Games that Never Were: Super Mario's Wacky Worlds

Back in the 1990s, when Nintendo characters occasionally popped up on some other systems in addition to Nintendo's own consoles, the infamous Phillips CD-I games featuring some of those characters were released. Mario, Nintendo's most beloved character, would be featured in Hotel Mario, a puzzle game with laughably bad cut scenes which would be all but forgotten if the cut scenes in question had not been used in many comedy videos posted on YouTube. The famous plumber was slated to star in another CD-I game, one that would be closer in spirit to the classic 2D Mario games. Entitled Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, the game ended up being canceled before anyone could have discovered if it would have been a much better game than Hotel Mario. Here is some information about one of the Mario games that we will never get to play.

The game would have played rather like the Mario games of yore in that our hero would run through various stages while fighting or avoiding enemies such as Koopas. The levels would have taken place in caves, haunted houses, castles, and other areas seen in other Mario games, and sometimes, they would even send our hero to such real locations as Greece and Egypt. At least in the existing prototype, he would remain in his super form, and it is unknown what power ups would have returned or debuted in the game. Also not known is the game's story: would this be yet another quest to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, or did Mario have a different type of mission this time around? As the game would remain forever unfinished, we will never know.

There would be a number of worlds, each with a varying amount of stages. Each stage would end with a warp pipe that would send Mario to the next stage, while an "M" mark could be touched to complete a world. In its existing prototype, there appear to be no bosses and many of the enemies consists of various types of Koopas. If Bowser was the main villain once again and had bosses been included, he would have very likely become the final boss, while other fights could pit you up against the Koopalings or more powerful versions of normal enemies. Also, Mario's sliding and swimming abilities are non-existent, though the swimming ability at least would have been included on account that some stages were slated to take place underwater. This is proof that the game was canceled early in development, as Mario tends to have a lot of moves at his disposal.

Since Phillips had the rights to create games with Nintendo characters, they decided that Super Mario's Wacky Worlds would be created as something of a sequel to Super Mario World. Even though Nintendo was reportedly impressed by the game, the CD-I ended up being a poor seller, perhaps not helped by the poor quality of the Zelda CD-I games (which have likewise become known for having their cut scenes featured in numerous YouTube videos). Consequently, what would have been Mario's first (and only?) 2D platform game on the CD-I was canceled, and instead, Phillips ended up creating and releasing Hotel Mario in its place. All that remains of the game are prototypes with numerous incomplete levels, some that were never even started; and various glitches and oddities (i.e. enemies that stopped where they were when Mario touched them) that very likely would have been fixed had production on the game been resumed.

Would Super Mario's Wacky Worlds have been a better game than Hotel Mario? It would depend on how faithful it would have been to earlier Mario games; if the game play, controls, graphics, and music were any good; and if Phillips showed a real understanding of what made Mario games so enjoyable for many people. From what I hear, all three Zelda games as well as Hotel Mario were poorly received on account of terrible game play, the aforementioned cut scenes, and for generally not being entirely faithful to their respective series. With a longer development period, Phillips may have had at least a fair chance to make Super Mario's Wacky Worlds into a stellar Mario game released on a non-Nintendo console. Instead, we would never get a shot to see if the game would receive more favorable reviews than the Nintendo-related games that were released on the CD-I.

Additionally, what if the game had been released instead of being replaced by Hotel Mario? It would have spared us from being exposed to its reportedly awful game play, but would also result in far fewer YouTube videos, as people tend to see that game's cut scenes as being so bad that they are good. However, Phillips could have feasibly released both games so that they could have Mario star in games from numerous genres, much like Nintendo has been doing for years. They ended up releasing two side-scrolling Zelda games as well as one seen from a top-down perspective, so it is possible that they could have released the two Mario games either one right after the other or simultaneously. I would have loved to see people compare the two games and decide for themselves which game is better and which is worse, or if both games were great or terrible.

If the game had been completed and released, and if it became a critical and commercial success, would we be seeing more Nintendo games on non-Nintendo consoles to this day? That would depend on whether subsequent games would likewise have been huge sellers as well as favorites among critics. Since a lot of them were not successful with either critics or players, the act of releasing games on systems other than Nintendo consoles would gradually be phased out, as would having the company license their characters to other companies. By the end of the 1990s, games with Nintendo characters would be released exclusively on Nintendo's systems, while games with those characters developed by other companies would be produced under Nintendo's supervision to ensure that they would be faithful to the characters' respective series and that they would become games that would be of the highest possible quality to please critics and players alike.

I may have wanted to play Super Mario's Wacky Worlds if only to see if Phillips had what it took to create a fantastic Mario game. I would have enjoyed it if it was generally faithful to the classic Mario games, but I may have despised it if Phillips added features that would bring the game down significantly. If the latter occurrence had taken place, then perhaps it is just as well that Nintendo no longer licenses their characters to other companies. Those games published by Nintendo but developed by other companies have generally proved that it is possible for companies other than Nintendo to create quality games based on Nintendo franchises. Had Phillips likewise shown that they could make Nintendo games as well as those other companies and Nintendo itself have done over the years, even if it took them a while to get the hang of it, their games may have been much more successful. Instead, we were robbed of a chance to see if they could do a Mario 2D platform game justice and to find out if they could have made even better titles.

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds seemed to have promise, but it ended up being canceled long before anyone had a chance to try it out. It could have been faithful to the classic Mario games, but we will never get the opportunity to find out if that would have been the case. If the game were released and became a best seller, Phillips could have become a force to be reckoned with instead of a laughing stock, and perhaps today, they would be competing with Sony and Microsoft while either still working closely with Nintendo or competing against them. Alas, we will never know for sure how or if video gaming as we know it might have changed if Mario became the star of a successful game on a non-Nintendo console. Perhaps it is better this way, though, and Nintendo will likely never give the rights to their characters to a company with a competing console ever again.