Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

As most Nintendo fans already know by this point, the game released as Super Mario Bros. 2 outside of Japan was not the same Super Mario Bros. 2 that Japan had gotten in 1986. Due to a negative internal testing response to the Japanese SMB2, Nintendo chose not to localize it and instead took another game they made and modified it to serve as the Super Mario sequel for the west.

Nevertheless, the game was a smash hit, and many characters and enemies introduced in this game (Birdo, Shy Guys, Ninjis, Pokeys, etc.) were gradually incorporated into future Mario media.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Changes from Yume Koujou: Doki Doki PanicIt takes a lot to convert a promotional item into a wildly-popular game.

Unused Graphics#

Doki Doki Panic Leftovers#

Objects#

Found among the graphics used in the ending scenes.

A magic lamp. This became the Magical Potion, and has the same effect (creates a door to Subspace).

This heart was the equivalent to the Mushrooms found in Subspace. Interestingly, one page of the instruction manual mentions that Subspace has hearts in certain places despite having just introduced the Mushroom on the previous page.

A static crystal ball, grass tuft, and spike, left over from Doki Doki Panic. SMB2 uses new, animated graphics for these objects. Interestingly, the grass used on the title screen is based on the early grass sprite.

The original Albatoss sprite, no longer used as SMB2 uses a new and more elaborate set of sprites for it. The first half of the first sprite is duplicated 8 times in the graphical data for the playable characters.

A lock used on Piki and Poki's cage in Doki Doki Panic.

Tiles#

These are the copyright icon and a slash straight from the Doki Doki Panic intro.

The between-level and pause screens in Doki Doki Panic are two screens wide and resemble an open book, which makes sense given that nearly all of the game takes place inside a storybook. SMB2 shrunk these to one screen and the book theme was (mostly) removed, but the extra tiles can still be found in the CHR data.

An unused question mark, which came from the Doki Doki Panic character selector.

Here is the entire set of tiles used at the ending of Doki Doki Panic for the cage where Wart kept the two children he kidnapped in the prologue. Neither the objects nor the cage (nor the children, for that matter) have any equivalent in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Prototype Leftovers#

Yes, money; dollars, in fact. At one point in development, the ending awarded "Prize Money" based on the number of lives used, with fewer deaths awarding more money (all the way up to $10,000,000). The final game replaced this with a display showing how many times you used each character.

This is the letter Z used in the "Prize Money" text seen at the ending of prototype.

Miscellaneous Graphics#

Hidden in the tileset for the desert stages is a little smiley face that isn't used anywhere in the prototype, final, or Doki Doki Panic. It appears to just be a placeholder.

Eighth Animation Frame#

The animated tiles, such as the POW Blocks and Cherries, have eight frames of animation. However, due to a bug, only the first seven frames are displayed. To fix this and cycle through all eight frames, set $FAF5 ($1FB05 in the ROM) to $27 or use Game Genie code YXNYSZTZ. (This code will not work on a hardware Game Genie.) Note that the graphics for the top of the waterfall, the POW Block, the slower quicksand, and Albatoss are unique to this missing frame.

Used	Full

Used	Full

The Albatoss and POW Block have noticeably smoother animations with the missing frames added.

Unused Death Sound#

Watch on YouTube

The game is programmed to play a DPCM sample when the player dies (a recording of the sound heard in Doki Doki Panic, in fact). However, due to the fact that the sound engine silences DPCM samples on music track changes, the sound does not actually play.

To restore the sound, change these values in a headered ROM: 0x8431 from $8D to $AD and 0x8436 from $8D to $AD. Game Genie codes SZXAPKSE + SZXATKSE will also work.

Full Subspace Music#

The Subspace music lasts 14 seconds and loops, but only the first ~7 seconds are heard due to that being the duration of each Subspace visit. The easiest way to hear the full track in-game is to pick up a Starman, enter Subspace, and then exit just before the invincibility wears off; if done correctly, the Subspace music will continue to play until the next track change.

To hear the full song at the title screen, use Game Genie code KEOOXXSE.

The full track also plays in Super Mario Maker 2 upon collecting the SMB2 Mushroom and hitting a P-Switch. It also plays in the Nintendo Music app, titled Sub-Space BGM.

Unused Palettes#

Title Screen#

Unused Sprites Palette

Although the title screen doesn't have a single visible sprite, it does have sprite palettes, which interestingly were taken directly from the intro of Doki Doki Panic!

Unused Pastel Blue Palette

On the title screen is a palette with a pastel blue color that isn't assigned to anything.

Title Card/Pause Screen#

Unused Sprites Palette

Although there are no sprites on this screen, the sprite palettes of Imajin, Papa, Lina, and Mama are left over from Doki Doki Panic's character select screen.

Unused Green Palette

A green palette. While unused in Super Mario Bros. 2, it was previously used on the character select screen in Doki Doki Panic to denote level progress.

Bonus Chance#

Unused Red & Blue Palette

While the brown and gray palettes are used on the Bonus Chance screen, the same does not apply to these curious blue and red palettes.

Unused Text#

THANK YOU#

Text reading "THANK YOU" can be found at addresses 0x14651 to 0x14659. This was used in both Doki Doki Panic and the prototype after freeing the Subcons from the jar.

THE END#

Text reading "THE END" can be found at addresses $29CE to $29D4, a leftover from the original ending seen in the prototype.

ZELDA#

The string "ZELDA" is present at ROM address ​​0x1FFFB to 0x1FFFF. It appears that Nintendo copied the PRG footer/vector table from The Legend of Zelda (another FDS-to-NES conversion) and simply forgot to change the title.

Revisional Differences#

Fryguy Glitch#

Revision 0	Revision 1

Normally, hitting a mini-Fryguy with a Mushroom Block will cause it to disappear in a puff of smoke. In the original release, however, if you manage to hit one while your character is shrinking, it will flip upside-down and fall off the screen instead.

This somehow confuses the game into thinking there are mini-Fryguys left even after the rest are extinguished, and hence the exit will never appear. This game-breaking bug was fixed in Revision 1.

Bonus Chance#

US Revision 0 (North America)	US Revision 0 (Europe)

Revision 1 adds an extra NMI wait before drawing the Bonus Chance screen layout. This was done to resolve an issue where the screen fails to render properly on European consoles (essentially, an NMI occurs immediately after the pointer to the screen layout data is set, which causes it to be erased before the game can actually do anything with it). While US Revision 1 was not released in Europe, it was used as the basis for European Revision 0.

Regional Differences#

US/Europe	Japan

After the retirement of the Famicom Disk System in 1992, Nintendo kept Doki Doki Panic in Japanese circulation in the form of Super Mario USA. This was simply a renamed version of the overseas Super Mario Bros. 2, released as a Famicom cartridge. (Copyright issues with Fuji TV prevented the original game from getting reissued, though the back of the Super Mario USA box still mentions Doki Doki Panic as part of a small blurb detailing the game's history.) Aside from the modified title screen, which now uses the same brown and black palette as the Bonus Chance screen instead of the original red and blue palette, it is identical to US Revision 1. This noticeably also extends to the cast roll at the end of the game, with everyone still going by their English names (though the manual uses their Japanese ones).

Virtual Console Changes and Unused Content#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Do more research on this, and see if there's anything else the 3DS VC version changes/leaves unused. Weird fact: If you run Wii U VC Release in an emulator like Mesen, you'll notice that the Bomb flash has been altered. But in Wii U VC, the flash works just like in the original. Is it a patch? This is weird.

General Changes#

Original	Virtual Console	Virtual Console (Emulator)

The Virtual Console release appears to have changed the colors of the waterfalls in some areas. These have been reverted in the NES Classic Edition and later re-releases.

Unused Text#

The Virtual Console's config.ini contains unused text related to a variety of things.

Build Time#

The file buildtime.txt contains the build time string "4月 12 2013 13時14分15秒", which translates to "April 12th, 2013 1:14:15 PM".

References#