Oh man, I love Super Mario Bros 2! It's one of my favorite games of all time.

So, each character actually has very different stats.

Luigi and Princess have obvious special jumping abilities. I think Luigi can actually jump a little farther... But both of them have significantly shorter jumps and run more slowly when carrying a vegetable, and both pick up vegetables quite slowly (especially the princess). This can be extremely detrimental on sand stages that require a lot of fast digging to get away from enemies, or picking up a block to throw at a boss before he attacks.

Toad is the opposite. He can pick up vegetables and run with them blazingly fast, and can run and jump as high (higher?) while carrying them.

Mario is balanced all-around.

It's all explained in the instruction manual with some cute drawings. Each character is really quite balanced in my opinion.

The reason to has actually been removed.

In the US version of Mario 2, all you have to do is make it to the end with any character to win. In the Japanese Doki Doki Panic on which it is based, you actually need to get to the end with all 4 characters before you've beaten the game.

The different characters do have strengths and weaknesses: differences in run speed, item pickup speed, and jump mechanics (and Toad actually runs faster when he's holding an item) but you are correct in that for purposes simply amounting to no more than getting through each level to the end, using Peach/Toadstool is the easiest.

Peach is a slow runner and it takes her a long time to pick up an object.

That's always been my feeling too. I think Mario can run faster, and Luigi can jump a little higher, but Peach just controls better. Who knows what kind of maniac would choose Toad.

Peach is slow as hell. Toad all day baybee

There's a warp zone you can only reach with Luigi, IIRC (but it's been a long time). So for one level, at least, he's better if you want to skip ahead.

If you want an overly objective answer, speedrunners use different characters for different levels because they're faster in different ways, and I don't think Peach is used often. As a casual player IDK lol I always just played as Peach

Peach was basically my only character ever, but occasionally I would use Toad for the Ice level with all the whales since he could jump between the bees easily.

Because you're my 5 year old god daughter who always wants to play as "Uwiigi".

Playing as Peach in Mario 2 was the OG "Funky Mode."

Peach's jump is OP. I loved SMB2.

This is an excellent question and I await the responses to see if anyone used other characters.

Peach was the character I used the most for sure.

The answer is that you wouldn't. Because she can float. SHE CAN FLOAT.

Luigi can jump really high, so I like playing as Luigi as well.

Buh-da buh-da buh-da buh-da da-buh

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