That SMB2 story reminds me of a little event that happened with me once. A friend of mine insisted that SMB2 was unbeatable, because he'd never done it and none of his other friends could do it either. So I told him that I'd slaughter the game for his enjoyment. He was full of doubt but lo and behold, warp after warp, and then I was in the final areas...after I kicked Wart's ass all over the street, he was a believer. 
Awww, that's the easy way.
Although figuring out where the warps were was lots of fun as a kid... And it helped me reach later worlds before I was actually ready to endure them. I remember I had found the warp to world 4 before I could even beat Mouser.
Wart is actually kind of a pansy-- it's the journey to reach him that's tough. Once you eventually get to him, his ass is grass.
Now though, I can f*cking own those stages.. The only one that still comes remotely close to giving me the shits is 7-2.
At one point I compiled a list of the best character to play as for every single stage.
SMB2 is great fun but it's just so different from the rest...but that's just because they took some other game and slapped Mario and his crew's silly faces into it rather than bringing us the REAL SMB2...that we didn't get till years later as "The Lost Levels".
I didn't know until maybe 10 years later (or at least well after the invention of the WWW) that Mario 2 didn't start life as a Mario game, and my young ignorance was bliss. SMB2 is brilliant. It's differences are it's strengths.
I sure am glad they didn't release the "real" Mario 2 outside of Japan. Had they done that, who knows what bad things would've happened? No Mario 3? No Mario World? I'm afraid to even think about it! 
You and me both. Mario 3 draws at least a few gameplay dynamics from SMB2 in the carrying and throwing of things like blocks and turtle shells... And Bob-Ombs. Without SMB2 we wouldn't have Bob-Ombs!
The Japanese SMB2 should have been a second "loop" through of the first game you had to play after beating it initially. As a sequel it blows. If I was Japanese and that's the game I got I would have been pissed. Someone at Nintendo of Japan went hog-wild with a SMB level editor one night and released his work as a sequel. Lazy bastards.
People tend to bad-mouth SMB2. I say they're crazy. It's a great game. Very different, but still great. I regard it as one of the finest platformers produced. I've never ever owned that game myself. I think it is time for that to change.
A brilliant choice! Make sure you get the original NES/Famicom version as opposed to the SNES and GBA "remastered" versions. Although those are cool too, but nothing beats the original.
