Jaquette de Super Mario Bros. 2 accompagnée d'une capture d'écran du jeu

Super Mario Bros. 2: The Strangest Mario

1465 words | Reading time : 7 minute(s)

GameSuper Mario Bros. 2Birdo

You don't stomp enemies here: you yank them out of the ground and throw them. Released on the NES in the United States on October 9, 1988 and in Europe on April 28, 1989, Super Mario Bros. 2 is in fact an adaptation of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. This article explains why the West inherited a different game, its four heroes with distinct powers and its bestiary that became a cult favourite.

Super Mario Bros. 2 — the title stayed identical in Europe and in the United States — is probably the most disconcerting entry in the plumber's entire saga. Released on the NES, it looks like no other Mario: you don't stomp enemies, you lift them, you throw them, and you pull vegetables out of the ground to use as ammunition.

Its secret? It wasn't a Mario game to begin with. It is the adaptation of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, a Japanese title given a complete makeover in Mushroom Kingdom colours for the West.

Contents

A Mario that wasn't a Mario

To understand how strange this game is, you have to go back to 1987. That year Japan saw the release of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, a title developed by Nintendo but conceived as a promotional operation for the “Yume Kōjō '87” multimedia fair run by the Fuji Television network.

It launched on the Famicom Disk System, the floppy-disk add-on for the Japanese console. Its four heroes are the fair's mascots: a family of characters with no connection whatsoever to the plumber. When Nintendo went looking for an exportable sequel to Super Mario Bros., it gave the game a coat of Mario paint — new sprites, adjusted backdrops, restyled enemies — to turn it into the Western Super Mario Bros. 2.

That sleight of hand explains plenty of oddities: the vertically scrolling levels, the absence of old-school coin collecting, or those doors leading to a parallel world. Nothing had been designed for Mario at the outset; everything was grafted on after the fact.

Why the West inherited a different game

The real Japanese second episode never vanished, though. Released in Japan in 1986, it recycles the engine of the first Super Mario Bros. but pushes its difficulty to the point of frustration: pixel-perfect jumps, poison mushrooms and headwinds trap the player on every single screen.

Nintendo of America judged it too punishing and too close to the first game for an American audience still new to the NES. Rather than shake up a market in full reconstruction, the publisher chose to convert Doki Doki Panic. The Japanese number 2 would not reach the West until 1993.

The trap to avoid: there really are two “Super Mario Bros. 2”. The one Europe met in 1989 is the former Doki Doki Panic; the “real” Japanese number 2 is in fact The Lost Levels, re-released in the compilation Super Mario All-Stars.

Japanese advert for Super Mario Bros. 2 on Famicom Disk System
Japan got an entirely different game under that name: hence the Western mix-up.

Gameplay against the grain

Controller in hand, the contrast is striking. The series' founding mechanic — flattening an enemy with a jump — no longer works: you land on its back, you lift it above your head, then hurl it at another foe or into the void.

  • You pull up vegetables sprouting from the ground and throw them as projectiles.
  • The game does without Goombas and the end-of-level flag, two symbols that were founding pillars of the first game.
  • Magic potions open a door to Sub-space, an inverted world where you gather coins and 1-Up Mushrooms.
  • Cherries and the key chased by the ghost Phanto also make their debut here, while the famous POW Block is inherited from the Mario Bros. arcade game (1983).
  • Levels mix horizontal and vertical scrolling, a freedom of movement unheard of in the saga at the time.

Four heroes with distinct powers

A first for the series: you pick your hero from four, each with a unique profile that changes the way you clear a level.

  • Mario: the most versatile, a solid compromise in every situation.
  • Luigi: the highest jump, perfect for distant platforms, at the cost of slippery braking.
  • Peach — known as Princess Toadstool in the West back then — can float briefly through the air.
  • Toad: the fastest and the strongest at yanking up vegetables and enemies, but the most limited jumper.

A bestiary that became a cult favourite

Despite its roundabout origins, Super Mario Bros. 2 enriched the Mario galaxy for good. Several of its creatures, brand new at launch, have since become pillars of the series.

  • Birdo: the pink egg-spitting dinosaur, promoted to recurring mini-boss.
  • Shy Guy (Maskass in the French version): the little masked fellow in a robe, everywhere in the spin-offs today.
  • Ninji and Pokey: the black bouncer and the jointed cactus, back in countless episodes since.
  • The ostrich Ostro and the toad Wart, tyrant of the land of Subcon, who plays the final boss.

A dream, then a 16-bit legacy

The ending holds one last twist: once Wart is beaten, Mario opens his eyes in his bed. The whole adventure was nothing but a dream, a twist that justifies after the fact the dreamlike world you have crossed.

Long dismissed as a “fake” Mario, the game was eventually folded fully into the series canon. Its 16-bit reissue in Super Mario All-Stars (SNES, 1993), with redrawn graphics and a rerecorded soundtrack, handed it to a new generation of players.

The paradox is delicious: this Mario born of a commercial misunderstanding ranks among the most influential in the saga, leaving behind characters and mechanics that are still alive today.

Super Mario Bros. 2 at a glance

Original game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (1987, Famicom Disk System)
NES release (USA) October 9, 1988
European release April 28, 1989
Developer / publisher Nintendo
Playable characters Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad
Final boss Wart, tyrant of Subcon
Distinctive feature Pulling up vegetables, lifting and throwing enemies
16-bit reissue Super Mario All-Stars (SNES, 1993)

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FAQ

  • Is Super Mario Bros. 2 the real second Japanese Mario?
    No. The SMB2 released in the West is an adaptation of Doki Doki Panic. The Japanese second episode from 1986, deemed too hard, arrived later under the name The Lost Levels.
  • What game is Super Mario Bros. 2 taken from?
    From Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, a 1987 Famicom Disk System game designed for Fuji Television's Yume Kōjō fair, whose characters Nintendo redressed in Mario colours.
  • Who are the four playable characters?
    Mario (balanced), Luigi (the highest jump), Peach, who can float, and Toad, the fastest and strongest at lifting enemies but with a limited jump.
  • Who is the game's final boss?
    Wart, a tyrannical toad who rules over the dreamlike land of Subcon. You beat him by throwing at him the vegetables he hates, before Mario wakes up.
  • Where can you play Super Mario Bros. 2 today?
    Through the Super Mario All-Stars compilation (SNES, 1993) in its 16-bit version, or via the NES catalogue of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

The whole saga

Forty years of Mario games put back in order: the main episodes, the spin-offs and the oddities.

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