

For instance, if a golden Koopa Troopa is knocked into its shell and kicked along a platform, it’ll drop coins along its entire path. New gold rings are situated in levels which, when passed through, turn enemies golden and reward the player with extra coins in a number of ways. Most of this sequel’s new ideas are based entirely around the premise of money-grubbing. If you’ve been in the same room as somebody playing a Mario game, you’ll find it all incredibly familiar. As always, Mario can collect Mushrooms to increase his size, Fire Flowers to shoot fireballs, and Leaves to gain flying raccoon powers. There are a few new enemy types this time around, but most of them are just slightly varied plays on older creatures.

The platforming gameplay is similarly faithful to archetypal specifications, as Mario scuttles from left to right, navigates chasms, and bounces on the heads of Bowser’s usual Troopas, Goombas, and Drybones. Levels have three hidden Star Coins which can be collected and spent to open new paths on the world map. Each world has stages presented on a map, with a sub-castle containing a mini-boss and a final castle containing a Koopa Kid (taking over from Bowser Jr. There are six main worlds and a pair of optional ones to be discovered using Mini-Mushrooms in certain stages. 2 follows the blueprint laid out in 2006 with scalpel precision.
