Several quite influential game media outlets published sternly worded investigative reports at almost the same time.
The core of the reports pointed straight at Nintendo's recently released Super Mario Bros. USA in the North American market.
"The truth! Super Mario Bros. USA is not a true sequel!"
"Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic—Mario's North American stand-in? Nintendo's scam!"
"Nintendo's lie? Japanese players have already played the real Super Mario Bros. 2! Are we being treated as second-class citizens?"
Eye-catching headlines, paired with comparison images of the characters and levels from Super Mario Bros. USA and the Japanese Famicom Disk System game Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic, made the evidence ironclad and beyond dispute.
The images were placed side by side: similar scenes, almost identical enemies, only the protagonist had changed from a hat-wearing plumber into a headscarf-wearing Arab boy.
The reports mentioned in detail that Japan's real Super Mario Bros. 2 had been shelved by Nintendo because it was too difficult, was deemed unsuitable for "fragile" North American players, and was based on the Famicom Disk System, which had not yet become widespread in the North American market.
What replaced it was a "reskinned" work with a similar visual style, but entirely different core gameplay and characters—Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic.
As soon as the news broke, public opinion was in an uproar.
The fuse for this blockbuster bomb had come from one transoceanic phone call.
Far away in Tokyo, Nakayama Takuya, after seeing Nintendo's North American release plan sent back from North America, keenly discovered this "little secret."
He immediately passed this key information, through his father's connections, to the helmsman of Sega of North America—David Rosen.
He immediately instructed his team to "casually" leak these materials to several media reporters who had close ties with Sega and were eager