From "Doki Doki Panic" to "Super Mario Bros 2"! Quiz

Answer: Four

In "Super Mario Bros. 2", the player can chose any of the four characters at the start of each new level. It doesn't matter what character you chose in terms of seeing the final ending. In "Doki Doki Panic", however, there is a save system for each character, and in order to see the final ending you must beat the game with all four characters on their respective save files.

Answer: The World Screen at the start of each level

The plot of Doki Doki panic involves a story-book, captured twins, monkeys, and a family intent on rescuing the twins. The family's pet monkey Rusa gives a story book to twins Poki and Piki. The twins fight and ending up tearing out the last page of the book. Mamu (Wart) magically reaches out his giant hand from the book and captures the twins, causing their parents, Mama and Papa, and their siblings, Imagin and Lina, to jump into the book to rescue them.

The world screen that tells you what level you are on is based on this story-book plot that Nintendo removed. In "Doki Doki Panic" there are page numbers included which are not present in the conversion. These world screens are clearly pages from the book in the original plot, although Nintendo completely abandoned that conception for "Super Mario Bros. 2".

Answer: Clawgrip

The final boss of World 5 was a third encounter with Mouser in "Doki Doki Panic". This Mouser takes six hits to defeat, whereas Mamu/Wart only takes 4. Like "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link" with the introduction of the boss Gooma as the Fifth Palace Boss, when Nintendo brought the game to the western markets, they replaced added a new boss not present in the original version.

In "Super Mario Bros. 2", the player encounters Clawgrip, a crab that throws rocks, as the main boss of that world. Oddly enough, the manual states that he grows suddenly, which does not occur in-game.

Answer: The Ice Platforms

Nintendo newly animated several portions of the game during the game's conversion from "Doki Doki Panic". The cherries and grass wave in the wind and the cloud platforms now have small movements. The spikes in the in-door levels were subtly changed.

The Albatoss enemy has eight frames of animation (although due to a glitch the player only sees seven) instead of the original two frames. Most notably, the Waterfalls were significantly slowed down, probably to reduce the risk of siezures. The ocean in World 4 was also animated.

The quicksand also had some animation changes as well. The conveyor belts in 7-2 were reworked.

Answer: World 5

In World 5-3, at the start of the level there is a pipe on a platform above the player. In "Doki Doki Panic", there is an extended ledge the player can use to easily access the pipe. In "Super Mario Bros. 2", Nintendo removed part of that ledge in order to make the player have to get at the pipe another way. There are warp pipes in each world listed in the answers.

Answer: Jump over a column to get to a ladder

The middle of 7-1 is constructed as a small gauntlet. There is a column that blocks a ladder the player must get too. To get to the ladder, the player must navigate several cloud platforms resting on top of each other. This creates for some tricky platforming, because if the player jumps at all, he or she is taken up a level and loses progress, as the player needs to get to the lowest level and move right to access the ladder. The player must be strategic as there are enemies that must be dealt with.

In "Doki Doki Panic", the player can completely bypass this cloud platform platform challenge by using an extended platform and powersquatting to use the special jump that gives each character additional height and simply jumping over the column to get to the ladder. Oddly enough, when the player climbs of the ladder to the next section of the level, "Super Mario Bros. 2" moves the ladder to the left of its original location.

Answer: It makes the shortcut far less obvious in "Super Mario Bros 2"

In "Doki Doki Panic", the door is clearly visible if you scroll to the left of the final pyramid the player must enter to fight Tryclyde. There is no way to access that door and would likely confuse the player. The door is simply meant as a short cut, and by adding the platforms and removing the door from being easily seen Nintendo made the shortcut much more well hidden. To access the short cut in both versions, at the start of the level the player must be swallowed by quick sand and then hit the jump button continually as the player travels under a wall to get to a hidden door.

Answer: Tweeter

In World 5-3, the player is at the top of a long vertical shaft and must descend that shaft in order proceed. In "Doki Doki Panic", there are three enemies the player can ride in order to avoid spikes and other hazards: a red Shy Guy, a pink Shy Guy, and a Tweeter, which is a jumping bird. If the player rides the Tweeter, once they get about mid-way down the shaft they land on a platform near the top of the screen. Due to Tweeter's jumping mechanics, Tweeter will jump up on another nearby platform which is near the top of the screen, causing the screen to shift upward and causing the player to fairly consistently take a hit.

Answer: Sub-Space Theme

Nintendo replaced the original Sub-Space theme of "Doki Doki Panic", which had an Arabian feel, to a more traditional Mario track. Nintendo also replaced the Starman theme in "Doki Doki Panic" with the one used in the original "Super Mario Bros.". Other musical differences included extended music for "Super Mario Bros. 2" in the Character Select Screen and the Overworld Theme.

The underground theme in "Super Mario Bros. 2" has a faster tempo as well as percussion.

Answer: True

In the final ending of "Doki Doki Panic" does not have the ending scene where the player's character pulls the plug from the pipe where the Subcon creatures are being held captive. In the first three endings that scene is shown, however.

These are most of the major changes Nintendo made to "Doki Doki Panic". There are still other changes to find if you are interested further. I hope you enjoyed this fascinating exploration of a famous bit of Nintendo history!