2. Super Mario Bros. 2
Of the items on this list, perhaps no other is more famous - or infamous - than Super Mario Bros. 2. Its transformation is the stuff of legend: As Nintendo set about reviving the video game market in the United States, Mario Mania was sweeping the nation. Super Mario Bros., the title packed in with many a Nintendo Entertainment System, was a monstrous hit. Naturally, Nintendo wanted to keep the momentum going with a sequel, but there was just one problem... The game called "Super Mario Bros. 2" in Japan could also be described as monstrous, but not as a hit. Essentially a super-hard expansion for those who'd mastered the original game (later dubbed "For Super Players" for good reason), Nintendo of America was worried that not only would the game appear outdated next to contemporary releases, but that it would also jeopardize the franchise's future popularity by proving too difficult and inaccessible. Challenge was a good thing, yes, but Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2 took it to an extreme that they were unwilling to subject the company mascot's reputation to, with features that some might generously call "unfair." Throw in that the video game market was still recovering from the crash, and an alternate solution needed to be found. Nintendo of America then looked to another project that Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and his team had been working on, one which incorporated Mario-like elements but had also later added a group of Arabian-styled characters from Fuji Television's Yume Kj '87 event called Yume Kj: Doki Doki Panic. Director Kensuke Tanabe and his crew set to work changing and improving the game from its Japan-exclusive Famicom Disk System release to an NES cartridge release for America. The Arabian family was removed in favor of the Mario Bros., Toad, and Princess Peach (nee Toadstool). Among other things, animations were made smoother, music was adjusted and even replaced accordingly, new enemies were added, the ability to run with the B button was incorporated, and of course, the heroes now shrunk when reduced to one heart. The difficulty was also tweaked slightly, with final boss Wart requiring six vegetables to defeat instead of the original four, the ability to switch characters frequently included, and requiring only one playthrough to see the ending. Super Mario Bros. 2 proved to be a smash hit, with parents driving from state to state in an effort to track down a copy of the initially hard-to-find game. It would also prove to be the definitive version of the game, released back to Japan as Super Mario USA and included in Super Mario All-Stars, the Super Mario Advance line (with further tweaks to make it even more Mario-like), and numerous releases on Virtual Console across Nintendo's Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U platforms. Meanwhile, numerous enemies from the game have stuck around, as did Luigi's taller redesign and flutter-jump and Peach's floating ability, among other things. Though it was originally released as a licensed game, it seems that from early on, this title was always destined to be a Mario game in the end.