Trivia / Doki Doki Panic

• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The game has never been re-released in its original Doki Doki Panic form, meaning that, even in Japan, Super Mario Bros. 2 / USA is a much-better-known game.
• No Export for You: Being a tie-in to a Japan-exclusive event, it was never intended to release the game overseas in its original form. It only saw the light of day as SMB2.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Since Fuji Television holds the rights to the characters, it could be a long time before the game sees an unaltered re-release, or until the characters (such as Imajin) replaced by the Mario characters reappear in anything. It being the basis of the much more popular SMB2 doesn't help things either. The game was mentioned in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U by omitting the Yume Kōjō trademark from the game's title, but that's about all we'll get.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Doki Doki Panic was inspired by a cancelled prototype . New hire Kensuke Tanabe was tasked with making a proof-of-concept for a "Mario-style" platforming game focusing on vertical level design and came up with the idea of a co-op game where players would grab and throw objects to climb the levels. However, but it was found that the technical limitations of the NES made it difficult to build a co-op game out of the idea, and that it just wasn't compelling in single player. The prototype was scrapped, but the developers drew on its ideas while making Doki Doki Panic.
  • The instruction booklet includes a grey Shyguy enemy,◊ described as eerily walking after the Player Character, making them slower versions of the Flurries. This entry was removed in the SMB2 manual, but they both show Bob-Omb◊ and Autobomb◊ in areas not seen in the final game.