Changes from Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic

This is a sub-page of Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES).

As originally pointed out on the main page for Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic, it was converted into Super Mario Bros. 2 for an overseas release and as a replacement of sorts for the FDS game called Super Mario Bros. 2.

Technical#

While Doki Doki Panic used the memory capabilities of the Famicom Disk System, Super Mario Bros. 2 uses a MMC3 mapper chip, which allows for a greater variety of graphics/animations for objects that were previously static, and reduces load times. Using a mapper was the only way to port Doki Doki Panic to the NES (if they didn't, the game's program ROM would be limited to 32 kilobytes), and the reduced load times and animations are a side-effect of using the mapper.

Characters#

In Doki Doki Panic, the playable characters were the mascots of Fuji TV's Summer 1987 Dream Factory event, who were an Arabian family created by Fuji TV themselves to help promote the event.

Imajin#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The first slot belonged to Imajin, the game's balanced character, having equal stats across in terms of speed, jumping height and length, and time for lifting items and enemies. When it became Super Mario Bros. 2, Imajin was replaced with Mario, while keeping his balanced stats.

Lina#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The original hover-jump character in Doki Doki Panic was Lina, Imajin's girlfriend, occupying the second slot with poor running and lifting stats, making up with her hover-jump. In Super Mario Bros. 2, Lina was fittingly replaced by Peach, keeping the hover-jump, although now occupying the fourth slot.

Mama#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The original high-jumping character in Doki Doki Panic was Imajin's Mama, occupying the third slot with slightly lower running and lifting stats from her son, but outdoing him with her high-jump. She was replaced in Super Mario Bros. 2 by Luigi, occupying the second slot.

Papa#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The original power character in Doki Doki Panic was Imajin's Papa, occupying the fourth slot, outrunning and outlifting his son, but having the worst jump height in the game. Super Mario Bros. 2 replaced him with Toad, now occupying the third slot, carrying over Papa's stats.

Animation Changes#

Grass#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In Doki Doki Panic, the patches of grass were static black graphics. In Super Mario Bros. 2, the patches of grass were animated with red leaves. The turnips still had their black leaves when uprooted, though.

Potion#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

As mentioned here, the Lamp from Doki Doki Panic was changed to a Potion in Super Mario Bros. 2 and gained some animation as well.

POW Block#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The POW Blocks received a seven-frame animation in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Albatoss#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In Doki Doki Panic, the Albatosses have a two-frame animation, while their appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2 has a seven-frame animation.

Waterfalls#

The following content may induce seizures and has been hidden by default. Click to reveal:
Doki Doki Panic Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The waterfall tiles in Doki Doki Panic (and by extension the Super Mario Bros. 2 prototype) were manually animated in CHR RAM and moved at 60 frames per second. As a side effect of moving all tile animations to CHR ROM in the final Super Mario Bros. 2, their speed was drastically reduced and varies slightly depending on the current area you're in. This also had the unintended side effect of reducing the risk of seizures, particularly in the second area of World 3-1 (pictured above).

Crystals#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The crystal obtained from defeating Birdo had a shine animation added in Super Mario Bros. 2, where there was none in Doki Doki Panic.

Conveyor Belts#

The conveyor belts were redesigned and given a different color palette in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Cherries#

The cherries are animated in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Grabbed Enemies#

The wriggling animation of a grabbed enemy is much faster in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Bomb Fuses#

The fuses on bombs are animated in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Vines#

The vines are animated in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Spikes#

The deadly spikes are animated in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Clouds#

The cloud platforms are animated in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Water#

The water seen in World 4 is animated in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Graphical Changes#

Phanto#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Phanto has a simplistic design in Doki Doki Panic, based on an Italian-style mask from the original Dream Factory event's inspiration from the Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro. When it was changed in Super Mario Bros. 2, its design was made to look more psychotic. Interestingly, the Doki Doki Panic graphic made it into the Super Mario Bros. 2 manual.

Mask Gate#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In Doki Doki Panic, the ending of each level were Mask Gates, keeping with the original Dream Factory event's Rio Carnival inspiration. These were changed into a bird face when it was converted into Super Mario Bros. 2, resembling a Japanese Gigaku mask of the Karura (a divine creature with human torso and birdlike head in Japanese mythology), which would explain why the US NES instruction manual still refers to these gates as a mask.

Stackable Blocks#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Continuing the trend of Doki Doki Panic's nods to the Dream Factory's Rio Carnival inspiration and the souvenir Italian-style masks from the event itself, the blocks that the characters can pick up and throw to stack or defeat enemies were all masks that could be purchased at the event. They were changed in Super Mario Bros. 2 to Mushroom Blocks, possibly in order to avoid confusion with the redesigned Phanto. While both Worlds 1 and 5 use the first mask design in Doki Doki Panic, Super Mario Bros. 2 gives the latter a unique mushroom design.

Extra Life#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Doki Doki Panic's way of representing a 1-Up was by way of a mask of your current character's head, a la Mega Man. In Super Mario Bros. 2, these were consolidated down to a 1-Up Mushroom for each character.

Koopa Shells#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In Doki Doki Panic, some grassy patches had blackface heads called "Big Faces". These functioned similar to Koopa Shells, and were replaced by them in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mushroom#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

As noted in the unused graphics, the Heart was the way to increase your life meter in Doki Doki Panic. Super Mario Bros. 2 replaced this with the Super Mushroom, now sporting its standardized colors.

BOMB#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The explosion graphic was spelled as "BOM" in Doki Doki Panic. "BOM" is essentially the Japanese onomatopoeia for "Boom". Humorously, it was respelled as "BOMB" in Super Mario Bros. 2.

World 7 Turnip#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The skinny World 7 turnips in Doki Doki Panic were fattened up and given bigger leaves for Super Mario Bros. 2.

The Dream Machine#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The tiles that make up the base of the Dream Machine were changed between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2. This also affects the floor at the entrance of the room and the platform that Wart stands on.

Bonus Chance#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The very bland Bonus Chance screen in Doki Doki Panic was updated in Super Mario Bros. 2 where it uses its own title screen as the background. Unlike Super Mario Bros. 2, the large turnips present in the slots of Doki Doki Panic change depending on the world the player is in compared to the single large turnip that appears in the slots of Super Mario Bros. 2.

Starfield#

Doki Doki Panic
Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Doki Doki Panic
Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Worlds 2-1 and 6-2 have a star pattern in the sky. In Super Mario Bros. 2, the starting point of the star pattern was shifted to the right.

Gameplay Changes#

Enemy Behavior#

• In Doki Doki Panic, the stationary Ninji (Hakkun) has three jump heights; low, middle, and high. In Super Mario Bros. 2, they only jump low or high.

• In Doki Doki Panic, knocked-out enemies cannot knock out other enemies as they proceed to fall off the screen, whereas in Super Mario Bros. 2, enemies can be comboed with careful throws.

• In Doki Doki Panic, Phanto doesn't move and attack when you grab a key in a Key Room; it waits until you leave the room. When you take a key in Super Mario Bros. 2, Phanto will flash, shake, then attack inside the Key Room.

Running#

In Doki Doki Panic, the B button's only function was to pull objects from the ground or below you. Super Mario Bros. 2 added an additional function by allowing the player to run while holding the button down, allowing for shortcuts to be made in certain stages with both Peach and Luigi.

Down to One Hitpoint#

Mario	Peach	Luigi	Toad

In Doki Doki Panic, when the characters are down to their final hitpoint, they stay the same size as they were before. In Super Mario Bros. 2, the players have a set of sprites for when they are down to one hit, much like in Super Mario Bros. As such, the sound of the characters powering up and down is exclusive to Super Mario Bros. 2.

Mama's/Luigi's Jump#

While Luigi did indeed inherit Mama's high-jump, using a stack of blocks shows that Luigi's jump and power jump have more height than Mama's. The first number is the normal jump in pixels, while the second is the power jump. Luigi's jumping animation also has his legs flutter to give him the impression of kicking his legs to gain air and slow his fall, a quirk which would carry over to future depictions of the character.

Game Over and Continuing#

In Doki Doki Panic, getting a game over presents the option to continue or save your progress and quit. Super Mario Bros. 2 removes saving entirely and gives the player two continues. This was changed in Super Mario All-Stars, where players can have unlimited continues, as well as saving.

Additionally, Doki Doki Panic only counts a world as "cleared" if all of its levels have been completed, meaning that if the player gets a game over while using warps, the punishment will be more harsh. For example, if the player uses a warp from World 1 to World 3 and gets a game over within World 3, they will be sent back to the beginning of World 1 upon continuing since they did not clear it in its entirety. This was adjusted in Super Mario Bros. 2 so that any world can be continued from as long as the player reaches it.

Mouser Battle#

In Doki Doki Panic, the Mouser (Don Churuge) you fight at the end of World 3 requires six hits to defeat. In Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA, it was changed to five hits.

Wart Battle#

In Doki Doki Panic, Wart (Mamu) needs four vegetables to be tossed into his mouth before he is defeated. In Super Mario Bros. 2, the number was increased to six.

Layout Changes#

World 4-1#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Super Mario Bros. 2 added an extra mushroom in the general vicinity of the first potion.

World 5-3#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

Super Mario Bros. 2 took away a few blocks underneath the World 7 secret warp. As a result, Luigi is the only character who can power jump to the platform. In Doki Doki Panic, all characters can curve a power jump around the ledge to reach the top while the intended way to reach it was riding an Albatoss (Tondor).

World 5-3 Boss#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In Doki Doki Panic, there were three fights against Mouser, with the third one in World 5-3 being a unique albino Mouser with twice as much health as the first two. The room also contained four patches of grass, a bombable wall, and two sets of spikes below Mouser, adding a bit of a challenge to the fight. In Super Mario Bros. 2, Mouser was replaced by Clawgrip, replacing the patches of grass with his pile of rocks, adding a second pit where the first set of spikes were, changing the platform and the second pit into a ramp for Clawgrip to stand on, and removing the bombable wall and overhang, in order for Clawgrip to make a longshot into the first part of the room. Clawgrip's hitpoints were reduced to five from Mouser's six in Doki Doki Panic. The purple bricks were also recolored red.

World 6-3#

Doki Doki Panic
Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The exit from the hidden shortcut to the end of the level was slightly lengthened by adding some extra cloud platforms in Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA.

World 7-1#

Doki Doki Panic
Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In the third area of the level, the highest cloud platform was removed, and the Snifit was moved to the nearest column on the left. Also, the tall column and ladder were moved far to the right. In Doki Doki Panic, every character can jump from the Snifit and go over the tall column to avoid going through the cloud-maze. In Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA, only Luigi and Peach can make the jump. (It is still possible with the other characters if you jump from the Ninji.)

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

In the next area, the ladder at the bottom of the screen was repositioned in Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA for some reason.

World 7-2#

Doki Doki Panic	Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA

The castle entrance was changed in Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA. The windows were made taller, while the gate was made shorter with a fully rounded top.

Localization Changes#

In order for the game to fit in with the Mario series, the localization team at Nintendo of America did away with the Rio Carnival and Arabian Nights themes present in the game.

Intro#

The intro for Doki Doki Panic is elaborated upon in the manual: One day, Piki and Poki were reading a book about the Muu People, who determined the quality of dreams and determined the quality of the next day's weather. Because of this, the Muu citizens invented a dream machine so they could always have good dreams. One day, Wart invaded the land of Muu and twisted the dream machine into a nightmare machine. However, the Muu people learned of his weakness to vegetables and used them to defeat him. While the twins were reading under the supervision of their pet monkey Rusa, they end up fighting over who gets to turn the page, accidentally tearing out the ending. Wart, now freed from his doomed canon, pulls the twins into the book himself as a new world conquest. Rusa rushes to the family of the twins and Lina, all jumping into the book to rescue them.

The game's version of the intro shows the bit where Wart pulls them in, and Rusa getting their family to rescue them, before the game prompts the player to flip to Side B.

In Super Mario Bros. 2, the intro and manual story state that one night, Mario has a dream where he climbs up a long staircase before opening a door overlooking the land of Subcon, now under Wart's control. A faint voice from the imprisoned Subcon tells him that they have been cursed and that he must save them from his tyranny, with a brief mention of Wart's weakness to vegetables. Mario wakes up the next day with Luigi, Peach, and Toad having a picnic in the mountains, where Mario tells them of his strange dream, with the others stating that they all had it too. Upon arriving at their picnic spot, the group notice a small cave, which led to the same exact scenario as their dream the night before. Despite the changes to the story, the intro screens for every level still retain the storybook motif (albeit with one side mirrored to the other to resemble a stack of papers).

According to the Doki Doki Panic manual, the reason for World 7 having two stages, as opposed to the usual three, was because of Piki and Poki accidentally ripping the story's ending out of the book. In Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA, this plot point was left unexplained.

Ending/Credits#

In Doki Doki Panic, if you beat the game with only one character, you'll get a bad ending where the Subcons (Muu People) are rescued, but Wart is not defeated. If you defeat Wart with all four characters, then you'll get the good ending where the children are rescued and Wart is pummeled to death. Then the children and the rest of the family go back to the real world and the credits roll.

Super Mario Bros. 2 drops this requirement; it only has one ending. It combines the Subcon rescue scene with the one where Wart is pummeled, then cuts to a completely new scene showing Mario sleeping in bed while a character cast rolls on the screen.

Names#

Enemies#

Although Tweeter, Spark, and Flurry debuted in Doki Doki Panic, they were unlisted in the manual and only named in magazines and guides until the release of Super Mario USA.

Bosses#

Clawgrip was not present in Doki Doki Panic, but was given a Japanese name in Super Mario USA.

Audio Changes#

To do: Add comparisons for the rest of the music/sound effects if necessary.

Due to Doki Doki Panic being on the Famicom Disk System, a lot of the game's music and sound effects took advantage of the FDS's extra wavetable synth channel. When the game was converted to Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA, since the NES lacks any compatibility for additional sound channels, lots of alterations were made to fit under its limitations. This is most evident with the sound effects for picking something up, getting hit, or damaging/killing a boss, as Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA replaces the wavetable synth noises with DPCM samples.

Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA also either adds extra parts to or completely changes many of Doki Doki Panic's songs, usually to keep in line with standard Super Mario themes. Other songs, such as the boss themes or the victory/death/game over jingles, only received minor instrumental changes.

Title/Introduction#

The title/intro theme was changed to a rearrangement of the underwater theme from the original Super Mario Bros. game. Interestingly enough, the version from Doki Doki Panic would later be adapted into Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA's ending theme.

Chapter/Character Select#

The chapter select theme was given a bridge as well as some more instrument variation for Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA's character select theme.

Overworld#

The overworld theme received an equal amount of polish in Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA.

Underground#

The underground theme was decreased in tempo and received a nice percussion track in the form of DPCM samples.

Wart/Mamu's Theme#

The lead instrument in the theme for the final boss was changed.

Ending#

While the composition used for the first part of the ending is essentially identical, the staff roll theme in Doki Doki Panic is completely different from the cast roll theme in Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA. While Doki Doki Panic uses a more swingy, cheery version of the first part while adding a bridge, Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA uses a slower, lullaby-like rendition of Doki Doki Panic's intro theme with another part added to it.

Subspace#

The song that plays in Subspace was changed from an Arabian-sounding ditty to the classic Super Mario Bros. theme.

Invincibility#

The invincibility theme was also changed to the equally classic Starman theme from Super Mario Bros.

Extra Life#

The sound that plays when picking up an extra life was changed from the standard victory jingle to the classic extra life jingle from Super Mario Bros. Not only that, it does not interrupt whatever in-game track was playing unlike Doki Doki Panic.