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Super Mario's Wacky Worlds

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Super Mario's Wacky Worlds
The first stage, Greek 1
Developer(s)NovaLogic[1]
Publisher(s)Philips Interactive Media[2]
Designer(s)Marty Foulger
Programmer(s)John Brooks
Silas Warner
Artist(s)Nina Stanley
SeriesMario
Platform(s)Philips CD-i
ReleaseCancelled
Genre(s)Adventure, platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds is a canceled Mario platform video game developed by NovaLogic for the CD-i format. The game was conceived as a sequel to Super Mario World, a game released for Super NES in 1990. An early prototype received positive feedback from Nintendo, but the game was soon canceled due to the declining sales of Philips's CD-i platform.[3]

Development

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NovaLogic, the developer of Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, was hoping to be hired by Nintendo.[4] Philips was developing Nintendo's Super NES CD-ROM peripheral, and as part of that deal had the right to use Nintendo's characters in its own games for its existing CD-i console.[5] A Nintendo sales executive suggested to NovaLogic that a simplified style of Super NES games could be adapted to the CD-i, so they decided to demonstrate a follow-up to Super Mario World. Developers Silas Warner and John Brooks worked reportedly 24 hours a day for two weeks on the game, finishing only a part of one level to present to Nintendo.[1] Nintendo was impressed, but because of poor CD-i sales was forced to cancel the game.[6] Multiple designers also left to work for Electronic Arts.[7] This ended the CD-i career of Warner, who had expected Nintendo's reaction. Other developers such as lead artist Nina Stanley stayed with the project. Though the developers were highly enthusiastic about making a traditional Mario game (partly to establish their reputation surrounding Nintendo-licensed characters), NovaLogic hoped to use as little money as possible on the project. The company intended to make a small amount of profit while focusing on games such as the Comanche series. The game's final prototype is a pre-alpha at Version 0.11, finished on March 3, 1993, after one year of work. Approximately 80% of the game's art, 95% of its design, and around 30% of its code was finished.[citation needed] The prototype contains music taken from Super Mario World and no sound effects beside the jumping sound.[8][9] This seems to be an early placeholder, as the idea for the final game was to take advantage of the disc format and use a flexible audio range rather than port unimproved synthesized sound.[4]

Accurately capturing the sprites of Super Mario World was difficult for the Wacky Worlds development team, since the CD-i had a different sprite-making style than that of the SNES.[8] To create their characters, they copied sprites of Mario and several Koopa Troopas from Super Mario World.[4] Their original designs include a Greek Koopa, knight Koopa, eskimo Koopa, vampire Koopa, and a walrus.[10] The backgrounds were all hand-drawn,[8][4] based on real-world locations.[11]

Three prototypes are in circulation.[4]

Gameplay

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As an incomplete pastiche of Super Mario World, Mario can only walk and jump.[4] Enemies are not programmed correctly, as they disappear when Mario ends up above them, suggesting incomplete stomping implementation.[8] Enemies cannot harm Mario, and are stopped if touched, even if it means floating in the air. Mario can't die when he falls into a pit but floats on it.[12]

Level progression can be pieced together by the selectable stages, with two or three levels per world. Each level has an exit such as a Warp Pipe, a Trojan Horse, or a stylized "M" object holding tape—some of which are non-functional,[8] so the system must be restarted.[4]

Reception

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Kombo wrote that the game paled in comparison to Sonic CD, another platformer sequel released on a CD-based platform. He criticized the real-world setting as not befitting the "Wacky" monicker, suggesting that its cancelation helped avoid the laughingstock fate of other Nintendo-licensed games for CD-i, such as Hotel Mario and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon.[11] GamesRadar writer Tom Goulter compared its quality to fan games, stating that while it was an impressive effort, the CD-i's limitations made it fortunate that it was never released.[1] Joystiq's Justin McElroy said that the game would have been better off to have not been rediscovered. He said that the real-world settings were an odd choice and that it was not a worthy successor to Super Mario World.[13] Digital Spy's Mark Langshaw said that the limited sprite count and the CD-i's pointer controls would have tarnished Super Mario World had it been released.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Goulter, Tom (January 29, 2011). "The worst games you never played". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  2. ^ "Company Bio: Philips Interactive Media". GameSpy. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  3. ^ "The Mario Series: 10 Games That Were Canceled". The Gamer. July 25, 2019. Archived from the original on November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Sidewalk CD-i Playground (Accessed on 6-19-08)
  5. ^ Samuel Clemens (July 4, 2022). "Stephen Radosh: An Interview with the Creator of Hotel Mario". Games Reviews. GR Media. Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
  6. ^ Langshaw, Mark (April 22, 2011). "Retro Corner: 'Super Mario World'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  7. ^ East, Tom (April 10, 2009). "Rare Mario games". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on January 7, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d e Quebec Gamers Archived January 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (Accessed on 6-19-08)
  9. ^ Gerardi, Matt (September 17, 2014). "Read This: A peek into the making of a lost Mario game". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  10. ^ Mario Fan Games Galaxy Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (accessed 6-19-08)
  11. ^ a b "Super Mario's Wacky Worlds Footage Revealed". Kombo. May 4, 2012. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  12. ^ YouTube Archived December 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine (accessed 6-20-08)
  13. ^ McElroy, Justin (September 7, 2009). "Super Mario's Wacky Worlds should have stayed buried". Engadget. Archived from the original on January 28, 2024. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  14. ^ Langshaw, Mark (May 29, 2011). "Feature: Lost Levels: The Best of Vapourware". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.

Further reading

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