Let's Play 41: "New Super Mario Bros." Part 2 Quiz

Answer: Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels

"New Super Mario Bros" was largely an exploration of Mario's roots. Although both "Super Mario Bros. 3" and "Super Mario World" featured sending routines, the last time Mario jumped on a flagpole to end a level was all the way back in 1986 on the Famicom Disk System exclusive title, "Super Mario Bros. 2", known as "The Lost Levels" in the West.

Answer: Blooper

Bloopers have been haunting Mario since his original 1985 adventure. Strangely enough, Bloopers only appear once in "New Super Mario Bros.", in World 3-3. They appear in the "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" in World 4-4 and 8-4.

Answer: Super Mario Bros. 3

"New Super Mario Bros." incorporates various gameplay elements from the majority of the "Mario" titles that came before. The Overworld map is clearly based on the map of "Super Mario Bros. 3", replete with Toad houses, minigames, different pathways, etc. Unlike "Super Mario World" there is no overall connected world; instead, each land is separated and accessed as a stand alone unit. "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" also has this same type of Overworld, though there is more variety in that game's map than in "New Super Mario Bros".

Answer: World 2

All of the castles with the exception of World 2's ending castle takes place in indoors. World 2 features an outside segment where you get a mini mushroom which is required if you want to access World 4.

Answer: World 6

World 6 has two towers. Like its sequel ("New Super Mario Bros. Wii"), World 6 is primarily based on a mountain theme. Monty Tank is the final boss of World 6. World 6-6 is also the only level in the entire game to feature Chain Chomps.

Answer: Twenty-seven

The Mega Goomba appeared in the very first screenshots of "New Super Mario Bros.". In the previews, a regular Goomba comes into contact with a Mega Mushroom, who then grows to an enormous size. This feature of the Mega Mushroom turning enemies into enormous size versions of themselves was taken out of the final game. Mega Goombas, though much smaller than their incarnation here, also appears in "New Super Mario Bros. Wii". To defeat the Mega Goomba, Mario presses a switch which will active two floating platforms, by which Mario can then jump, ground pound, or wall jump his way to victory.

Answer: Super Mario Sunshine

Petey Piranha first appears in "Super Mario Sunshine" as a boss in Bianco Hills. Ultimately you fight him twice in that title. He would later be a regular character in several of the Mario sports titles and also as a boss in "Super Princess Peach" and "Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time". He also appears on the 2010 title "Mario Sports Mix" as a non-playable character.

Answer: Jolly Roger Bay

In the "Jolly Roger Bay" level of "Super Mario 64", we meet Unagi the Eel. Later, Mario runs into a sub-species of these eels known as Mega Unagnis. Mega Unagis appear in two water levels on the DS "New Super Mario Brothers". Regular Unagis appear "Mario Kart Wii".

Answer: World 3

The history of Ghost Houses begin with the 1991 title "Super Mario World". There are six total Ghost Houses in "SMW": two in Donut Plains, one in Vanilla Dome areas, one in the Forest of Illusion, one on Chocolate Island, and one in Valley of Bowser. In "SMW" Yoshi stays outside of ghost houses, just like he does with castles, because he is afraid of ghosts as far as the in-game universe is concerned. However, the technical reasons why Yoshi does not enter into these ares is because Mario cannot enter the doors while riding Yoshi, and also some of the enemies in these areas do not properly interact with Yoshi as well.

The Ghost Houses in "New Super Mario Bros." also introduce the Phantom Hands, which are not enemies per say but rather point out secrets. They are reminiscent of the hands from the "Legend of Zelda" series.

Answer: Dream Figure Skating

Not only does Dream Figure Skating feature the background of "New Super Mario Bros.", it also features a scene from the early Sega Genesis "Sonic the Hedgehog" titles as well. The Sonic scenes are from Green Hill Zone, the Death Egg Zone and Station Square. The scenes tell the four characters collecting seven Chaos Emeralds.

The Mario scenes also involve Bowser's Castle and Peach's Castle, with the main narrative involving rescuing a star from Bowser's Castle.

Over all, "New Super Mario Bros." is a fine addition to the Mario canon, and its excellent sequel truly lives up to the promise of all the fun only a 2-D platforming Mario title can deliver!