Super Mario Bros. 2

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Developer(s)

Nintendo R&D4 (NES, SNES)
Nintendo R&D2 (GBA)

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Director(s)

Kensuke Tanabe

Producer(s)

Shigeru Miyamoto

Composer(s)

Koji Kondo

Series

Super Mario

Release date(s)

NES/FDS:
NA: October 9, 1988
EU: April 28, 1989
AU: May 4, 1989
JP: September 14, 1992
(Doki Doki Panic: July 10, 1987)

GBA:
JP: March 21, 2001
NA: June 11, 2001
PAL: June 22, 2001

VC (Wii U):
JP: July 16, 2014
NA: November 6, 2014

NES Classic:
JP/AUS: November 10, 2016
NA/EU: November 11, 2016

Switch Online:
INT: September 18, 2018
SK/HK: April 23, 2019

Platform(s)

Nintendo Entertainment System/Family Computer Disk System, NES Classic Edition, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U), Nintendo Switch, PlayChoice-10

Genre(s)

Platform

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a video game developed and published by Nintendo on NES in 1988; it is actually a modified version of the Japan-exclusive game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic originally released on Famicom in 1987. The game's composer is Koji Kondo. The game also received an enhanced remake, titled Super Mario All-Stars, on Super Nintendo in 1993 and an enhanced port, titled Super Mario Advance, on Game Boy Advance in 2001.

Overview[edit | edit source]

Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic is a platform game released as a tie-in with Fuji Television's Yume Kōjō '87 event. Made by the same team behind the first Super Mario Bros. games, it explored the idea of a more vertical kind of gameplay. The game was retooled in the rest of the world as Super Mario Bros. 2, as the actual SMB2 (that would later be known as "The Lost Levels") was deemed too difficult for the western audience; this Mario-ifed version was later ported in Japan as well under the title Super Mario USA. The Mario franchise eventually continued with Super Mario Bros. 3, while the idea of 4 characters with individual characteristic would eventually return in Super Mario 3D World. Several characters from this game, like Birdo and the Bob-ombs, are now core Mario characters thanks to this localization.

In Doki Doki Panic, the demon Mamu escapes from a fairy tale book after the page telling how he was defeated was ripped off, kidnapping the Poki & Piki twins who accidentally freed him. Witnessing the scene, the monkey Rūsa warns the siblings Imajin and Lina and their parents, and they immediately jump into the Muu World - the world of dreams - to save. In Super Mario USA, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad all realize that they has the same dream: a strange place called Subcon, the land of dreams, that was being taken over by the dreadful Wart. They then stumble upon the exact same door than in their dream, and all decide to take it.

The music of Doki Doki Panic was already composed by Super Mario Bros.'s composer Koji Kondo, making it a perfect fit for an improvised Mario game. The only major difference between the two versions the addition of two traditional Mario tracks in the international version ("Ground Theme" for the Subspace world and "Starman" for the invincibility power-up), although the reused songs were improved slightly.