It has a heavier emphasis on coin-collecting than other Super Mario games, with multiple unique items dedicated to producing large numbers of coins.

Additional Coin Rush stages were made available for purchase as downloadable content shortly after the game's release.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is the fifth best-selling game for the Nintendo 3DS, with 13.41 million copies sold worldwide as of September 30, 2022.

[1][2] Similarly to Super Mario 3D Land, an Invincibility Leaf will appear if the player loses at least five lives during any non-cannon levels.

[3] The story has both single-player and multiplayer options; two players, each with their own Nintendo 3DS and copy of the game, play together simultaneously as Mario and Luigi.

[4] Like the previous games, players can collect three Star Coins hidden throughout each level, which can be spent to unlock new areas on the overworld map.

[17] Nintendo stated New Super Mario Bros. 2 was created "specifically as a pick-up-and-play experience", accommodating players of all skill levels.

The final "Gold Classics Pack" was released on November 27, 2012 to celebrate the 300 billion coins milestone[23] and was available to download for free until the end of January 2013.

In 2014, an updated version featuring all the DLC pre-installed was released, New Super Mario Bros. 2: Gold Edition.

It holds an aggregated score of 78.40% on GameRankings and 78/100 on Metacritic, it is the lowest-rated console mainline Mario game.

"[32] Nintendo Life gave the game 9 out of 10 stars, saying "It's immense fun, boasts brilliant level design and offers enough repeat play appeal to keep you glued to your 3DS system for weeks.

"[41] Tom Sykes of Nintendo Gamer gave the game 80 out of 100, praising the new features, but criticizing it for being too similar to its predecessors.

"[42] As of 30 September 2022[update], 13.41 million copies of New Super Mario Bros. 2 have been sold worldwide, making it the fifth best-selling game for the system.

If a player collects 100 coins, the character will turn golden and gain both increased attack power and flinch resistance.