1. New Super Mario Bros 2 Secrets

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New Super Mario Bros 2 is the direct sequel to New Super Mario Bros., following New Super Mario Bros. Wii in that regard, and the third overall game in the New Super Mario Bros. series. The first New Super Mario Bros. game was the side-scrolling Mario title for the Nintendo DS, just as New Super Mario Bros. Wii was for the Wii, and now New Super Mario Bros. 2 fills the same role for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fifteenth Super Mario game in general.

Most notably, the game's existence was leaked in early 2012 among various (typically Nintendo-like) sales charts, as well as through a registered -- and vague -- domain name/HTML address as soon as in April in the same year. Later in the same month, Nintendo confirmed the game's actual title, as well as a worldwide near-simultaneous release date for August 2012.

The game features further throwbacks to Super Mario Bros. 3 (akin to Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7) — namely, Raccoon Mario's first polygonal appearance^note (just as Super Mario 3D Land did the same for Tanooki Mario) as well as the classic P-Charge Bar featured in Super Mario Bros. 3. Reznor also appears as a boss in the tower stages.

But the big change in this game is the focus on coin collection. Mario is tasked with the optional, non-essential goal of collecting a million coins during his adventure, and new ways to earn money are everywhere, from golden enemies to Gold Fire Flowers that turn whatever the fireballs hit into coins.

The title was released on July 28th, 2012 in Japan (along with the Nintendo 3DS XL) and was released on August 18, 2012 and August 19, 2012 for Europe and North America, respectively. It is notably the first full retail game to become available as a digital download on the Nintendo eShop.

This game has examples of:

• 2½D: Just like its predecessors, this game is a 2D platformer that uses 3D models for the characters.
• Absentee Actor: Bowser Jr. sits this one out after appearing in the first two NSMB games. Kamek is also nowhere to be found here.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Bowser's giant form chases you up the tower, all while you're dodging his attacks and jumping on bone platforms.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Like Super Mario 3D Land, if you die too many times in one level, the game will offer you a box with the White Raccoon suit, which makes you invincible. However, some players find this insulting.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The prize for collecting one million coins is an alternate title screen with a Gold Mario statue. 9,999,999 coins gets you a gold Raccoon Mario statue.
• Appropriated Title: The game was called New Super Mario Bros. Gold during development, but was later renamed New Super Mario Bros. 2, since a number of levels step away from the coin-collecting theme of the game.
• Ascended Extra: In the previous game, the Koopalings were simply Bowser Jr.'s henchmen and had no impact on the plot, while in this one they are directly responsible for Peach's kidnapping and continue antagonizing Mario up until the final level, where they band together to try and petrify Mario with a modified Koopa Clown Car. They also take up Kamek's role of making Bowser grow for the final battle.
• Back from the Dead: Bowser's Dry Bowser form is fought as the True Final Boss.
• Background Boss: Bowser's giant form stays in the background, trying to swipe you on whatever column of platforms you're standing on.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The Ghost Houses return in this game, with the first one appearing in World 2.
• Bonus Dungeon: World Mushroom and World Flower can only be accessed through the Cannon levels, which in turn are only unlocked by reaching the secret exit in other stages.
• Bridal Carry: A non-romantic example: during the end credits mini-game, Mario carries Princess Peach from Bowser's castle all the way back to hers.
• Broke the Rating Scale: The 'Impossible Pack' is appropriately rated DANGER!
• Bubbly Clouds: World 5. It is located on a single large cloud, with several tall pieces of land jutting out from below.
• The Bus Came Back: The Reznors return as the Tower bosses.
• Cap: The maximum coin amount you can get in Coin Rush is 30000, and yes, it is possible to reach that score.
• Cherubic Choir:
  • As heard in 1:08-1:50 of this video, the overworld theme is literally the same as the Wii version, only with the addition of this.
  • The Athletic theme heard in the overview video is full of this.
• Continuity Nod:
  • As seen in the Iwata Asks video, Luigi's Tail form still has Kitsune ears and tail.
  • The game's intro is a reference to , with Mario and Luigi flying around. The only difference is that instead of them coming back to find Peach missing, the Koopalings show up with Peach in captivity.
• Co-Op Multiplayer: It can be played with two players through Download Play or Local Wireless connection.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: New Super Mario Bros. Wii introduces the feature of shaking the Wii Remote to spin jump. Even without the Propeller Block or Propeller Mushroom, it's still handy for covering small yet valuable bits of extra distance during tough jumps. For players who become dependant on it, it's not hard to find oneself instinctively doing the same thing here, only to have nothing happen and remember that it doesn't work on a 3DS. Not helping is that the feature was brought back for New Super Mario Bros. U.
• Dem Bones: Now we have Bone Goombas (although this type is more like a Gloomba with skull masks), Bone Piranha Plants, Dry Bowser... (Though since when did plants have bones?)
• Developers' Foresight: The Gold Flower power-up gives you coins for every enemy you jump on, and grants a multiplier for combos. So if you were thinking you could totally cash on utilizing the classic 1-Up trick while Gold Flowered, tough luck—the shell will disappear after the 24th bounce. You can't even abort the trick hoping to reset it and do it again, because the shell actually memorizes how many times you hit it. But at least you get 1050 coins from it and the shell explodes into confetti. You can circumvent this limit if Mario is hanging onto a beanstalk or if you leave and return to the area via warp pipes.
• Downloadable Content: Starting October 2nd (for Japan), paid DLC in the form of Coin Rush stages was released every four weeks. Each pack costs ￥200 ($2 in America and £2 in Europe), and there were full bundles released at the same time too. Notably, this is the first 3DS game to use DLC.
• Dummied Out: This game actually has a ton of early versions of levels and, more interestingly, inaccessible areas in existing levels. Highlights include a vertical ice level that was broken up into sections and used as a tower, and an early Bowser boss room, which is completely different from the final version (the early room is huge, with random block formations everywhere, while the final version is a narrow vertical stretch).
• Fake Longevity: The million-coin objective provides this. A normal 100% Completion playthrough will net you in the neighborhood of 60,000 coins if you're not deliberately playing levels with high coin counts over and over.
• Final Boss: Bowser, like all games in the NSMB series.
• Funny Background Event: Of a sort. If you look at the background during the end credits, you will notice the Koopalings scattered about, topped off with Bowser stuck in the ground upside down!
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: At the end of the intro, Mario and Luigi chase the Koopalings in their Super forms. However, they start World 1 small.
• Gold and White Are Divine: White Raccoon Mario follows this colour pattern and is appropriately invincible to anything that doesn't cause instant death.
• Golden Super Mode: Gold Mario is a rare power-up that lets Mario fire explosive fireballs that turn enemies and blocks into coins.
• Gold Fever: In some places, you'll have to risk dangerous enemies in order to get coins, or your pursuit of coins might screw you out of getting a special item or something. When trying to get a whole million coins, Mario may not get Gold Fever, but the player might.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny:
  • Sparkly golden variations of regular enemies◊, which reward you with coins upon defeating them.
  • Golden Fire Flowers that turn Mario gold and allow him to shoot fireballs that turn blocks and enemies into coins◊.
    • Luigi becomes clad in silver instead. And what placing is the silver medal given to?
• Green Hill Zone: Much like in the prequels, World 1 takes place ina meadow.
• Guide Dang It!: The code to play as Luigi isn't given in this game. The only way you'll have any idea of it is if you played New Super Mario Bros., as it's identical to the one from that game; hold L and R when selecting your file.
• Hailfire Peaks: World 6-4, a haunted forest level that combines The Lost Woods with Big Boo's Haunt.
• Hammerspace: Lampshaded
  700,000 coins! Where do you keep them all?
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Koopalings end up taking themselves out after they use their magic wands on their father, and he accidentally (and completely unawarely) headbutts them out of the sky upon his growth spurt, identically to Kamek inNew Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The Coin Rush DLC packs all have their difficulty rated by stars (as in, one star is the easiest, five stars is the hardest), all except the Impossible Pack which is rated 'DANGER!'
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Gold Flower, which at first is available only on certain levels as the powerup wears off when you complete a level so it can't be carried from one level to the next. However once you complete all the levels in the game, you gain unlimited use of the Toad Houses. This lets you use the Gold Flower on any level as many times as you want. The Gold Flower is particularly awesome for its splash damage, its ability to give you coins for enemies you defeat, and best of all it lets you have your revenge on all those Invincible Minor Minions who've tormented you over the years in past Mario games.
• Invincibility Power-Up: The Super Star returns from previous games. The White Raccoon suit also counts, but only shows up if the player fails to clear a level 5 times in a row.
• It's All Upstairs from Here: The Tower levels have Mario climbing his way up to that level's boss fight. Also the Final Boss, which is an Advancing Boss of Doom.
• Jungle Japes: World 3 takes place in a dense jungle.
• Lethal Lava Land: World 6. Much like in the prequels, the final main world is fire-themed.
• Meaningless Lives: Played staight and subverted. The game hands out lives like they do coins, which also give you lives after collecting one hundred of them, but getting 1,110 lives (denoted by three crowns) is necessary for 100% Completion.
• Mini-Game Credits: A bunch of coins appear while Mario is carrying Peach back to the castle.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Par for the course for the NSMB series, especially as it reuses assets from 'New Super Mario Bros. Wii'.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The forms the Gold Flower gives the Mario Bros. are Gold Mario and Silver Luigi. In Animal Crossing, there were Gold Mario statues and Silver Luigi statues.
    • Luigi becomes Silver Luigi instead of gold. Silver medals tend to be given to second place, and it also references Luigi constantly being in Mario's shadow.
  • As 90 Star Coins are required to enter World Star and the remaining 9 required to enter the Toad House there, the world has no need for Star Coins, having Moon Coins instead. While the coins themselves are new to the series, their design bears a striking resemblance to the 3-up Moons in Super Mario World.
  • As you collect more than 999 lives, the 9s start rolling over to crowns, this is a reference to Super Mario Bros, where the lives counter would show random symbols (crown included) in the 10s digit if lives got too high.
  • The game's title is perhaps an allusion to the old Super Mario Bros. 2In Name Only.^note

• Nintendo Hard: The DLC level pack titled 'Nerve-Wrack Pack' seems to be this. Then there's the Impossible Pack.
• No Fair Cheating: The Impossible Pack has two cases: Playing as Mario removes the ability to use the Gold Flower, while using Gold Raccoon Mario doesn't give you access to the time boosters.
• Non-Indicative Name: The game's title has '2' in the name, yet it's technically the third game in the New Super Mario Bros. series. It is, however, the second handheld NSMB game.
• Nostalgia Level: The DLC level pack 'Golden Classics' revives memorable levels from Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 and even New Super Mario Bros. 2 itself. They are not straight ports however, 2 to 3 levels are all remixed into each of the three courses (for example, going underground during what was originally 1-1 from the first game leads to 1-2 rather than a small bonus room), with many new secret areas and ways of getting coins.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The final boss battle, just like New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It's even the same theme.
• Palmtree Panic: World 3 takes place on a beach.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: '800,000 coins! SO. MANY. COINS.'
• Reality Warper: The Gold Flower turns you into a Coin-based version of this, as it inexplicably allows Mario to turn regular blocks and enemies into coins.
• Recycled Premise: Collecting as many coins as possible was the main goal of Wario Land, though this game gives you a concrete goal to work towards, as opposed to 'enough to buy a new castle'.
• Recycled Soundtrack: With the exception of the themes for Worlds Mushroom, Flower, and Star, and the Super Mario World boss theme remix used for the battles with Reznors, the whole soundtrack is recycled from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• Save the Princess: The intro has the Koopalings kidnap Peach so that Mario and Luigi can once again save her.
• Scoring Points: Kind of. The game features the traditional score counter, but coins can be thought of as a secondary form of scoring. Each level saves your maximum coin score, and Coin Rush Mode saves your total coin score that you got through the mode. This shifts the focus of beating the levels with the most amount of time on your clock, to beating the levels with the most amount of coins gotten from the level.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Considerably easier than its two predecessors, thanks to a more simplistic level design, shorter length, abundance of lives and overpowered power-ups for Mario to collect.
• Sequel Number Snarl: The game is titled New Super Mario Bros. 2, despite being the third game in the New Super Mario Bros. series. The actual second game in the series is its predecessor, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was released on the Nintendo Wii platform rather than a handheld Nintendo console.
• Sequential Boss: Like NSMBW, Bowser has two forms. His normal form (the fight of which is reminiscent of the original SMB), and his giant form.
• Shifting Sand Land: World 2 takes place in a desert.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Reznors make a roar that sounds very similar to Godzilla's.
  • Dry Bones will do a dance similar to Michael Jackson's Thriller on occasion.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: World 4 is ice-themed. World Flower also has elements of this.
• Taken for Granite: During the final castle, as well as the true final castle, the Koopalings in their Koopa Clown Car will periodically flash a bright light, turning Mario into stone if he is not behind any walls.
• Third Is 3D: While it's not titled 'New Super Mario Bros. 3', it is the third game to use the NSMB name, and it has 3D functionality.
• Title Scream: The HOME Menu sound. NEW SUPER MARIO BROTHERS TWO!!!
• True Final Boss: Dry Bowser, who's fought at the end of World Star, and works the same as normal Bowser except he's invulnerable to regular fire; fire from a gold flower can take him out in one hit.
• Under the Sea: World 3 combines this with Jungle Japes but a few underwater levels are found in other worlds.
• Up to Eleven: Being able to collect a bunch of coins in bonus rooms was always a pleasing part of the Mario series, but here it is omnipresent.
• Variable Mix: Getting a Racoon leaf adds a wood block soundtrack to the mix. Also, World 4 (and much of World Flower) add sleigh bells to the mix of every level to indicate they're snow levels.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: World Star.
• With Lyrics: Justified. This time around, the choir 'bah's almost every freaking note in the OST.

New Super Mario Bros 2 Secrets