Super Mario Bros. 3 came out the same month in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 did in the U.S.
Why the frick didn't they just sell Super Mario Bros. 3 as Super Mario Bros. 2?
Super Mario Bros. 3 came out the same month in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 did in the U.S.
because mario 2 already existed in japan as well dumbass
it was a disk system title
So that NoA would have a guaranteed mega hit in reserve which they could delay until the Anerican market was ready to reap maximum profits. Japan was a few years ahead of North America in terms of Nintendo's market share dominance. NoA decided instead to solidify Mario brand further with SMB2 and cartoons based on that game.
Probably the one and only reason is that it took a long time to localize the enormous amount of text that is in certain people's personalized copies of the game (every copy is personalized, but only a minority of copies contain, for example, the tragic storyline in which Mario and the Princess have a child, only to ultimately lose it to a piranha plant)
>every copy is personalized
You gotta be coo-coo crazy!
Americans weren't necessarily oblivious to the fact that they got a 2 year old game and some reviewers were calling its audiovisuals outdated--remember that the Mega Drive was out by this time.
that wasn't a bad thing because Nintendo took some time to improve the game and touch it up a bit.
Chip shortage
The instruction manual had some disclaimer that read "We're terribly sorry we were unable to include a save game feature or release the game for the FDS but the chips required to make the game do what we wanted needed a cartridge."
Too pricey. MMC3 games with battery saves in general were uncommon due to the cost.
I like this boxart. It's a repro tho, right?
As for why, I assume it was a strategic move to fill the gap before World in western markets.
I doubt that NOA and NOJ were always on the same level of information, it doesn't seem likely, especially given the time period. They had probably already decided on Mario 2 by the time they heard about Mario 3 being made. Also gven how little people in the US knew what was happening in Japan, they probably realized they could keep something like Mario 3 in their back pocket for an instant cash injection.
NOA liked to put out only one AAA game a year.
>1987
LOZ
>1988
SMB2
>1989
Zelda II
>1990
SMB3
etc.
Didn't huge delays between the Japanese and international market was the norm back then?
yes it was. the year the Famicom properly kicked off in Japan was 85, while Nintendo didn't begin nationwide NES distribution in the US until the 86 Christmas season. it was peaking in the West just as Japan was starting to move on and the PC Engine was the hot new thing and soon the SNES. peak Famicom was from 85-88 while peak NES in the West was 88-91
Very often the games Japanese people have the biggest nostalgia for are stuff like Hydlide, DQ1, Chack'N'Pop, Q*Taro. in short, all those games from 85-86.
Western developers weren't necessarily oblivious to this. Especially in the US, a lot of them thought the NES was more outdated 8-bit shit and they weren't motivated to code for yet another 6502 machine when the Mega Drive was the hot new thing.
yeah American-developed NES games were generally crap. they didn't know how to do action stuff that well and also weren't motivated to do 6502 coding in 1990. in Europe it was different because 8-bit computers were still commercially viable but Americans saw 8-bit as old news and wanted to code for the Mega Drive instead. That was certainly the case with EA anyway.
they release the famicom earlier in japan as well.
>why not release the NES then?
same thing. they just didnt do it that way. they got a handle on one market and then worked on another. europe had to wait even longer for shit..
And how the frick they do with this?
It would be trivial to change that to a 2 in the level editor.
I agree, it'd be easy to change, but going to laugh at
>the level editor
Lmao this isn't Mario Maker buddy. They'd have to change that shit manually.
Guess what idiot, I watched a French documentary where they went into Nintendo and talked to Miyamoto. He had a level editor up. There was a level editor. I will go find it.