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Classic Game of the Week  Super Mario Bros. 2
- By Eric Tajchman
Following the success of Super Mario Bros. in both America and Japan, the obvious decision would be to release a sequel that captured the same experience as the original but offered new, innovative features. The result was the controversial The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan). However, the game wasn’t released in the U.S. as the successor to the original Super Mario Bros. Because of internal arguments about the how Americans would view The Lost Levels and its added difficulty, the game never saw a U.S. release until Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES. What Nintendo did release in the U.S. is the only Mario platformer that wasn’t directly developed by Shigeru Miyamoto
Although Nintendo decided against releasing The Lost Levels into the American market, they were not going to leave the U.S. without some sort of follow-up to the most popular NES game ever. Nintendo searched for an idea on how to give U.S. gamers the chance to play a Super Mario Bros. sequel. The answer came in the form of Fuji Television’s Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic on the Famicom Disk System. Though Fuji TV developed the title, Nintendo published Doki Doki Panic, and after they saw the success of the title in Japan, they decided to use the game as their American Super Mario Bros. 2.
 
[LEFT – Super Mario Bros. 2] – [RIGHT – Doki Doki Panic]
To truly understand Super Mario Bros. 2, you need to know a little background about Doki Doki Panic. The game tells of four somewhat ordinary family members, Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister, and their strange, perilous adventure throughout a mystical book. They must travel through the book uprooting radishes, turnips, and all sorts of rooted vegetables to battle enemies and eventually fight against the evil Wart to free themselves. The title was successful in Japan, and turned out to be a sleeper hit. However, not many copies of Doki Doki Panic were produced so the title remained a bit obscure, even in Japan. It was because of this obscurity and the fact that international gaming news was not as public as it is today that Nintendo was able to get away with the switcheroo without much negative public reaction.
Doki Doki Panic
The U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is about the four main protagonists of the Mario universe, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad. At the beginning of every level, you could pick which character you wanted to use, an aspect that differentiates the game from Doki Doki Panic, in which you picked a character at the beginning of every world. Each character had their own strengths and weaknesses in relation to each other. Whereas Luigi could jump extremely high but had a slippery feeling to his movements, the Princess could jump extremely far but was slow picking up items, and Toad could not jump high but could pick up items very quickly. Mario was the neutral character as he had the average skill of all abilities.
Super Mario Bros. 2
The game starts off as Mario dreams about a far-off and mystical land and how he and his companions find themselves falling into this strangely vegetarian world filled with odd-looking enemies. They must make their way across different terrain and battle many foes, navigate dungeons and unlock doors with keys that are guarded by floating Phantos, and face off against comic, bomb-chucking rodents, and deadly, fire-breathing, multi-headed dragons. At the end of each level, the characters had to face off against a guardian of a mystical marble, usually the egg-spitting Birdo. The shiny marble would then open the Hawkmouth that led to the next level. After making it to the end of the third level of each world, you had to fight against a more powerful enemy that guarded the doorway to the next world. At the end of the eighth world, you fought against the evil king Wart, the same final nemesis in Doki Doki Panic. The end of the game showed a sleeping Mario dreaming of fans cheering the return of Mario’s company..
 
[LEFT – Super Mario Bros. 2] – [RIGHT – Doki Doki Panic]
The only differences between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2 are the characters, story, and a few altered sprites. Otherwise, the games look and play nearly identical to each other. However, Nintendo added its own features into the game to give it some Mario-ish characteristics. For instance, Nintendo made the B-button a “Run” button, the heart containers found in potion doors were changed to Super Mushrooms, and when characters only had one coin of life remaining, they become small like in the original Super Mario Bros.
When Super Mario Bros. 2 reached the U.S., many gamers were surprised to find a drastically different type of Mario game than the original, but because of the reputation Mario had for fun and entertainment, many people bought the game and enjoyed it immensely. Despite the fact that Nintendo had little to do with the production of the game, Super Mario Bros. 2 sold extremely well in the U.S., though not nearly as well as the original Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was later added to Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES, and the Japanese received a version of the game entitled Super Mario Bros. 2 U.S. in their own Mario compilation. The game was also recently released on the Game Boy Advance entitled Super Mario Advance. The game sported better graphics, new and better sound, and came bundled with the single-screen arcade version Mario Bros., which also featured a graphical and audio upgrade. If you haven’t played Super Mario Bros. 2, go pick up a copy of the Game Boy Advance remake. It’s a new (though maybe not original) twist on classic Mario gameplay.
Pictures courtesy of The Mushroom Kingdom.
- 8.13.2001 |
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