Trivia / New Super Mario Bros. 2

• Audience Participation: The first batch of DLC Coin Rush levels (Gold Rush Pack, Coin Challenge Pack A, and Nerve-Wrack Pack) were designed after recommendations from Club Nintendo survey responses.
• B-Team Sequel: The game wasn't made by the core 2D Mario team in charge of the first two New Super Mario Bros. games headed by Shigeyuki Asuke, as they were busy working on New Super Mario Bros. U. Instead, it was made by a newly assembled "Mario Cram School" team, meant to teach newer employees about the development of Super Mario games. Longtime Mario developer Takashi Tezuka oversaw both projects, however. Ironically though, the vast majority of them (including director Yusuke Amano) never worked in another 2D Mario game, being uncredited in both New Super Mario Bros. U (and its Updated Re-release) and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, instead moving to other franchises such as Splatoon.
• Development Gag: In a sense. "New Super Mario Bros. 2" was the Working Title for New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• 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).
• He Also Did: Interestingly, the game's director was Yusuke Amano, who afterwards worked on both Splatoon and Splatoon 2 in the same capacity.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: As a result of the 3DS eShop shutting down, purchasing the Coin Rush packs is no longer possible. The only way to acquire them is to have already purchased them, buy a used console with the packs purchased, or buy the 3DS XL (or 2DS in some regions) that has the game and all the Coin Rush packs pre-installed.
• What Could Have Been: The game was originally planned to be titled, New Super Mario Bros. Gold. However the game's team decided to call it New Super Mario Bros. 2 instead as they felt that, as it had a few more stages than New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it could stand on its own without the coin theme^note NSMBW has 76 levels, NSMB has 80, and NSMB2 has 81. Also, NSMBU has 82. Make of that what you will.

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