The first Mario game to feature "The Lost Levels", a Japan exclusive Mario game that previously didn't make it to the American market. The game was in fact Super Mario Bros. 2 (1986). Nintendo of America had a strict rule to prevent video games from being repackaged, which was the case in many Atari games before the video game crash that occurred between 1983 and 1985. As "The Lost Levels" was considered not sufficiently different from the original Super Mario Bros. (1985), the game was refused. Instead, the game Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic (1987) was redesigned and released as Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988). Contrary to popular belief, "The Lost Levels" was never deemed too hard to play; that rumor originated from several game magazines that promoted "Super Mario All-Stars" as a way to boost sales.
There are two versions of this cartridge released. Original copies and pal versions only contained Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3 + The Lost Levels (The original Super Mario Bros 2, released only in Japan). A second NTSC version was later released that also included Super Mario World.
The glitch/secret level in Super Mario Bros known as Zero World (0-0) (an endless swimming level found at the end of level 1-2) was not converted over to this SNES upgrade. Despite many rumours and claims it was.
Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES in 1993. Was reissued 17 years later on the Nintendo Wii in 2010.
The North American version of this game was released very shortly before this region's cartridges for newly published titles at the time were redesigned from the original convexed design to the concaved design. Early copies of this game before the cartridge's redesign went into effect are very hard to find to this day.