Nintendo Had The Hottest Game On Earth. Then It Rejected The Sequel.

Super Mario Bros. 2, aka "The Lost Levels," is celebrating its 40-year anniversary today, June 3, 2026. Below, we look back at how Nintendo created a notoriously punishing sequel, and why it only came to the West many years later.Let's set the stage. It's 1986, and you're Nintendo. Your Family Computer console has become a full-blown phenomenon on the back of the game you released late the previous year called Super Mario Bros. You're now selling millions of consoles and games. On the back of al