1986: Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2 to them) for NES in Japan. As a child, playing the US version of SMB2 was utterly confusing. Why did they take this approach? What's with the birds in the bricks? What's with everything?

And then, as an adultish, I learn that my instincts were correct and something was amiss. Businessmen had made the decision that American gamers were as lazy as they were fat, and that the real SMB2 would be too hard for our pudgy beef-eating brains. Instead we would get to play a 20 hour acid trip with Mario and friends sloppily pasted over the drug cartel.

So it's with a bit of pent up hostility that we celebrate today. Woo. Hoo. Mario. I'm glad that the world is advancing to a more open IP economy. Mark Wilson

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