What the player carries sets the ground cap: an enemy, a mushroom block, or a POW block uses the character's carrying speed (Mario $18, Luigi $16, Toad $1D, the Princess $15), and anything else (vegetables, shells, coins, bombs, rockets, keys, potions) the empty-handed $18. Sunk 4 pixels or more into quicksand, every character's cap is $04. B raises each by half (run-cap). | Know what each character can do, Running | Code |
| The fifth large vegetable pulled since the level began or the player last died is a stopwatch, and the count starts over. | Really useful items, Time Stop | Code |
| The Bonus Chance after a level spins three reels of eight positions, one coin a spin. Each position holds one of four symbols: a Snifit, a turnip, a star, or a cherry. Each reel steps every 4 frames, and A stops the leftmost still spinning. A cherry on the first reel wins a life, cherries on the first two win two, three cherries five, and three of another symbol one; lives stop at 255. Each reel holds one cherry. | A Bonus Chance at the end of an Area | Code |
| IGN's history says Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad were built on the models of Doki Doki Panic's Brother, Mama, Sister, and Papa. The two manuals describe the four in parallel terms: Mario and Imajin jump lower with an item; Luigi and Mama jump high and far but slowly; Toad and Papa jump lowest, but an item changes neither their jump nor their running speed; and the Princess and Lina, third in jumping power, float for about 1.5 seconds while A is held. The manuals disagree on the highest jump: Doki Doki Panic's gives it to Imajin (いちばん高く), with Mama as high, where Super Mario Bros. 2's calls Mario average and gives it to Luigi. | Know what each character can do, Jumping powerKnow what each character can do, Jumping powerKnow what each character can do, Jumping powerKnow what each character can do, Jumping power | Manual |
| Super Mario Bros. 2's manual gives B a third use, running faster, and its code raises the top speed by half while B is held (smb2/run-cap). Doki Doki Panic's manual gives B only lifting and throwing. Both manuals say every character runs at the same speed. | How to use the controllerAcceleration speedRunning | Manual |
| Both games have the charged crouch jump. Doki Doki Panic's manual says the character flashes while Down is held and then jumps about 1.5 times as high as a standing jump, and Super Mario Bros. 2's manual says the same of its power squat jump. SMB2's code charges it after 60 frames of crouching on the ground (smb2/jump-start). | How to use the controller, Power squat jump | Manual |
| Both games start the life meter at two marks and let it grow to four. Doki Doki Panic's manual says so, as does Super Mario Bros. 2's, whose code sets health from a table of three values, two to four marks, by the number of extra marks found, and sets two marks again when a level ends, on a game over, and on a warp. | Watch out for Game Over | Manual |
| Super Mario Bros. 2's magic potion is Doki Doki Panic's magic lamp: in both manuals, the item thrown makes a door appear, and Up at the door enters the other side, Subspace in SMB2. SMB2's code turns a thrown potion into a door where it lands, except in a vertical area, where it puffs away. | Really useful items, Go to Sub-space with magic | Manual |
| Both games turn the grass on the other side into money for only two visits an area: medals in Doki Doki Panic's manual, coins in Super Mario Bros. 2's. SMB2's code counts a Subspace visit that pulled at least one coin, and after two, grass in Subspace gives small vegetables. | Really useful items, Go to Sub-space with magic | Manual |
| Super Mario Bros. 2's code puts a mushroom in Subspace that adds a mark to the life meter and refills it, where Doki Doki Panic's manual describes a heart. SMB2's manual names the mushroom in its item list, but its Subspace paragraph still calls it a heart that increases the life meter. | Really useful items, Go to Sub-space with magicItems that help Mario and his friends, Mushrooms | Manual |
| Both games have 20 levels in seven parts: Doki Doki Panic's manual calls them pages in seven chapters, and Super Mario Bros. 2's calls them areas in seven worlds. SMB2's table of each world's first level, three levels a world and two in the last, is on Doki Doki Panic's disk byte for byte. | Know the Basic Rules of the Game | Manual |
| Doki Doki Panic's final boss, Mamu, is Super Mario Bros. 2's Wart; each manual names its own. Kensuke Tanabe's team added enemy characters and visual nods to the Mario games for the American release, Chris Kohler reported. | Know the Basic Rules of the Game | Manual |
| In the North American manual's story, Mario dreams of Subcon, a land of dreams under a curse by Wart, who hates vegetables. The game has 20 areas in seven worlds, each area ending with a boss and the last with Wart. The player picks one of four characters, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess, whose jumps differ. | The Story of Super Mario Bros.2The Story of Super Mario Bros.2Know the Basic Rules of the GameKnow what each character can do | Manual |