
| WW | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost LevelsNintendo Switch Online (NES) | Switch | Apr 10, 2019 | Nintendo | 3 |
| WW | Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.Limited-edition handheld that includes the game | Other | 2020 | Nintendo | 1 |
Also known as: Super Mario Bros. 2 JP1Sūpā Mario Burazāzu Tsū JP1スーパーマリオ2 JP2スーマリ2 JP2マリオ2 JP2SMB2 JP2
Box art by region
JP スーパーマリオブラザーズ2
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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GraphicsSuper Mario All-Stars
The 1993 All-Stars remake has 16-bit graphics, a Poison Mushroom that is easier to recognize and more frequent checkpoints.1
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GameplaySuper Mario All-Stars
The All-Stars version adds four save slots and drops the bonus for remaining lives; Worlds 9 and A–D are reached in a different way.2
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ContentSuper Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC)
The Game Boy Color version in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe crops the screen, drops the wind and the bonus worlds, and does not keep Mario's and Luigi's different physics.4
Where to play legally today
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Nintendo Switch Online Subscription
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Nintendo Switch Online Subscription
Reception
It topped Famitsu's charts. English Wikipedia calls it the best-selling Famicom Disk System game at about 2.5 million copies, while Japanese Wikipedia lists 1.36 million sales plus 1.1 million Disk Writer rewrites. Later critics came to see it as a notoriously hard expansion of the first game.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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