Did you know? There’s over 30 known Super
Mario games that never saw the light of day. In this video, we’ll be going through them all--
with some exceptions. We’ll leave out games that were rumored to exist but have no reputable
proof they were real-- like Mario Kart VB, a reputed Mario Kart game for the Virtual Boy--
as well as games that were just earlier versions of released titles, like Super Mario RPG 2, an
early title for Paper Mario. We’ll also be leaving out games in the Donkey Kong franchise, unless
they’re related to the original DK arcade title which Mario first appeared in. But let’s get
to it, starting with a few recent discoveries. Data back-ups from Nintendo’s archives have
been leaking online over the past few years. And in July of 2021, the tenth set of data
from the Nintendo archives was leaked on 4chan, containing material such as the Wii SDK source
code, and various builds from Pokemon games. Deep within this data however was a document detailing
ten prototypes for the Nintendo Wii, two of which were based on Mario. The first prototype, "Koopa
Troopa Forest," was a top-down game where players avoid turtles by throwing stones and shooting
bullets at them. The second, "Mario FPS," is an FPS that takes place in Isle Delfino. Neither
of these games have playable ROMs available, and only exist as black-and-white photos found
in the document. In that same leak however, a spreadsheet mentions "DDR MARIO 2" for the Wii--
presumably a sequel to Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. The game was going to be developed
by Konami and was listed as "Not started yet." It’s unknown if any development on the game
started, however, it’s worth noting that a Mario Mix sequel announcement was rumored in 2005,
which we covered in our recent Mario Rumors video. While newly discovered titles are always
fascinating, let’s go back a bit, to the oldest game on our list. In 1982, less than a year after
the release of the original arcade Donkey Kong, bedroom coders Wayne Westmoreland and Terry
Gilman created a personal port of Donkey Kong for the TRS-80 model of computers. The
TRS-80 was one of the earliest mass market home computers, and only had a few kilobytes of
RAM. This made a fully functional TRS-80 port of Donkey Kong with all 4 levels that much
more impressive. Despite being finished, the game would never release, as the duo
couldn’t get permission from Nintendo to publish it. But in 1995, Wayne Westmoreland
released all of his titles to the public domain, including the final build of this unreleased
port as an extra surprise. Another lost title is Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi, or "Donkey
Kong’s Music Play'', an educational game designed to teach young players about music.[1]
The game had two modes: one was "Music Quiz," a memory game where Mario and Pauline hammered
notes on a piano while Donkey Kong played music; and the other was "Donkey Band," a karaoke game
starring Pauline where players sing into the microphone on the second Famicom controller. Music
Play would’ve been the third title in the Famicom Play trilogy were it to be released in December
1983, coinciding with Popeye’s English Play, and Donkey Kong Jr. Math. In 2016, Ichirou
Sakurada, once a developer at Hudson Soft, revealed on Twitter that there were three reasons
why Music Play got scraped: its gameplay was weak; it took up too much space on the cart; and it
used music from Japanese singer Seiko Matsuda, which Nintendo never had legal permission to
use. After its cancellation, a sample cartridge containing a late build of Music Play was sent
to Hudson during development of the Family BASIC interpreter. Since Hudson shut down in 2012,
it’s unknown where the cartridge is presently. From 1983 to 1984, Atari created the Atarisoft
branding to publish games on competitor’s home computers such as the Commodore 64 and Apple
II. The brand mainly focused on conversions of arcade games such as Pole Position, Moon
Patrol and even Mario Bros.. California-based developer Designer Software was contracted
to create Mario Bros. ports for the C64, VIC-20, Apple II and DOS computers. All four
of these ports were completed, but due to Warner selling Atari’s consumer division to
former Commodore boss Jack Tramiel in 1984, Atarisoft got discontinued, and none of
these ports were released. According to Designer Software programmer Jimmy Huey in a 2005
interview with Retrogaming Times Monthly, Atari’s quality insurance reported a giant list of bugs
in his finished product, which seemed odd to him as he viewed the game as relatively bug-free.
Jimmy theorizes that this could be a way to justify the cancellation. A cracked version
of the Apple II port was leaked in the 80s, and spread around via piracy, while the Commodore
64 had a different unrelated port released in the UK years later done by Ocean Software. Note that
home computer versions of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. were also being developed by Atarisoft,
but were also cancelled for the same reason. Atari was also planning to release Mario Bros.
on the Atari XE computer -- the final model in their line of 8-bit computers. The hardware
used on these systems was identical to that of the then-new Atari 5200, so programmer Bob
Merrell converted his 5200 work to the XE. Despite being shown off at the Summer Consumer
Electronics Show in 1983, the port would not see release until 1988 when Atari put out several
titles that got previously scrapped. However, what released wasn’t Merrell’s game, but rather
a completely new version created by Sculptured Software. It’s unknown as to why Atari did this,
but some have theorized that they may have lost the source code to the original port. Thankfully,
a near-final prototype of Merrell’s game was found and released to the internet by Atari
enthusiast and preservationist Matt Reichert. In mid-1987, British game publisher Firebird
attempted to pitch a Commodore 64 port of Super Mario Bros to Nintendo. Developers
Gary Liddon and Gary Penn created a demo in just a few weeks, with Liddon
rebuilding the first level from scratch while Penn eyeballed the graphics off a
television. Impressed with their work, a developer at fellow UK publisher Telecomsoft
contacted Nintendo to see if they wanted to work with Firebird. Nintendo said no, and the
project got dropped. Interestingly though, Firebird also attempted a Mario clone for the
Commodore 64 titled Crucial Bros. a few years later-- albeit with different developers.
But this did not go anywhere either. In September 1990, years before Doom’s creation,
ID Software developers John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall attempted to port
Super Mario Bros. 3 to DOS computers. The group-- then known as Ideas From The Deep (or "IFD")--
recreated the first level in Mario 3 from scratch and substituted Mario with Dangerous Dave, a
character previously seen in Apple II titles by John Romero. This demo was jokingly referred to
as ‘Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement’ and was possible due to a unique scrolling technique
Carmack created that redrew each changed tile every frame, rather than the entire screen. After
spending 72 straight hours polishing up the demo, ID sent a copy of the game to Nintendo of
America for approval. As John Romeo recalls, the prototype made its way to the company offices
in Kyoto, where it got rejected, as they did not want their intellectual property on anything
but their hardware. Nevertheless, Nintendo was impressed with their work. Not wanting to put
their scrolling technique to waste, the technology would find its way to the next title by ID,
Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons. A few copies of the demo were passed around the industry
on floppy disk, and in July 2021, a copy was donated to the Strong Museum Of Play in Rochester,
New York, where it was safely preserved. One of the most mysterious games on our list
is Mario’s Planet Quest. In July of 2021, Andrew Borman, digital games curator at the
previously mentioned Strong Museum Of Play, uncovered a game called Mario’s Planet Quest
listed on the resume of a former Software Toolworks developer. The only information given
was that it was developed for the Super Nintendo, and was an educational game similar to Mario’s
Time Machine -- which the developer also listed on their resume. Given the title, it’s a
safe bet that the game would’ve revolved around Mario travelling to space and learning
about the solar system, clicking on objects for more information. Software Toolworks composer Mark
Knight lists a similar game on his website called Mario’s Mission Earth, which is likely the
same game as the one uncovered by Borman. Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds was a platform
game developed by Novalogic for the ill-fated Phillips CD-i console. Planned as a successor to
Super Mario World, the game follows Mario as he treks through jungles, castles, cities, Ancient
Greece, and Ancient Egypt. As you can see from an unfinished prototype that was dumped online,
the game is very rudimentary, with Mario being unable to swim, collect power-ups, or be hurt
by enemies. Comanche developer Novalogic made an early one-level demo of the game in under two
weeks, with programmers Silas Warner, of Castle Wolfenstein fame, and John Brooks leading the
project. After getting approval from Phillips, the group continued their work, aiming to create
something that stayed true to the series. However, due several staff leaving the company, and
the poor sales of the CD-i, Wacky Worlds was scrapped. In an interview with researcher Frank
Gasking for the book The Games That Weren’t, Novalogic artist Nina Stanley said, "I think the
real reason that Wacky Worlds was cancelled was due to changes in personnel. The lead engineer
on the project [John Brooks] decided to leave and work for EA. When a replacement programmer
wasn’t found to continue the project, I also left and went to EA, and the game was ultimately
cancelled." According to Stanley, around 80% of the art and 30% of the programming were completed
before production halted. At least four prototypes of Wacky Worlds are known to exist, with one
being sold on eBay in 2002 for over $1,000. Another unreleased game for the CD-i
is Mario Takes America. Around 1994, Toronto-based developer Cigam Entertainment
pitched an educational title starring Mario to Phillips where he travelled across the United
States to learn more about places like New York, Niagara Falls, and Hollywood. The game would’ve
featured live-action FMV of these locations, with a 2D-animated Mario rendered over it Roger
Rabbit-style. The live-action backgrounds took up most of the game’s memory, making it a hard
project for the programmers-- one of which reportedly left Cigam fewer than three weeks after
being hired. While doing research for this video, Did You Know Gaming was able to get in touch
with animation director Michael Borthwick, who told us a little more about the
game’s production. Borthwick told us, "Many sequences were done, but it was
taking very long to get things working properly as the machine really could
not handle what we were trying to do. [Cigam founder Howard] Greenspan likely failed
to realize the limits of the machine right off the bat and kept over-promising the look and
playability of the game to Philips. For example, we had a full 12-frame Mario walk cycle that
had to be reduced to 6 frames because the CD-i player could not handle playing 12 frames, plus
video, plus collision detection plus the other sprites." Late in development, Cigam tried
creating a ‘backup’ game that replaced Mario with Sonic The Hedgehog. A second backup game
was also made with two original characters: a rock & roll duo named Heavy and Metal. Not
impressed by their work, Phillips cut all funding, and the game was quickly cancelled.
Cigam would file for bankruptcy in 1994, and most of the company’s assets were repossessed
by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Around late-1994, Argonaut Software pitched
a 3D platforming game for the Super Nintendo titled Yoshi Racing. An unidentified artist
at the company created a non-playable demo of the dinosaur running around an obstacle course,
which would’ve used the same Super FX technology seen in games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX.
Argonaut co-founder Jez San sent videos of the demo to Nintendo hoping for approval, but much
to his dismay, they got rejected. Along with the recent cancellation of Star Fox 2, this response
is considered a stake in Argonaut’s departure from the company. A few years later, Nintendo would
come out with a 3D platformer of their own-- Super Mario 64. In a 2014 Eurogamer article, San
alleged that Nintendo borrowed the 3D platforming concept from Argonaut, claiming that Shigeru
Miyamoto thanked him for the idea at a trade show. It is unknown how accurate this claim
is, as no one other than San and Miyamoto would be able to confirm it. In 1997, Argonaut
released an original 3D platformer for Windows, Playstation 1, and Sega Saturn — Croc: Legend
of the Gobbos. Rumours have circulated that Yoshi was the inspiration for Croc’s design.
Lead designer Nic Cusworth refutes this, saying that Croc’s appearance came from a series
of doodles by Argonaut IT member Simon Keating. In July of 2020, shortly following the
infamous Nintendo gigaleak on 4chan, a single Super FX model for Yoshi was found deep
within its files. Contrary to popular belief, this model had zero relation to Yoshi Racing and
was likely used for a different project entirely. At the 1995 Winter Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas, a tech demo was unveiled for the then-new Virtual Boy called Mario Bros VB. The
single-level demo had three different modes: a side-scroller where you could move between the
background and the foreground like in Virtual Boy Wario Land, a top-down dungeon section
similar to the Legend of Zelda series, and a minigame identical to the original Mario
Bros. arcade title. Despite receiving high praise at the show and getting good coverage in magazines
like GamePro and EGM, Mario Bros VB never got shown again. It’s unknown as to why the game
was cancelled, or if it progressed any further than the CES demo. Some have theorized that the
demo eventually evolved into Mario Clash for the Virtual Boy, but this has yet to be confirmed by
Nintendo. In 2016, video game preservation website NintendoPlayer released an article discussing
an odd concept art piece from their collection. The art was a five-panel storyboard of Mario
running through what looked to be ruins of a building. Mario steps over a stone slab, which
suddenly sprouts eyes and legs, turning into a Whomp-like creature. Little was known about the
storyboard until NintendoPlayer tracked down the original owner to a man named Patrick Michael
Clark-- former lead artist at the now-defunct Redmond-based Boss Game Studios. After contacting
another dev at Boss Game, NintendoPlayer confirmed Patrick's board was drawn in the mid-to-late
90s for a pitch that "died on the vine after [Nintendo] saw the concept art." Following this
failed project, Boss Game Studios would begin making third-party games for the Nintendo 64,
including Top Gear Rally and Stunt Racer 64. The company shut its doors in 2002 following
issues finding publishers for their future titles. Years before the Game Boy Advance, a Game Boy
successor in the works codenamed Project Atlantis. Nintendo collaborated with Advanced RISC Machines,
or ARM, to develop a 32-bit handheld that reportedly used a 160 MHz processor, four buttons,
and a colour LCD screen. In the April 1996 issue of EGM, news of the system was followed by a
rumour that Nintendo was working on a game called Mario’s Castle-- potentially the Atlantis’ launch
title. However, other than this single blurb in EGM, no mention of Mario’s Castle exists publicly.
Even if it did exist, it is unlikely that any work was done on it aside from a few rough ideas on
paper. Masato Kuwahara, project leader on the DSi, revealed in a 2009 Game Developers Conference
talk that Nintendo wasn’t satisfied with Atlantis’ graphics performance, and so scrapped the project
entirely. Mario’s Castle did not get referenced during the Kuwahara-san GDC discussion, which
further supports the theory that production did not go very far, or perhaps even start. One of the
few cancelled games starring Mario’s arch-rival Wario would be Wario Pool for the Game Boy Color.
In 2001, veteran British developers Nick Pelling and Jeff Ferguson pitched a pool billiards game
to Nintendo featuring the titular anti-hero. Little was known about the pitch until
Pelling released a short video on his website, giving us a small glimpse of the game’s plot.
Late one stormy night, Wario receives a phone call from his manager asking if he’ll be in
the yearly pool championships. Wario says no. Suddenly, two literal pool sharks appear on
TV, scoffing that nobody, not even Wario, can beat them at pool. Now furious, Wario
decides to join the championships. According to Nick Pelling, despite getting rejected by
Nintendo, the Wario Pool engine wasn’t wasted. It was retooled and used for the Game Boy Color
game 3D Pocket Pool, released only in Europe. Mario Artist Sound Maker was planned as the fifth
entry in the Mario Artist series for the N64 Disk Drive-- the console’s Japanese-only add-on.
Developed by the Manchester-based studio Software Creations, Sound Maker was originally bundled with
Mario Artist Paint Studio as a single product. However, due to political infighting between
Nintendo of America and Nintendo HQ in Japan, the game split in two. While Paint Studio
had a Japanese release in January 1997, Sound Studio would never see store shelves. The
game was likely canned due to the 64DD being a commercial failure, and probably only went as
far as a few barebones prototypes. An August 1999 article from IGN reported that an unrelated
game also called Sound Maker was being planned alongside three additional titles-- Game Maker,
Video Jockey Maker, and Graphical Message Maker. Contrary to popular belief, none of these games
had any connection to the other Sound Maker or the Mario franchise in general. These were
actually a part of a “Maker” series for the 64DD by developer Randnet. Another planned
game for the 64DD would be Super Mario 64 2. Believed to be started around August of
1997, Shigeru Miyamoto, and several other Mario 64 team members, began working on a co-op
system where Mario and Luigi were controlled by a single player-- much like Olimar and Louie in
the Pikmin series. This idea was inevitable, as a similar split-screen system was briefly tested
during the first Mario 64. According to Miyamoto, a functioning co-op prototype was created, but
got put on hold to focus on the upcoming Zelda 64. However, after Zelda's production went on much
longer than expected, it was made clear that Mario 64 2 would be a late release on the N64 if it
were to continue development. In a November 1998 interview with Nintendo Power Source, Miyamoto
remarked: "Well, for over a year now at my desk, a prototype program of Luigi and Mario has been
running on my monitor. We have been thinking about the game, and it may be something that could
work on a completely new game system." Miyamoto’s decision to redo the project from scratch would
result in a tech demo for the Nintendo GameCube. This was the start of Super Mario 128-- a game
so infamous that we’ve already written an entire video on it. Directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi, a demo
was unveiled at Space World 2000 that showed a large 8-bit Mario sprite spawning smaller Marios
until the numbers of characters on-screen reached 128. The Mini Marios would move around a
saucer-like plane, interacting with random objects as well as each other. Although Mario
128 was never intended for commercial release, the demo’s "rapid generating" element would
find its way to another GameCube game. As said by Miyamoto in a 2007 GDC speech:
"The one question I'm always asked is, 'What happened to Mario 128?'... The purpose of
that demo was to show how the new technology in the GameCube could dynamically change the
nature of Mario games. So when people ask me what happened to it, I'm always at a loss as to
how to answer it, because most of you have already played it — but you played it in a game called
Pikmin." In the same speech, Miyamoto revealed that Mario 128’s sphere-walking gravity mechanic
would be implemented in an upcoming game for the Nintendo Wii. That game was Super Mario Galaxy,
which was also directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi. When the Game Boy Advance was publicly unveiled
at GDC on April 10, 2000, it was presented alongside two tech demos: one, a game where
you controlled a baby dolphin across the ocean; and two, a one-level remake of Yoshi’s Story
for the Nintendo 64. The demo included a new FMV intro, and excluded elements from the original
game like Yoshi’s ability to use his tongue and shoot eggs. While it was received positively and
even featured in some early GBA advertisements, the remake never saw release. It’s unknown if
Nintendo ever planned to do that in the first place. Two ROMs of Yoshi’s Story GBA, plus their
source code, were found within the handheld’s SDK, and both are now safely preserved. Another
unreleased tech demo for the GBA is Mario Kart XXL. In 2004, Denaris Entertainment Software,
a Germany-based developer founded by Turrican creator Manfred Trenz, created a Mario
Kart prototype as a pitch for Nintendo. The game was impressive with parallax scrolling
and 3D graphics, but was unfinished due to the inability to pass laps, collect coins and stop
at walls. As per usual, the pitch got rejected for reasons unknown. In 2005, the company
released a GBA port of Crazy Frog Racer, which used a seemingly similar engine as Mario
Kart XXL. Perhaps this game has a small remnant of the demo within it? It’s hard to know for
sure. A prototype cartridge was revealed in 2015 by a collector in the Netherlands, but it
has yet to be released online as of this video. And this isn’t the only vehicular game
on our list. Information on the DS’ Mario Motors is few and far between. During
a conference at Reboot Developer 2018, Yoot Saito, a veteran game designer best
known for games like Odema and Seaman, revealed that he pitched a DS title to Miyamoto
and Satoru Iwata about creating motor engines. Inspired by Saito-san’s love of sculpting, the
game would have the player, presumably as Mario, shave a metal chunk into the shape of a cylinder
to create an engine. One mechanic in the game was to have the player breath into the DS to
teach them about acceleration, but this got scrapped as they thought it’d "cause children
to get out of breath." During the conference, several images of the design document were
shown, one of which shows Mario working on the engine alongside an older scientist-type
character-- possibly a relative to the plumber. When asked why the title was never released, Saito
said, "I cannot tell you why, but please guess." Before making the Metroid Prime series,
Retro Studios worked on a football simulator game for the GameCube. Beginning preliminary
development in the Summer of 1999, the original design was a Mario-themed family-friendly sports
game à la Mario Tennis. According to programmer Jason Hughes, Nintendo wanted to capture a
mature audience with the ‘Cube, and suggested the game’s Mario theme be dropped entirely.
Development would resume in a more serious path, replacing Nintendo’s characters with realistic
players motion-captured by the Dallas Cowboys. Originally intended as the exclusive football
title for the GameCube, it became apparent that companies like Sega and Electronic Arts would
be bringing their football games to the system, thus creating fierce competition. Retro Studios
attempted to restart the game from scratch with a team of new designers, but they decided the better
option was to cancel the game altogether. Despite having, among other things, fully functional
networking support, a replay system, and stadium renderer, the team dissolved in February of 2001,
and development was halted indefinitely, never to resume. The football game would not be the only
scrapped Mario game by Retro Studios. In May of 2020, concept art for a spinoff game starring
Boo was found on the resume of artist Sammy Hill. Sammy, who had previously worked at Retro
Studios on games such as Metroid Prime 3, revealed on his now-defunct ArtStation profile
that the title, codenamed "Haunt", was planned for the Nintendo DS around 2006 to 2007. As
we can read from the concept art, the game potentially revolved around a young Boo student
fresh out of Haunt University. During graduation, Boo gets dipped in a mysterious green goop, which
grants him special powers. Using these powers, Boo goes out to fight off witches, zombies,
and Piranha Plants. In an interview with IGN, Hall revealed that the design for Haunt came from
ex-Retro Studios leads Mark Pacini, Todd Keller, and Kynan Pearson, but got cancelled "the week
they went to create their other studios." Days after this interview was published, Hill’s social
media was mysteriously deleted. While we have no definitive answer for what happened, it’s probably
safe to assume there were some NDA-related issues. Super Mario Spikers is one of the most
well-documented games on our list. Pitched by Next Level Games for the Wii, the title was
first designed as "Mario Volleyball" but quickly evolved to include elements of wrestling.
It soon got renamed to Super Mario Spikers, which was a play on the soccer game Super
Mario Strikers for the GameCube. As we can see from leaked concept art and animations,
Spikers would've taken place on the set of a game show where Mario characters compete against
each other. The winning team would move up to a grander location such as Donkey Kong Island. Note
that the game went for a more violent approach by Mario standards, with characters able to stomp
on and throw other players across the area. According to an anonymous Next Level artist,
Nintendo disapproved of the project as they believed the violent gameplay did not
match the company code of honour. An early prototype of Spikers may still exist,
but it is unlikely that one will ever surface. Seven years before the release of
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Ubisoft Paris attempted a similar
crossover game between the franchises. In an interview conducted by fellow Did
You Know Gaming researcher Liam Robertson, an anonymous Ubisoft developer revealed the
company formed a "subversive, self-aware take" on the Mario franchise where the Rabbids
wreak havoc on the Mushroom Kingdom. Sadly, for reasons unknown, Nintendo rejected the game
before a formal pitch happened. All that remains is a single piece of concept art, which shows the
Rabbids carrying Bowser away while Mario chases after them. According to Kingdom Battle director
Davide Soliani, this pitch had no relation to the 2017 Nintendo Switch game. Did You Know Gaming
attempted to reach out to Soliani for more information, but he couldn’t share any additional
details without permission from Ubisoft HQ. In November of 2018, Tesla founder Elon
Musk was asked on Twitter if the company could add a Mario Kart game to their cars--
one where players could race against other Tesla owners while both of their vehicles
charge. To the user's surprise, Musk replied, "We tried. Nintendo would not license it to us."
Considering that Musk is an avid gamer that even included an Atari emulator with some Tesla
models, this idea was not that far-fetched. While he didn’t specify why Nintendo said no, some
have theorized that the big N had safety concerns. There’s a high chance that a driver could be
badly injured while playing Mario Kart in a car, and that is something Nintendo would not want
their brand associated with. On April 13th, 2013, Nintendo released a sizzle reel
promoting the Wii U virtual console, including a port of the NES puzzle game Yoshi’s
Cookie. It never came out. No one knows why. Did you know that a 2.5D Mario title was rumored
to be coming to the GBA near its launch? Or that there was supposedly going to be a crossover
between Mario and Kingdom Hearts? For more facts, check out our video on Mario Rumors. We also
highly suggest checking out and supporting groups like The Video Game History Foundation, Gaming
Alexandria, Unseen64, and Hidden Palace, as their hard work preserving video game history has made
videos like these possible. Thanks for watching.
