Super Mario's Wacky Worlds is a canceled Marioplatformvideo 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
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]
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
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]
