4. Super Mario Bros. 2
One of the most egregious shaftings of Western gamers everywhere, Super Mario Bros. 2 is, really, just an imposter; the original game was only released in Japan because it was reportedly too difficult for the West, somewhat ironic given that most Japanese versions of games these days are a lot easier than their Western equivalents. So, what did Nintendo do instead? They took a Japanese game called Yumi Kj: Doki Doki Panic and re-skinned it with Mario-appropriate characters, while the story was pawned off as a random dream that Mario had one night. It's got nothing formally to do with the Mario titles, and so feels like a crass, half-assed effort to prize some cash away from gamers with minimal effort. That developers ever thought they could get away with these sorts of practises is ridiculous, and of course, we'd never let it fly in this day and age. While some of the platforming is fun, it just doesn't
feel very much like a Mario game, and as a result it's held in fairly low favour by most hardcore Mario fans. Still, at least Nintendo were quick to get to work on the third Mario game, so we could quickly forgive them, considering how awesome it was. Nevertheless, the Western Super Mario Bros. 2 stands as a blip on Nintendo's score-sheet, a reminder that no matter the good work they do, they're not beyond cutting some pretty big corners when the chips are down.