3 was already on the way), they re-rebranded Doki Doki Panic to match the Super Mario Bros. When Nintendo of America rejected the Japanese sequel and needed a new one for western markets in a hurry (especially since Super Mario Bros. Meanwhile, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic) started life as a prototype based on Mario, having a primary focus on vertical levels and co-op multiplayer but when Nintendo netted a licensing agreement with Fuji TV, it was revived and rebranded with the mascot characters of Fuji's Yume Kōjō ("Dream Factory" or "Dream Machine") promotional event. 2 just wouldn't work for American gamers, since it was both basically a retread of the first game and just too Nintendo Hard, traits that would negatively impact a video game market still recovering from the crash. It was decided that the original Super Mario Bros. But while the designers and Japanese videogame fans thought it was fun for being even harder than Nintendo Hard, Howard Phillips of Nintendo of America playtested the game and just found it punishing to play, not fun at all. 2 (and later released internationally as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels). the result was titled Super Mario Bros. Nintendo of Japan decided to strike while the iron was hot, and push out a sequel as quickly as possible, using both newly designed levels and levels originally created for the arcade version, VS. turned out to be a blockbuster hit, and the Killer App that Nintendo needed to get the Nintendo Entertainment System (and the Famicom, the Japanese version) into the homes of game players. In Japan as well as the United States, Super Mario Bros. Of course, if you've been into the history of video games, you'll know the bigger reason why this dream has come into Mario's mind all of a sudden.
This means that Subcon is a Dream Land, to which Mario and company access through a gateway identical to the one seen in the aforementioned dream hence why many of the events and situations they'll experience, as well as the enemies they'll face (especially how they're faced, since Goomba Stomp no longer works), differ greatly from what Mario and his friends were used to until that point. Interestingly, this mission was entrusted to Mario by way of a strange dream, in which one of the land's inhabitants begged the famed plumber for his help. In a literal sense, because he gained his power by corrupting the Dream Machine. It revolves about Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach (known in the West as Princess Toadstool back in the day) travelling to the land of Subcon to save it from the tyranny of Wart, which has turned it into a land of nightmares. 2, originally released in 1988 in North America, 1989 in Europe and Australia, and 1992 in Japan, is the third installment in the Super Mario Bros.