America's influence on the Super Mario Bros. franchise

by Blake Snow on Jul 20th 2006 11:05AM

About.com explores what elements really belong to Mario and what belong to Doki Doki Panic from which the former franchise is heavily influenced starting with Super Mario Bros. 2. From the article: "Nintendo had decided the actual Mario 2 was too difficult for an overseas release and pulled the title and modified Doki Doki instead. In order to make Doki Doki Panic Mario-like, they made some small changes, upgraded the character graphics, and sent "Mario 2" onto the market."

Follow the link for 12 differences between Super Mario Bros. 2 and Doki Doki Panic. Let it be known.

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Reader Comments (34)

Old, but still interesting. Mario 2 set the theme for most of their merchandising before the third game came out, and it wasn't even originally supposed to be a Mario game!

Oh, and I also wanted to add that the article posted is a little vague as far as the context of the original characters. They were a family, with Mario being the son, the Princess being the sister, Luigi being the dad and Toad being the mom.

"Even though it was not originally conceived as a Mario game, Shigeru Miyamoto had a larger involvement in this game than he actually did with the original Super Mario Bros. 2 (known in the English-speaking world as The Lost Levels) which was released in Japan."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doki_Doki_Panic

I think most people know the story of SMB 2. I believe it was eventually released in Japan as SMB USA.

It is interesting though, that some of the characters from the game like Shy Guy and Birdo made it into the Mario universe.

I always loved SMB2US, and it's always been my favorite Mario game.

Also, I don't think it gets enough credit for adding to the Mario mythos. Shyguys, Snifits, Birdo, Bob-ombs, Pokey, Peach's floating abilities, Luigi being able to jump higher than Mario, being able to carry things.... turning Doki Doki Panic into SMB2 did so much for Mario that's not often credited enough.

What About.com doesn't mention is that Shigeru Miyamoto was more involved with the design of Doki Doki Panic than he was with Super Mario Bros. 2 (Jap). So whatever elements from this game that have been absorbed into the Mario franchise (e.g. Shy Guys, two-way scrolling, and the ability to pick up and carry things) still came from the same mind.

Until Super Mario World came out, this was my favorite SMB game. It's got a unique and colorful style, and it's really damn fun. Even if it wasn't originally conceived as a Mario game, it is an authentic Mario experience.

I've always wanted to play Doki Doki Panic, but I've never been able to find it. Maybe it'll be on the Virtual Console. Maybe the Japanese SMB2 will too. One can dream, can't one?

Here are a couple links that do a better job of highlighting the differences:

http://themushroomkingdom.net/smb2_ddp.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doki_Doki_Panic

the very look of future mario games comes directly from this game. wavy lines, on rounded, stacked blocks for the ground, etc...the next two games look much more like smb2 than smb in style.

I totally agree with you 32_footsteps! I too thought that SMB2US was one cool, wierd game. I remeber playing it as a child.

Matter of fact, I am going to find a power supply to my NES and give it another round! Or maybe its on the DS now? Darn you Nintendo and your addictive games!

great article btw, loved to see the differences.

Methinks they got a tad bit muddled between the two games:
http://nintendo.about.com/od/editorials/ss/mariocompare2_5.htm

ooff topic, but im curious... did people think mario sunshine was good??

Kinda sucks that they decided that the original SMB2 was too difficult for us, no? Especially considering most developers at the time seemed to credit the American gaming public as one who was hardened and enjoyed the more punishing and difficult experiences.

At least we eventually got both versions of SMB2 in Super Mario All-Stars.

so...are they saying the Lost Levels from Super Mario All Stars is the actual Super Mario Bros. 2?

I'm curious about your choice of title for this post.

It wasn't American gamers that decided the game was too hard. Nintendo's perception of America maybe, but still, it was always Nintendo's call to make.

Hell, even the look of Mario himself was altered by the American sequel.

SMB instruction manual:

http://nga.zophar.net/instructions/super_mario_bros.html#

SMB2 (US) art:

http://www.planetnes.com/smb2_man0.html

I agree with everything 32footsteps had to say, it's hard to imagine what the mario franchise would be like today if not for Doki Doki.

On SMB2US rereleases... it was in Super Mario All-Stars (with the Japanese SMB2 in there as SMB: The Lost Levels), and it was also the Game Boy Advance (as Super Mario Advance).

I actually don't like the GBA version as much, because of cosmetic changes that don't affect gameplay but affect the feel of the game. The most prominent is actually right at the beginning. Instead of the long drop from the Door of Dreams into Sub-Con, you start on top of a hill and slowly jump down. A stupid thing to miss, I know, but I always loved the idea of starting a video game in free-fall.

And alas, the cover for the original (read: Japanese) SMB2:

http://www.gamezero.com/offline/smbss/reviews/smb2j.jpg

I, personally, think we got the better of the two games. The Japanese SMB2 just felt like more of the same. Not bad, though, just nothing new.

@ 15
Who drew the SMB2 art? From the looks of the SMB1 booklet (which I sadly lost years ago) and compared to art for DK, Mario Bros and etc., it seems to have been drawn by Miyamoto himself. I don't know about SMB2 though. Based in Shiggy's more recent Mario doodles they look closer than his old art did.
----------
Anyways, didn't Nintendo think Lost Levels might be too hard for US fans because Japanese fans themselves thought it hard?

It was a bit of a bummer for me last summer to discover, when I went to Japan that, both SMB2 and Doki Doki Panic were Famicom Disk games (like Kid Icarus and Metroid were...) and as such, are both difficult to find and nigh impossible to actually play without a working famicom AND a working disk drive.

I did manage to score a copy of near perfect copy of SMB1, Donkey Kong and Rockman 2 & 4. Ah well.

#15, The original SMB game manual, that was done up for the Famicom had another set of art entirely. I'll scan it in someday when I find it at home...

doki doki.. like durka durka? look mario even has a turban..lol.. ok dont shout racist.. im of the asian descent so i can get away with it :P

and yeah mario rocks.. getting my DS lite this weekend, brother fried my 1.5 psp by trying to charge it with a multi voltage adapter. muppet! anyone want to buy a brick?

@qwon

SMB 1 (Japan) = SMB 1 (US)
SMB 2 (Japan) = "Lost Levels" (US)
Doki Doki Panic (Japan) = never released
SMB 2 (US) = SMB US (Japan) = Modified Doki Doki Panic game

Hope that helps. SMB1 was the same game. Japan's SMB2 was never released solo in the US, but was part of a compilation and titled "The Lost Levels". The US SMB2 was Japan's "SMB US" and was based on Doki Doki Panic.

SMB2 was a great game for its time. Very fun to play; long, but not very difficult to beat, and introduced many new items and characters as stated above. I do agree it was the right choice, as The Lost Levels on Mario All Stars was a very difficult game, and quite similar to the original Super Mario. Part 2 expanded the universe nicely, and part 3 was a definite triumph.

Everyone seems to forget that it took a while for SMB2 to influence the Mario universe though. The only character from SMB2 included in SMB3 was the Bob-omb. I think only the Ninjies were picked up in SMW. I don't think Shy Guys and many other characters were reintroduced until SMW2:YI.

Now what I'd **love** to see is New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the DS, that is like a 2-decade-delayed direct sequel SMB2 in the same way that NSMB is to SMB.

I'm sorry but I was not a fan of Super Mario Bro 2. It didn't even seem like a true sequel to the orginal Super Mario Bro. I felt like Mario 3 was much more true to it's roots. Mario 2 was boring. It didn't have that same feel as other Marios. I know some of you disagree but remember this is just my opinion.

This has got to be my least favorite Mario game, although much better than Mario's Time Machine and the like. I just...never liked it that much. This is coming from someone that didn't enjoy Earthbound either, so what can I say.

I have never enjoyed any Zelda game except Link's Awakening either. I adore Kirby though!

what does "disenigrates" mean?

While not my favorite of the Super Mario Bros. games, I think it made sense for Nintendo to make changes to DDP (and release it as SMB2 here). I, too, would have scratched my head and chewed my controller in frustration playing SMB2j back then. Either way, we get Shyguys and Birdo in Mario games now, so everybody wins.

#24 has NO SOUL!!!!!

Did the Doki Doki Panic dudes get paid for the use of their characters? Because several games later on have used the shyguys and birdo.

For those who crave the difficulty of SMB2, you might also want to try tracking down the arcade version "Vs SMB". Okay, well you may have a hard time finding it, but you'll find a way. Anyhow, while the game starts off similarly, the difficulty ramps WAY up in later levels. For example, I remember a pit that requires you to bounce off a flying koopa to clear it. Stuff like that. Also, if you get to the high score screen you'll hear a new SMB song.

FWIW

#27: Doki Doki Panic was a Nintendo game created by Miyamoto. So, yeah, Nintendo probably had the rights for the SMB2 characters.

I wanna see Wart again. Or some Shyguys in a 3D Mario.

Half of the stuff in that About.com article is incorrect.

The characters weren't "thieves" or anything like that.
The line up is like this:

Father, Mother, Sister, Brother.

And of cource the version we got the line up went like this

Mario, Luigi, Princess, Toad.

Which if you acctually played the Japanese original game and the American remake the characters match up like that EXACTLY.

Mario = Father
Luigi = Mother
Princess = Sister
Toad = Brother

This guy that wrote this article doesn't know WTF he's talking about.

I always wondered about this game. Just why is it that it has a Fuji TV copyright on the title screen?

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America's influence on the Super Mario Bros. franchise

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