Mario and Doki Doki Panic

[Altl]

I was check out slashdot for updates and they had linked a pretty good article about Super Mario Bros. 2 and Doki Doki panic. I had always realized that we didn't get the original Super Mario Brothers 2, but I didn't know about most of this....

Slashdots summary:

"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."

Link to the article: nintendo.about.com/library/mariochanges/blmariodifferences1.htm


Edit: If you knew this already good for you, you're king of the nerds!

[Ranger]

I've known it for a while I was sure it was common knowledge >_>

[Draxas]

Yeah, I thought this was pretty much common knowledge by now. Lots of people became privy to this little "secret" after the US release of Super Mario All-Stars; I personally knew about long before then, since I had a friend in elementary school with a Japanese NES, complete with the "real" SMB2 cart.

Personally, I've always liked "Super Mario USA" the best out of the entire series (save perhaps Mario 64), simply because it was so different, and because you got to use and appreciate all the different members of the core cast. But realistically, I didn't really think very hard about how this "bastardized gaijin" game has so thoroughly infiltrated the rest of the series until rather recently; they really did use a lot of elements from the game in later installments of the Mario series (and/or spinoff games).

Anyway, I'm surprised most of all that you didn't remember this little tidbit, Altl; it was in the chapter on Mario in that book you sent me. Speaking of, it was an excellent read (even if he does get a little too irrationally exuberant on certain topics); I finally managed to scrape together enough time to finish it recently (the morning power outage certainly helped that matter). I'll see about shipping your stuff back ASAP.

[Altl]

If anything the above article is a good read as it mentions how the game changed the mario series.

Edit: Do you have any books/games worth reading/playing [draxas]?

[Draxas]

Sure do!... Maybe.

Depends on what you're into, really; my collection is reasonably large, and runs from current-gen all the way back to the NES (mostly via Nintendo machines). Books might be a bit trickier, since I usually let the library handle those for me, but I have a few good ones. Ever read Terry Pratchett?

[Altl]

Nope. Also you wouldn't happen to have a copy of "Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne"?

[Draxas]

I wish. The game is awesome, my friend has a copy. I can't seem to find it for a reasonable price anywhere (or more realistically, can't seem to find it at all).

I have a few books by Pratchett on my bookshelf, they're great reads. However, while he does do a number of standalone books, these fall into some of his series, which are best understood and appreciated when read in order. Still, I highly reccommend him; poke around your local library and see if you can turn up The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic (which are his first two books), or some of his other titles.

[Altl]

Can't find that game myself. Thats why I was hoping you had it, I read on the internet(tm) that it was good. Oh well.

Anyway I'll check out that Pratchett fellow once I finish all this damn summer reading. *waves books in the air*

[Draxas]

Stupid high school. I'm so glad I graduated the year before they instated the mandatory summer reading program.

[Ranger]

>_> <_< never had to do Mandatory Summer Reading. I do start foreign languages and chemistry come Aug 21st though :-D I have to miss my first Chem Lab due to PAX though D: