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Since releasing the original Super Mario Bros. 2 was out of the question from a sales standpoint, Nintendo was scrambling to produce a follow-up game to their most successful release to date. After a vertical scrolling idea was abandoned, it was decided that the Japanese-only game, Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, would be rebranded and retrofitted to become Super Mario. Bros 2 for American audiences.
The original game contained four playable characters named Imajin, Mama, Lina, and Papa, and each level would have to be beaten by each character before the player was allowed to proceed. Of course, these characters became Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad, and the gameplay was changed so only one character would have to complete each level.
Since many concepts from the original Super Mario Bros. were already present in Doki Doki Panic -- including warp zones, Starmen, and a similar soundtrack -- re-branding the game was not as difficult as one would think, and Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in North America on October 9th, 1988.
