All seasoned gamers know the story of Super Mario Bros. 2 on the NES, but I’ll tell it anyways. Rather than give us the real sequel to Nintendo’s premiere platformer they instead re-skinned an unrelated title and changed its name. Upon learning this most gamers expressed curiosity about the real sequel. Few ever mention the title that was altered to fit the franchise. I’ve long wondered about Doki Doki Panic, and with the purchase of my Famicom Disk System I’ve finally had the chance to try it out. I always assumed that there would be some huge differences between the two games, and it was disappointing to discover that they’re mostly aesthetic. Despite this fact it’s a very fun title and the makes for an interesting nostalgic crash. Doki Doki Panic is still an important title historically, and it’s a worthwhile part of any retro collection.
Doki Doki Panic features a nice intro to set up the story. Two children are in their room reading a book when all of a sudden a reptilian hand reaches out, grabs them, and pulls the kids into the storybook. The other family members come to the rescue and enter this alternate world to save them. This aspect of the game is better than in Super Mario Bros. 2 because there’s at least an introduction. The game itself is a side scrolling platform title, but it has some very unusual mechanics. For starters, you begin by selecting one of four characters that each have different abilities. Papa is the strongest and can pick up items with ease but has the weakest jump. Mama is the direct opposite of this but with more slippery control. Lina is also weak but has the ability to temporarily hover during a jump. Imajin is the most rounded character with no weaknesses but at the cost of not excelling in any particular area. What’s interesting here (and quite different from SMB2) is that you must complete the game as all of the characters to see the ending. Thankfully your progress is saved allowing you to finish in more than one sitting. This aspect makes the game artificially long, and I prefer just breezing through as a single character instead of playing as them all.
What makes things interesting is the fact that you do not defeat enemies by jumping on their heads. You can ride atop most enemies, but by pressing the B button you can pick up and throw them. The various levels are also packed with plants growing out of the ground. These two can be picked up and are generally vegetables that can be thrown at enemies. Other times you’ll reveal extra lives, clocks which stop time for a short while, and magical lamps that create doors. You can go through these and it takes you to an alternate darkened version of wherever in the level it was activated. This is used to your advantage as any un-pulled plants appear here and grant you coins that are spent in a slot machine at the end of each stage. In addition specific places here reveal hearts that increase your life indicator by one. In some levels you can even use these magical lamps to open up warps to later areas. This mechanic is really interesting because sometimes where you uncover this item is not where it is best used. This leads to a lot of trial and error.
The level design here is refreshingly dynamic when compared to other games of this era. Hazards and enemy placement is really interesting, and most of the time there are multiple methods by which you can deal with or even bypass them. The different character strengths directly affect this in some cool ways. The boss encounters are particularly impressive. Birdo for example spits eggs that you must jump on top of and throw back at her. She’s a mid-boss in every stage, but the third level of each world features a unique encounter. These include the bomb throwing Mouser, a three headed fire breathing dragon, and more. It’s always interesting to find unique ways by which to use the tools given to you in each encounter. This brings me to the differences between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2. While I did say they’re mostly aesthetic there are a few gameplay elements that they differ on. For example, in this game your characters do not shrink when you’re left with just one heart. Bosses generally require a different number of hits depending on which you’re playing, and one of these is completely changed in Super Mario Bros. 2. I’m speaking of the second encounter with Mouser; in SMB2 you instead face off against a crab. Probably the biggest difference in this game is that your characters cannot run. It might not sound like a big deal, but this affects their momentum for jumps and makes Doki Doki Panic the more difficult title overall.
The graphics between the two games are very similar. On its own merits Doki Doki Panic is a very nice looking title by NES standards. The characters and enemies feature appropriate animation and detail, and the scenery is nice as well. The backgrounds are generally solid colors with random objects (such as clouds) but this is acceptable given the hardware. The Arabian theme is nicely realized in many of the stages, and it feels a little more pronounced in this title than in the North American counterpart. There are some distinct differences between this and SMB2. Obviously the characters are different, but other touches are a lot slighter. For example, the masks that give chase when you snag keys are much less menacing here, the throwable blocks have faces and no longer look like mushrooms, and everything just feels more outlined here. With that said there are some rather odd changes. For example Birdo has less animation here, and for some unknown reason the waterfalls flow significantly faster in this title. The latter actually looks very neat and I prefer it. Unfortunately the grass doesn’t animate here, and is black instead of red. The slot machine screen is also a single color which looks a little ugly. Despite these differneces I think Doki Doki Panic looks slightly better to be honest. The soundtrack is mostly unchanged. The magical door theme is different and is actually a lot better with the Arabian theme. The sound effects are also different here but are higher quality. The audio here is better in my opinion, but the changes are not significant.
If you’ve played Super Mario Bros. 2 then you’ve basically experienced the best of Doki Doki Panic. While I prefer the aesthetics of the latter the lack of a run button is actually pretty significant. In my opinion what we originally got was better. Unfortunately Doki Doki Panic is one of those games that requires you to switch disk sides so this too is annoying. You’ve also got loading times to deal with. These aren’t particularly bad but it’s noticeable. The real problem with this game is the lack of the ability to run which alters gameplay pretty significantly. Still, this is one of the more famous Famicom Disk System games, and is worth owning just for its historical significance. Doki Doki Panic also serves as a great conversational piece.
