As I was playing SMB2 a few hours ago, I noticed some odd bumps on Story level 1-3 (or Beginner 3 in Challenge Mode). Upon closer examination, I suspected that it was Braille. After about an hours worth of digging on the net, I had the message translated.

Not so fast! First I have to bore you with the details of it's deciphering. First of all, how do you tell which direction in the message is up? It's just a bunch of dots! Then there's the issue of spacing. It was pretty confusing at first. Then there was the problem that every website I found with the Braille Alphabet assumed that I didn't need to know punctuation... but fortunately I found a translator that converts stuff you type into Braille which allowed me to figure out the code for punctuation. Exciting stuff eh? Now... onto the secret message.

Hi! This is Jamad.

That is right.

Braille Alphabet.

I respect you !!

Yep, that's the secret message. Aren't you glad you didn't spend an hour and a half of your time figuring that out? I looked for "Jamad" in the SMB2 credits but didn't find him. It must be a nickname (or a bad joke). I would guess that he's a level designer, or someone else who could directly change the level structure. It's doubtful that anyone else would have done it for him!

As for the other wacky stuff, a reader on the GameFAQs message board noticed that something is wrong with the name entry screen for Story Mode. When you attempt to enter your name, you're going to have to make other plans if there is a lowercase "w" in your name. Instead, the game has a duplicate lowercase "t". Thanks to Andret Andrew at GameFAQs for pointing this out.