Nintendo released the classic
Nintendo Entertainment System title
Super Mario Brothers 2, featuring
Mario and friends out to stop the evil
Wart in the land of
Subcon, around the world in 1988 except for in one place:
Japan. After all,
Japan already had a game called
Super Mario Brothers 2 and it was a direct continuation of the original smash hit
Super Mario Brothers. It seems that
Nintendo decided that the sequel was too difficult and unearthshattering for non-Japanese players to handle and they chose to take an existing Japanese game, 1987's
Doki Doki Panic, and convert it to a
Mario-style game. Basically everyone else on Earth received adventures in
Subcon while Japan had more of the
Mushroom Kingdom.
Then, in 1992, long after the Japanese releases of both Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World, something unusual happened. Nintendo took the "American" Super Mario Brothers 2, slapped a new name on it, and released it in Japan. The new title, Super Mario USA, is quite ironic considering that the original game it's based on was developed in Japan, as was its Marioesque overhaul. There's nothing specifically American about it besides that fact that it was released in the USA four years before it came to Japan. The game was also called Super Mario USA in its appearance in Super Mario Collection (the Japanese version of Super Mario All-Stars) as well as its Satellaview form of BS Super Mario USA. To make things somewhat standard the game is known as Super Mario Advance in its Game Boy Advance adaptation worldwide.
References:
http://www.planetnintendo.com/nindb/
http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/smb2_madness.shtml