YMMV / New Super Mario Bros. 2

• Anti-Climax Boss: Compared to his innovative fights in Wii and U and the Dual Boss in the original game, Bowser is not that difficult here. The first phase is similar to other games where you have to get past him to hit the switch. The second phase basically boils down to dodging his slow claws for about two minutes while occasionally stopping to jump over his fire breath similar to Wii but in a simpler fashion without destructible terrain and going upwards. This extends to the True Final Boss, Dry Bowser, who shares the same attack patterns.
• Broken Base:
  • This is the first Nintendo game to feature paid Downloadable Content. Whether this is a sign of Nintendo's modernization or its descent into greedy corporate hell is still hotly debated. Is the coin rush mode itself a good addition for the game, or is it just a half-assed work to grab money from the fans for extra levels?
  • The excessive quantity of coins is one of the most heated topics in the discussions around the internet. You will never see the game over screen, since it's pretty easy to earn multiple lives in a level. Some fans think it's understandable since the coins are the main theme of the game, but others think this breaks the game, making it too easy.
  • The game's reuse of assets from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, such as the graphics, music, and engine, has been a major point of contention. Some don't mind it, as allowed the developers to focus on designing unique levels without starting from scratch and release the game quickly, while others feel it comes across as lazy and gives the game a lack of identity.
  • Should the game have been named New Super Mario Bros. 2? Does it deserve that name or should the developers have gone with the originally intended New Super Mario Bros. Gold name instead? While the developers changed the name based on the logic that it has more levels than New Super Mario Bros. Wii^note NSMBW has 76 levels, NSMB has 80, and NSMB2 has 81. And for the record, NSMBU has 82. and some fans agree with it or don't mind, other fans feel like it's a weak justification considering its nature as a bonafide Mission-Pack Sequel, it's a truly Non-Indicative Name, and that in a similar way to Sonic the Hedgehog 4 believe that if the game had been a harmless spin-off instead of an important mainline sequel the game's reusage of content would have been much more tolerated, its coin collection defining gimmick would have been better accepted, and the game would have been better received overall.
  • The game's quality in general. Is it a fun —if easy and very similar— platformer with a fun gimmick, or a soulless cash-grab with little to no creativity and various missed opportunities.
• Contested Sequel: Although it's not really considered an outright terrible or even bad game, many found it to be a significant step down from the DS and Wii installments. Some fans didn't mind and still thought it was a fun and solid game on its own, while others were angered and accused Nintendo of getting less creative in its Mario titles, a third subset of fans thought the game was tremendously unoriginal but still decent and could be fun; just inferior to all other 2D Mario games, with various missed opportunities, and ultimately forgettable and disappointing due its severe unoriginality that undermines everything good about the game, including its throwbacks to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World in bringing back the Raccoon Leaf and the Reznors, alongside a complete lack of significant changes or improvements. How this game started reusing the same soundtrack from its predecessor doesn't help matters either and remains a major point of contention for many players that thought that was going too far in the reusage of content, especially considering the same thing happened to a lesser extent on the next game.
• Fan Nickname: New Super Mario Bros. 2: Six Million Golden Coins ^Explanation It's really, REALLY easy to get a bunch of coins in this game...
• Fridge Brilliance: Bowser Jr.'s absence in this game is probably because he's grounded for unauthorized access of Bowser's Clown Car in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• Game-Breaker: Raccoon Mario in the cannon levels. You can skip most of the obstacles and you only need to touch the ground to refill your meter.
• Harsher in Hindsight: As the game ended up being by far the biggest example in the NSMB/2D Mario series and Mario games as a whole of a Mission-Pack Sequel alongside Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (and was criticized for mostly the same reasons), the name New Super Mario Bros. 2 ended up being ironically fitting.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The lack of challenge has been heavily criticized by a lot of fans. Getting to Bowser is pretty much a cakewalk. The game doesn't get noticeably difficult until you get to the bonus worlds, and even those are not as brutal as we've come to expect from this series. And of course, the sheer number of coins you can collect means that you will have an abundance of extra lives.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The biggest criticism about the game. For many fans, it's a rehash of New Super Mario Bros. Wii with the same soundtrack and Video Game Settings, without Yoshi, the Spin Jump/Twirl, and some power ups. It has a few features that distinguish it from the other sequels in reintroducing the Raccoon Leaf from Super Mario Bros. 3, bringing back the Reznors from Super Mario World, and introducing a few enemies in the Bone Goombas, the Boohemoth, Bone Piranha Plants and Big Bone Piranha Plants, but the rest of the game is very much the prior game with a gold coat of paint and Coin Rushes lacking the elements mentioned above as well as a brand new final boss fight gimmick compared to New Super Mario Bros. and even New Super Mario Bros. U, instead opting for a simpler reinterpretation of New Super Mario Bros. Wii's as described in Anti-Climax Boss.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Game Over screen is the rarest screen in the game. ^Explanation With all the coins you'll collect, you'll probably never run out of lives in this game.
  • Bowser is weaker than the Koopalings. ^Explanation Fans have not ignored the fact that the Koopalings can take three hits from a golden ball, but Bowser goes down in one.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The twinkle sound effects from the Gold Rings.
• Nightmare Fuel: There is nothing okay about the giant Boo (Boohemoth) that follows you through most of the Ghost House in World 2. It's huge, it has a terrifying face, it doesn't follow typical Boo rules (it will inch forward if you look directly at it for too long), and if you touch it? Instant death.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Considerably easier than its Wii predecessor, thanks to a more simplistic level design, shorter length, abundance of lives and overpowered power-ups for Mario to collect.
• So Okay, It's Average: There is nothing outright awful about the game, and even the game's detractors will agree that it is a well-designed, polished, and perfectly playable 2D Mario platformer at its core, while also featuring a few saving graces in its throwbacks to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World (such as the return of the Raccoon Leaf and the Reznors), and the coin collection gimmick being well implemented in levels. However, the reuse of almost all assets, all Video Game Settings, and soundtrack from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the complete lack of new and original ideas and improvements to the core gameplay, the overly easy difficulty, and the coin gimmick not adding much to the formula alongside other significant missed opportunities cause it to be this for several fans and critics alike and ultimately make it forgettable, unlike its DS and Wii predecessors and even its Wii U successor, being vastly considered the weakest and most unoriginal game in the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series by far and one of the weakest mainline Mario games, falling short of fulfilling expectations and being considered just plain mediocre by many fans.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Given the game's focus on grabbing coins and the excessive amount there is in the game, this is the closest the 3DS got to a new Wario Land title.
• That One Level:
  • A few of the warp cannon levels can be nightmares, especially World Flower-Cannon.
  • World 6-Ghost House is infamous for its very confusing gimmick of the mirror rooms, that can be difficult to wrap your head around. There's also the fact that the Secret Exit is arguably easier to find than the Normal Exit.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: There's Co-Op Multiplayer in this game, but: 1) it's local only, 2) both 3DS users must have the game, and 3) it's only Mario and Luigi and they're both stuck on the same screen. While it's still pretty solid, many see this as a major step down from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • The Mega Mushroom from the original New Super Mario Bros. returns in this game...but is totally wasted here. It only appears in three levels: 1-2, 5-6, and Mushroom-3; and none of them are built around using it— only appearing in brief sections of the levels. On top of that, unlike the original game, it is not found in any of the Toad Houses and cannot be put in the reserve box either.
  • This game's gimmick — the sudden abundance of coins. It's never explained where all these coins came from, nor do they have any real use besides two title screens featuring golden statues of Mario. What if the game had a shop to spend the coins in, like Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Bros. Wonder? What if the games' levels were harder and just so happened to have loads of coins that were an actual challenge to collect? What if you needed these coins to unlock the Coin Rush modes instead of actual money? Needless to say, this game could have done so much more with the sudden abundance of coins.
  • One of the things that contributed the most to this game's unoriginality was its Recycled Soundtrack lifted almost completely from New Super Mario Bros. Wii (with added BAHs), which many players thought was going too far in the reusage of content (with a subset of them feeling that the original unaltered music from NSMBW was better due to them overusing the BAHs). The game only has three brand new pieces of music (the World Mushroom, Flower, and Star themes)...however, all of them are actually pretty good. Especially the World Star theme has an energetic but calm glittering sound that fits the Star Special World even better than the World 9 theme from NSMBW. One can only imagine how much this game would have benefited if it had brand new music fitting its theme, though its similarity to NSMBW and subsequent significant unoriginality would remain in the unchanged Video Game Settings, it still would have been a significant improvement to its originality, which is the main complaint against this game that significantly damaged it and the whole subseries.
• Unexpected Character: Who expected the Reznors to be this game's fortress bosses?

---