Nintendo Had The Hottest Game On Earth. Then It Rejected The Sequel.
Super Mario Bros. 2 (known in the West as “The Lost Levels”) celebrated its 40th anniversary on June 3, 2026, marking four decades since its 1986 release on the Famicom Disk System. The game was a sequel to Nintendo’s breakthrough hit Super Mario Bros., which had turned the Famicom into a phenomenon.
Unlike the original, the sequel was notoriously punishing, featuring demanding level design and complex platforming challenges that set it apart for its difficulty. Nintendo’s design choice reflected an ambitious, unconventional approach to the sequel.
However, despite being developed during a critical period for Nintendo—when the Famicom Disk System was launching alongside titles like The Legend of Zelda—Super Mario Bros. 2 did not receive an immediate Western release. The game remained exclusive to Japan for years before eventually reaching Western audiences much later. This delay reflected Nintendo’s concerns about whether Western players would accept such a challenging and unconventional sequel to their most successful game.
The story of Super Mario Bros. 2’s Western release illustrates Nintendo’s cautious approach to bringing experimental sequels to international markets during its period of rapid growth in the mid-1980s.