Small comic illustrating a glitch in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, known internationally as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, from the Japanese Family Computer Magazine. If Mario follows Bullet Bills without letting them leave the screen, the console will not have enough space in memory to spawn the enemies that would otherwise appear.
In the upper panel, Mario is following two Bullet Bills and notices that the Hammer Bro that would otherwise be in this spot is missing. In the lower panel, the same happens with a Piranha Plant when Mario is following three Bullet Bills at once.
Main Blog | Source: Family Computer Magazine (Japan), Issue 25, 1986
So there is a Blue Bowser that shows up in Super Mario Bros 2 The Lost Levels. He isn't a fake Bowser and many manuals and what not call him Bowser's Brother or Twin. He was a pallette mistake to begin with, and in All-star remakes he isn't blue. However, in the Mario Encyclopedia in the Japanese version, it apparently calls him a blue bodied Bowser whose identity is unknown.
If you're familiar with Supper Mario Broth, you know that Stop Watch is this strange lil creature that popped up in character reference documents due to a misunderstanding from Nintendo of America in the very early days of the Mario Franchise. I added him in after doing this Peach, which is also based from that sort of same period, taking cues from her original outfit and the sprite from Lost Levels.
Based on Mario's first adventure (and his lost adventure), it's Kingdom Way! There's not many hazards on these blocky, muddy platforms, but ? Blocks will spawn sometimes. Hitting them spawns items, which means more items spawn here than other stadiums!
There is two versions of Super Mario Bros. 2. In Japan, they released a sequel built using the assets of the prior entry. It was made to be a much harder game for those who had mastered the original.
However, Nintendo decided not to release the game in the west due to fears it would be too difficult. So, the game Doki Doki Panic had its protagonists reskinned into Mario characters and was renamed Super Mario Bros. 2 in the west.
When the NES Mario games were remade for Super Mario Bros. All-Stars, they remade both versions of Super Mario Bros. 2 regardless of where the game was released and the Japanese version was renamed Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
unfinished drawing of the SMB2J cover art I once did but grew displeased with and scrapped. Coming back to it, I'm not sure why I didn't finish it but here it is anyway lol
from 2020
Illustration from a 1986 Japanese guide for Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, featuring unique designs of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser and Blue Bowser (who appears as a boss twice, in Levels 8-4 and 9-3, and has been referred to as “Bowser’s brother” in official material in the past).
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: twitter.com user “Arc_Hound”
Commercial Break - Classic Super Mario Commercials
We looked at commercials starring Pac-Man, Sonic, Frogger, and even Wario. Now it's time to look at commercials starring everyone's favorite plumber, Super Mario! https://youtu.be/aV2bD3oQ7i8
In the Super Mario Sunshine the F.L.U.D.D. screen displays some text. If you take the text and flip it, it lists off several games. One is Super Mario Bros 2, usually when Nintendo references the 2 Mario 2 games they specify one as Super Mario Bros 2 USA. Due to the lack of USA present in the list it could be referring to Lost Levels? This might mean the suggestion I've seen people make that Lost Levels is not an alternate universe but just a special alternate world Bowser took Peach to could actually be the case. If so that means Blue Bodied Bowser is part of the main universe. Continuing on the text also mentions Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, this confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that the kart games are indeed canon.