How America Changed the Mario Brothers

DreamWinkle writes "It might seem unlikely considering that Mario was born and developed in Japan by Japanese minds, but America forever changed how our favorite plumber played. Why? Because Nintendo thought the U.S. and European gamers couldn't play. As a consequence, they never released the real Mario 2 outside of Japan because it was too hard, and instead released Doki Doki Panic with the Mario name. Since then, the entire Mario franchise has picked up traits from Doki Doki Panic, like the card game at the end of each level in Mario 3. This article takes a look at what elements really belong to Mario and what belongs to Doki Doki Panic. It's interesting to see that, point for point, Nintendo changed almost nothing about Doki Doki Panic before releasing it in the states and Europe as Mario 2."

Does anyone not know about the story of SMB2?

[bonch]

I thought this was very common knowledge by now, especially on Slashdot. For crying out loud, a link to About.com? For more detailed information about the differences between the U.S. and Japanese versions of all the Mario games, check out The Mushroom Kingdom [classicgaming.com].

Re:Does anyone not know about the story of SMB2?

[RoadDoggFL]

You're missing the point. The article's about the effect that those changes have had on all future versions, not just about the changes themselves.

Everybody's in such a rush to yell "DUPE!" they don't bother to read.

Makes a lot of sense

[kjart]

Honestly, I remember playing Mario 2 and thinking "What the hell were they smoking when they made this game? Killing enemies with turnips you pull out of the groun? Red potions that take you to a mirror world? How does this fit between 1 and 3?". This actually explains a lot.

Also, I don't know why they thought we couldn't handle the real one - all the best [imdb.com] gamers are in North America ;)

Re:Old...

[Coneasfast]

for those who don't know though, you can find this (and other) info on the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Does anyone not know about the story of SMB2?

[stickb0y]

You're missing the point. The article's about the effect that those changes have had on all future versions, not just about the changes themselves. Everybody's in such a rush to yell "DUPE!" they don't bother to read.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

DreamWinkle's summary indicates that's what the article is about, but it's really not. The article just shows a bunch of comparison screenshots and talks about what changed and what didn't, and even then, The Mushroom Kingdom's Doki Doki Panic/SMB2 comparison [themushroomkingdom.net] is more accurate, more thorough, and easier to navigate.

Wait a minute

[denmarkw00t]

Now, if I had a look at, say this page [about.com] linked from this article [about.com], noted here [slashdot.org], then I probably wouldn't need TFA to tell me that Mario 2 was an almost complete rip off of some other game.

Re:original "Mario Bros"

[KDR_11k]

The original Mario Bros was an arcade game, the Atari got a port of it as did numerous other platforms. It came after Donkey Kong but before Super Mario Bros.. There are variants of it in other Nintendo games, for example the battle game in SMB3 and a remake of the arcade game in all Super Mario Advance games and Mario & Luigi.

MB was also the game that introduced Luigi.

Adware on linked page

[Paul Johnson]

Like, don't warn us that the linked story tries to run ActiveX controls that "improve" my computer. I suppose most /.ers either run Firefox or have security turned up high, but hey, thats no excuse.

They DID release it

[Calydor]

They DID release the original Mario Bros. 2, just not on it's own, it was part of the Super Mario All-Stars compilation for the SNES, then dubbed The Lost Levels. So the article is kinda wrong, it did get released outside of Japan - eventually. It is, however, more of the same old as the first game, only harder.

Re:original "Mario Bros"

[Dorceon]

Don't forget Wrecking Crew, where Mario and Luigi take hammers to a building. It had a level editor!

Query: Was SMB2's similiarity to SMB the problem?

[J44xm]

I have also heard that the reason that the original "Super Mario Bros. 2" was not released in the USA was because the USA had a stronger demand for originality and, thus, Nintendo was concerned that the game would not be well received in the states. Certainly, SMB and SMB2 are largely very similar; however, I'm uncertain which theory is correct, if not both.

Re:Where to buy?

[randomforumposter178]

The Cartridges aren't cross-compatible because of the pinout difference, and the difference in physical shape. However, to get an adaptor, the easiest thing to do is unassemble some of the ealiest carts, like excitebike, which was a famicom cart with an adaptor. then just stick the whole thing in a plastic shell. However, since this was a disk system title (like the two famicom Zelda games, and Super Mario Bros,and I belive kid icarus, etc...) there might not be a cartridge version available. it might be best to emulate it, if you're looking for the closest experience, but disk games need the FDS Bios, and it can be hard to get it to work with some emulators. You'd probably get off better just grabbing a Super NES, or waiting and getting a Wii For the Virtual Console deal.

Everything inherited from SMB2

[gcnaddict]

I don't think the article ever really mentioned how many games inherited things from the Doki Doki Panic rebranding later on.

One of the biggest things that comes to mind is how Princess Peach can float and pull+throw turnips(?) seemingly out of nowhere in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Re:They DID release it

[hal2814]

"They DID release the original Mario Bros. 2,"

No, they did not. They released a dumbed down version of the original SMB2 for American and European audiences. From the Wiki: [wikipedia.org]

"Neither of these rereleased versions [SMB All Stars and SMB Deluxe] of the game are absolutely true to the original. Aside from the save feature and improved graphics, extra power-ups and 1-ups were peppered throughout the levels, and hidden power-ups were placed in plain sight. Red Piranha Plants, which would originally come out even if Mario or Luigi were next to or on the edge of the pipe, would not emerge if the player was standing on the center of the pipe."

If you've ever played the Famicom version of SMB2, you WILL notice the differences after a few levels.

FF: International

[cgenman]

We, in the US, never saw quite a few of the releases. For much the same reason - we are seen as too stupid. Later releases have been adjusted to meet both our markets.

Final Fantasy 7 was actually significantly improved for the US version. Not only were random enemy encounter rates cut to about 1/3rd what they were in the japanese version, but two insanely difficult "mega weapon" optional final bosses were added.

This was later released in Japan as Final Fantasy 7: international edition and proved incredibly popular as the Japanese were as sick of random enemy encounters as we were. Since then Square has released several "international" versions of Final Fantasy games back home in Japan, bringing the circle to a close.

Square had tried with Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest to create a "stepping stone" RPG for the American market, so that players unfamiliar with the conventions could be brought into the fold, then could buy the more complicated regular RPG's. The feeling was not "Americans are dumb" but that the games had evolved over thousands of titles to involve highly specialized skills, like fighting games. And those skills needed to be built up a bit before players would really buy and enjoy RPG's. Cartridges were not only expensive to manufacture, but data-hungry RPG's were far more expensive than most, and many companies lost their shirts trying to bring quirky japanese RPG's out in the US. Look at how Shining Force did here. Unfortunately Mystic Quest was terrible, and tanked badly. Fortunately Square took another chance with FFIII, and has brought out every Final Fantasy here since then.

And say what you will, RPG's are still not as popular here as they are in Japan. When a new major-title RPG is released in Japan, work comes to a standstill across the country. Here, only the hardcore even know the names of anything but Final Fantasy, let alone would camp out overnight to get one. I still haven't come across many people who have played Dragon Warrior for the PS2.

Re:Ironically, you're oversimplifying.

[genooma]

1. South America is in the western hemisphere.
2. Nowhere in south america you can't be vocally racist without risking jail or you ass getting kicked.

Where did you get such a silly idea like that? Really. I'm really curious since I lived in South America all my life.

Re:Everything inherited from SMB2

[Megane]

She pulls them out of hammerspace [wikipedia.org], duuuhhh.

Re:It's common

[plague3106]

America is the biggest convenience-led culture in global history. Just look at the obesity levels compared to the rest of the world.

Is it? That doesn't explain why obesity levels are rising at an alarming rate in other Western countries too (and many non-Western countries as well), such as Australia. Google for world wide obesity and you'll see.

Re:Ironically, you're oversimplifying.

[Belial6]

The term "Western Culture" does not mean Western Hemisphere. It means the general culture of the west half of the Asian/European land mass. That is why the UK is considered "Western Culture". The US got most of it's origianl culture from England, and that is how we ended up a "Western Culture". Of course South America got much of it's culture from spain, which is also a "Western Culture", so that doesn't really change your argument. Just clarify item (1).

Argh, not the "we're too stupid" thing again

[Mandrias]

I guess if you repeat something enough it will become true.

I would like to put forth the opinion that "Americans are too stupid for SMB2" is not the reason (or at least not the only reason) that we didn't get the game. The real reasons are much more complex.

In Japan, Nintendo was releasing an upgrade to their Family Computer game system that used disks (looked a lot like floppy disks). This Famicom disk system needed games for launch. This is what the Super Mario Brothers 2 we never saw was for. From what I've read Miyamoto wasn't even truly involved with making Super Mario Brothers 2 and in fact was really just a "creative consultant" or something. Because he was busy making another disk system game 'Dreamfactory: Doki Doki Panic' (note that the name is Dreamfactory with a subtitle of Doki Doki Panic. doki doki is japanese onomatopoeia for a beating heart, i.e. excitement and danger.) I've even heard it rumored that "Doki Doki Panic" was really supposed to be the next mario but wasn't going to be ready in time so they made the rushed SMB2 and "Doki Doki Panic" evolved in a different direction. This makes sense to me. When I look at the Japanese Super Mario 2 I don't see some "extremely difficult game that Americans won't be able to play." What I see is a rushed expansion pack that was branded as an entirely new game. But why didn't we get this game? In my opinion there are two main reasons.

1) Because the NES was new in the USA. We had just gotten our Super Mario Bros. 1 and the Japanese SMB2 would be too close on its heels with almost no real evolution of gameplay. Sure SMB2 works fine when your launching a new disk system in Japan but Nintendo wasn't sure if another almost clone like SMB game would work on the NES.

2) Because we didn't have the disk system upgrade. Nintendo thought about bringing out the disk system upgrade in the USA eventually but never did. This is because we didn't need it anymore and Nintendo didn't want us to have it.

The disk system was created for two reasons. One was to allow to-disk saving of games, the other was to reduce costs of publishing the games. By the time the NES came out the famicom disk system was having problems. Due to some draconian copy right rules many companies didn't want to publish their games on the disk system. Also, companies were losing money due to the extremely easy to copy disk format. Nintendo was afraid of pirating if they used the disk system in foreign markets. What cinched our cartridge only platform was the fact that the other benefit of the disk system, saving to disk, wasn't as important anymore. Some of the disk system games were ported to the NES with password features instead of the save-to-disk ability the disk system used. Also, when Nintendo developed the disk system battery backup was very expensive. This price dropped pretty quickly, allowing the NES to use battery backup for games. Now there was no great need for the disk system for the NES.

I think the "SMB2 is too difficult for us" idea is perhaps partially correct but not exactly for the reasons everyone seems to believe. The japanese SMB2 could be saved. You could save and restore. If a warp took you backwards you could restore your game. The game is "too difficult" because the NES did not have the save feature that the disk system had.

Now because we didn't have a save feature and because the game was too much like SMB1, we didn't get it. It just didn't make commercial sense for the NES.

Miyamoto then got to take the game he had been working on and make a Super Mario 2 for the NES. Is it a real SMB2? I would argue yes. Miyamoto may have even originally planned for it to be the actual Super Mario Bros. 2 for everyone. But in any case it was released as SMB2 for the NES and eventually was released for the Japanese market as an alternate super mario bros 2.

We might not have got the expansion pack that was the Japanese SMB2 but we got an excellent, interesting, and fun game in its place. It just doesn't make sense to say our SMB2 is