Yume Koujou: Doki-doki Panic

released on Jul 10, 1987

While two children, Poke and Piki, are reading a story, a monstrous hand suddenly appears from inside the pages and kidnaps them. When the rest of the Dream Factory family hear their cries of help, they jump into the story and help save them from the evil Wart. The game was released as part of the Yume Koujou '87 event (sometimes referred as Dream Machine, in English), which was sponsored by Fuji TV, and stars its mascots. The game was edited and released as Super Mario Bros 2. Due to Nintendo of Japan feeling like their version of Super Mario Bros 2 would be too difficult and outdated by the time it got to the United States.


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After playing Super Mario USA (Super Mario Bros. 2) for so many years, I wondered why I have never played the original FDS game that starred non-Mario characters. I always heard people call it inferior but was curious if it truly was.

Dream Factory Doki Doki Panic in many ways is impressive that a team could take a platformer formula and make it more expansive with more emphasis on verticality. It’s not about jumping on enemies but picking up various items and enemies. The game sacrifices level count for this only having 20 levels. Not only that but it has four different characters with different stats really making each level feel different for the benefits and disbenefits a character can have. There’s also a boss in many stages with a lot of them being Catherine (Birdo) which can feel a bit repetitive. They also make you fight three Mousers in a playthrough and it never gets challenging. The game is pretty easy too, especially once you learn the ins and outs of it.

It should be discussed right now that I think the hate of there being no run button is a bit exaggerated. Yes it is nice to have a run button that was later added in the Mario version but the game is really well paced and designed without it. Outside of a shortcut or two being impossible without the run button, I never really felt like I needed one. I think a lot of the vertical level design helps with the notion of not needing it. Now this will always be a preference and me saying that is not gonna convince most or even all people but I just wanted to express that the game is completely enjoyable without one.

In the end it’s just what you expect if you have already played the Mario version, so it’s a pretty fun game and you’ll find lots of differences here like the music being more limited and even some new songs, Phantos not activating in the room you get the key, unlimited continues, and loading times cause it ain’t an FDS game without those. Though there is one other thing that does kind of suck. You see, you can’t see the ending without beating it with every character. Every character is on their own path to the end so once you do one playthrough, it’s back to the beginning with someone else. While Dream Factory is fun, trying to do four playthroughs just to see a small ending feels like a very poor way to extend the runtime. The most positive thing I can say about it is it’ll help you master every character but this is something I’m glad stayed with this entry.

Is Dream Factory a footnote in the history of Nintendo that will probably stay as just a footnote and nothing else? Ehh kind of? It’s such a weird feeling because it is still a very good game but the multiple playthroughs kind of hurts the curiosity and idk if doing just one playthrough would satisfy a player enough to warrant doing it. Mario USA is just easier to play nowadays as well due to that not having licensing issues. It’s even gotten remakes on the SFC and GBA. There’s better ways to play the game now so while I have my defenses, it’s hard to recommend you all to see this game till the end. It feels bittersweet writing this but that’s just how it is sometimes. This is still a must play if you’re looking for FDS games or wanting to see all of the history regarding the game but otherwise, it’s a footnote in gaming and sometimes that's not a fully bad thing to witness.

Hackzinho meia-boca de Mario 2.
Deve ser um daqueles não licenciados.
Ai ai esses hackers nunca aprendem.

Mario 2 but you can't run and with 4 playthroughs required to unlock the real ending. Not worth playing, curiosity aside

a.k.a. Super Mario 2 americano, é um plataformer medíocre com movimentação nem um pouco dinâmica.

Well, it's just Super Mario Bros. 2. There are just some differences that makes it slightly worse than the NES counterpart, but at the end it's still just Super Mario Bros. 2

But if you're curious, here are some of the differences that this game have, starting with the most irrelevant ones:

>Some aspect of the level design are slightly different. Here we have some parts where you can cheese and skip some parts of the level, but in SMB2 that was changed (although you can still have some specific skips)
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>Some sprites are different, like the mushrooms that are hearts, the mushroom blocks that are masks, the phantom mask not smiling, the explosion saying "BOM" instead of "BOMB" and the gate being an mask instead of an owl
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>Also, some sprites like the POW and the log have animations now, and some like the waterfall are a little slower
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>All the characters are different, although all of them have the same gameplay as their counterpart (Mario is Imajin, Luigi is Mama, Peach is Lina and Toad is Papa)
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>We have different songs, and the ones that aren't new have some differences like being shorter, faster or having less instruments (excluding boss/Wart music)
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>Clawgrip doesn't exist. Instead you fight Mouser one last time
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>We have an different story and cutscenes, alongside a different credits sequence (that at least for me is better than the one on SMB2)

Now here are the differences that actually changes the gameplay, although not that much:

>There is no run button. This makes the game slightly harder, but the level design is well built around it (also, there is a puzzle on chapter 3 that on SMB2 is easy to cheese because of that, while in DDP you need to do it the right way)
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>You can choose any stage that you've completed, even if you didn't beat the game with said character
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>Speaking of it, you choose the character after the stage, not after the level. And it will be on that chapter until you completed with that character (for example, if you complete chapter 5 with Mama and change to Lina that is on chapter 3, you will stillneed to pass chapter 3 with Lina, but when you come back to play with Mama, you will be on chapter 6). This actually makes get lives way easier because of the slot machine minigame. No jokes, I was with literally G5 lives when I completed the game with Mama (and that is basically 165 lives)
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>To see the ending screen, you need to complete the game with all 4 characters instead of just one. This makes the game a little more tiring for me since you will see all the 20 levels 4 times (but you can complete in "any order" you want)
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>There are no points in the end of the game, but at that moment I don't think much people cared that much about points anymore
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>And lastly, while on SMB2 you need to play the entire game on one go and have just 2 or 3 continues, here you can actually save the game. I'm not sure if the game saves after you complete it with any character (I believe it does), but once you game over, it will give you the option to save or continue the game

In the end, if SMB2 or DDP is the best one, it's up to you. For me, I still prefer SMB2 because of some additions, even if they removed some things. But it's still the same game we all know

Found out this is the same game as Mario 2, so it gets the same score.