logic behind the insanity that is mario 2

The NES Mario games are a bit like what I've been hearing about the Transformer movies.  The first one was great; the third one was great; and the second one... well, maybe we should just forget that ever happened?

Mario 2 is bizarre.

There's no Bowser, no Koopas, no coin boxes.  And as I'm sure every Mario 1 player learned the hard way, there's no jumping on enemies to kill them.  You have to throw vegetables at them.

Vegetables.  Mario the plumber throws vegetables.

There's a reason for this insanity.

Apparently, the game originally intended to be released as the second Mario looked very much like the first... only it was more difficult.  Too difficult, in fact:

Adding to frustrations, some mushrooms were poisonous, some warps sent you back instead of forward, and inclement weather regularly kicked Mario off-course in mid-chasm jump. [...]  Nintendo decided Mario 2's difficulty level exceeded North American skill level.

Nintendo's solution was drastic:  Scrap the game they designed to be Mario 2 and rip a different one off instead.

They found a game bursting with rip-off potential in Doki Doki Panic.  The game was originally intended to follow a farming family of four who set out to rescue kidnapped children.  The folks at Mario took the four family members--Brother, Mama, Papa, and Sister--and redesigned them to instead have these familiar faces:

Mario (Brother), Luigi (Mama), Toad (Papa), & Princess Toadstool (Sister)

A Mario template was thrown over the top of the game that would have been released as Doki Doki Panic, and Mario 2 as we know it was born.

With my recent Metroid post lingering in my mind, I can't help but wonder how many more games would have gone by before a Mario enthusiast could play as a female character had Nintendo not needed that fourth friendly face--especially since the format of "Princess Needing Saved Rather Than Being Able To Actually Do Anything Herself" format shows right back up in Mario 3.

At least that whole farming thing explains the vegetables, anyway.

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Credit for the extracted quote and info about the development of Mario 2 goes to this article:
IGN Presents: The History of Super Mario Bros

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in gaming, even if you're not a particular Mario fan.  At least check out the first couple of pages--there's a lot of fascinating stuff about the beginning of the video game industry and those responsible for it.  Enjoy!