Topic: The REAL Story of Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)

Many of you might think that Super Mario Bros. 2 was just a remake of Doki Doki Panic and America didn't get the Japanese SMB2 because it was too hard. But it is mostly untrue. Let me explain myself.

After the original SMB was released, Nintendo wanted to create a sequel for it. So what they did was they started developing SMB2 (Japan). When it was finished, they released it In Japan only, because NoA thought it would be too hard for the people there. So Nintendo decided to go at a different approach. They started developing SMB2 (USA), and when it was finished, they released it everywhere else. But NoJ thought that their people would want to play the game, too. But since there already is a SMB2 (Japan), they had to change up the player graphics and a few other small details so that it can be released in Japan (Doki Doki Panic). But eventually, because of popular demand, NoJ released Super Mario USA, which is the same game as the USA Super Mario Bros. 2, but different title.

And that is what REALLY happened. If you disagree or agree, post in the comments below.

But I presume the majority of us already know the story of Doki Doki Panic.

And the reason they changed the characters from already known Nintendo characters to complete nobodies for Doki Doki Panic would be....

I take that back. I was wrong, they weren't changed to complete nobodies. I actually didn't know Doki Doki Panic started as a Mario 2 Prototype. I always though they had just been lazy and modified an already existing unrelated game.

Did you know that Bowser was going to be humanized so that everything sorta kinda makes sense

because it was a licensed game for Fuji TV (hence the Fuji TV copyright on the title screen of Doki Doki Panic). I'm guessing the Japanese probably heard of those characters in 1987 (though I've heard younger audiences even in Japan don't know it was ever not a Mario game).

I'm not sure what's going on in here, but if it's the original history of SMB2 you're after, the game was actually released first in Japan as Doki Doki Panic — you're right in that it had originally been pitched as a SMB game, but SMB2(JP) had already been released, so they went ahead and used the pitch for DDP instead (as part of their contract with some company — DDP is technically a licensed title, not Nintendo's own IP iirc). Then, after making the (mistaken) decision that SMB2(JP) would be too hard for western players, they retooled DDP into SMB2(US) for release stateside, and it was so popular they wound up bringing it back to Japan as Super Mario USA.

Hope this clears everything up for you :3