Super Mario Bros. Special

Super Mario Bros. Special is a video game released by Hudson Soft in the spring of 1986. It is the first officially licensed sequel to Super Mario Bros.. Despite the fact it is a direct sequel to the biggest selling game of all time, it is not particularly highly regarded or well-remembered. This is no doubt due to its being developed by a third-party developer and being released only on a primitive Japanese computer platform for a limited time. Nintendo had no part in its actual game development. This game was all but forgotten by the gaming community until being rediscovered by U.K. games journalist Stuart Campbell in 2003 and written about in PC Zone magazine. Because of this obscurity, some have referred to it as the "true Lost Levels."

Super Mario Bros. Special ran on the Japanese NEC PC-8801. It was created in 1986 by developer Hudson Soft. It is not well-documented how or why Hudson was granted the rights to develop the game, nor why it chose to produce a new game instead of a port.

Though very similar in gameplay terms to the NES original, Super Mario Bros. Special has new level layouts, and several differences. Most notably, Super Mario Bros. Special has a flip-screen change between screens, as opposed to the smooth side-scrolling of the original, which had the unfortunate side effect of causing kicked Koopa shells to rebound back at the player if they connected with the edge of the screen. Additionally, the game has a modified, smaller color palette and a somewhat faster speed, with the timer draining faster and jumping handling differently. It also lacks a multiplayer mode or the presence of Luigi (despite the "Bros." in the title). There are also some new enemies and obstacles, including the Hammer weapon, rolling barrels, and fireballs from Donkey Kong. There are also falling icicles, Fighter Flies, and Side Steppers from Mario Bros. One notable addition is the elusive Hachisuke (Hudson Soft Honeybee) in the first level, which enables continues. A similar idea was also used for Adventure Island.

It is the only Super Mario Bros. title from this time period not to be remade or re-released as part of the Super Mario remake series.

Super Mario Bros. Special is unrelated to the pirate original game Super Mario 3 Special.

Hudson produced several other unique Mario titles for the PC-88, including Punch Ball Mario Bros. and Mario Bros. Special.