Happy Tuesday, everyone. We’ve talked about a lot of obscure (yet sometimes awesome) titles these past few months, but today we are going to discuss a classic: Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.
Developed by Nintendo and published by both Nintendo and Fuji Television, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was released in 1987 to coincide with the 1987 Dream Factory festival, also known as Yume Kōjō 87. You may know the rest of the story behind this game, but we’ll get to that later. First, let’s look at the game itself.
The game begins with Poki and Piki, two children who have been sucked into a storybook. The Dream Factory Family is alerted to this predicament and leaps into the storybook to save them. It sounds like the plot out of a children’s book, but Nintendo was known for family friendly stuff at the time, so I guess I can’t complain.
The game is a side-scrolling platformer. The graphics are really good for the time, with quite a bit of detail. It captures the Arabic nature of the Dream Factory quite well. The music is pretty good, too. It’s very catchy and well-composed.
Onto the gameplay. The objective is to make it to the end of a level and defeat a boss before proceeding to the next. At the beginning of the game you are given four characters to choose from, each with their own special abilities. Imajin is the most balanced character. He can run fast, but has average jumping ability. Lena can jump higher and float for a short period of time, but she isn’t very fast or strong. Mama can jump higher and flutter in the air, but can’t run very fast. Lastly, Papa can’t jump very high, but has superb speed and strength.
Being a platformer, where does strength come in? Well, the game’s main draw is the ability to pick up items and even enemies from beneath you so you can hurt other enemies with them. You can’t kill enemies by stomping on them, but you can jump on them and pick them up by pressing A, then throw them by pressing A again. You can also pick up bombs which will destroy rocks, vegetables which you can use as a weapon, keys which will open locked floors, and magic lamps which will reveal special doors.
When revealed, special red doors will lead you to an alternate realm of the area you are in, kind of like Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Here you can get coins and power-ups, the latter of which will simply enhance your life bar. You have to be quick when grabbing these, because you’re only allowed a few seconds in the alternate realm.
There are cherries that you can collect throughout the levels, and if you collect five of them, a Star power-up will appear. If you grab it, you’ll be invincible for a short time. It’s kind of like… well, I’m getting ahead of myself.
There are also giant pots that you can enter, and inside you will find items, some of which are keys. Some keys have giant face-like creatures guarding them, and if you take the key, one of them will chase you around the level until you enter or leave that part of the level.
There are three levels per world, and you will fight a boss at the end of each level. In the first two levels you will fight a pink dinosaur named Birdo. To defeat Birdo, you need to pick up the eggs it spits out and throw them back at it. Do this three times and you’re on your way. At the end of the third level there will be a more difficult boss, such as Mouser, a bomb-throwing rodent.
If you lose all of your lives, it’s back to the beginning of the world. There is a save feature, which is good, because in order to get the true ending to this game, you will need to beat it with all four playable characters.
Now, based on everything I’ve told you, does any of that sound familiar? Well, it should! After Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was released in 1987, it was re-skinned for a North American NES release the following year. What did that game become? Super Mario Bros. 2. In Super Mario Bros. 2, you traverse three levels across several worlds, you grab enemies and throw them, you can select four characters with different abilities, you can grab mushrooms as power-ups, you battle a bomb-throwing mouse (along with other bosses), and you can enter alternate realms to find power-ups.
In case you don’t know, Super Mario Bros. 2 on the Famicom Disk System was originally supposed to release on the NES as the follow-up to Super Mario Bros., but was deemed too similar and difficult for American audiences. Nintendo requested a more accessible game to serve as a successor. When Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was released in conjunction with the Dream Factory Festival, Nintendo gave it a new coat of paint and released it internationally as Super Mario Bros. 2.
There are several differences. You only need to beat the game with one character instead of four, you can select a character to play as each time you beat a level, and the save feature has been removed.
Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic is a phenomenal game with good graphics, catchy music, spot-on controls, and lasting replay value. It’s a prime example of a fantastic licensed game, up there with games like Sweet Home, Disney’s Aladdin, and GoldenEye 007. You can always play Super Mario Bros. 2 if you can’t get your hands on a Famicom Disk System, but if you’re an import gamer, I cannot recommend Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic enough.
Rating: 10/10
Featured artwork by Kaio Scott.