Game Information
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was first released in North America in October 1988, and in the PAL region the following year. It has been remade or re-released for several video game consoles. The game is the product of a circle of influences following the breakthrough success of Super Mario Bros. (1985). The sequel prototype is based on two cooperative players lifting and throwing each other, lifting and stacking objects, and scrolling the screen upward — a design too complex for the Famicom hardware and with dissatisfying gameplay. This ambitious concept was postponed in favor of a quicker upgrade to the original Super Mario Bros. engine, released in Japan as the notoriously challenging Super Mario Bros. 2. The Mario team resumed development of the prototype for another interim game, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (1987). Instead of Mario graphics, this advergame was branded with the characters and themes of Fuji Television's technology expo called Yume Kōjō '87 (lit. "Dream Factory").Nintendo of America decided Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2 had gameplay too frustratingly difficult and too similar to Super Mario Bros. to be worth releasing into the recently crashed American market. Therefore, finally delivering upon the inspiration of the original prototype and creating a second official sequel, Nintendo cosmetically modified Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic to become the international release of Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).
