Super Mario's Wacky Worlds

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds was a planned sequel to Super Mario World, developed by NovaLogic for the Philips Media's CD-i. The game was never released.

History
Super Mario's Wacky Worlds emerged in a time in which its developing company, NovaLogic, was hoping to be hired by Nintendo. Then helping Nintendo with their "SNES-CD," a disc drive for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Philips had a right to make games with Nintendo characters for their CD-i. It was suggested to NovaLogic by a sales executive from Nintendo that they port simpler Super Nintendo games to the CD-i, sparking the idea of "putting Super Mario World onto a CD-i disk": making a quasi-sequel to the SNES launch game for the CD-i.

Developers Silas Warner and John Brooks were drafted as the game's designers, and worked twenty-four hours a day for two weeks on the game, finishing only a part of one level to present to Nintendo. Their meeting with the Nintendo developers came at eight o'clock AM on a Friday morning, and they had their short part of the game on a disc four hours before this.

Nintendo was very much impressed at the two men's job, but because of poor CD-i sales was forced to cancel the game. This ended the CD-i career of Silas Warner, who had expected Nintendo's exact reaction.

However, other developers, such as lead artist Nina Stanley, stayed with the project. Though the developers were highly enthusiastic about making a traditional Mario game (and thusly clearing their reputation of disgracing Nintendo-licensed characters), NovaLogic hoped to use as little money as possible on the project, which was mostly executed with the intentions of making a small amount of profit while games such as those of the Comanche series had focus.

In the end, version 0.11, the game's final prototype (a pre-alpha version), was finished on March 3, 1993, after the project had about a year of work. Approximately eighty percent of the game's art, ninety-five percent of its design, and around thirty percent of its code was finished. Three prototypes of the game are in circulation, one of which was sold on online auction website eBay for one thousand dollars. A certain prototype, perhaps even the same thousand-dollar one, has been leaked to the internet in ROM form and can be played on emulators, albeit unofficially and illegally. This ROM has also been ported to the CD-i itself, though once more, of course, illegally.

To fill the need of a Mario game for the CD-i, Hotel Mario was made. With this failed sequel to Super Mario World gone unreleased, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island can almost be considered its successor as the game's true sequel, not that the two games have any real relation.

Gameplay
The prototype is rather limited; Mario can only walk both ways and jump, and no powerups exist. He cannot slide or swim, but it would appear that these abilities would be programmed into the game later had development continued. Enemies are also not programmed correctly; they disappear when Mario ends up above them, suggesting incomplete stomping attempts. Enemies also cannot harm Mario in the prototype and are stopped in their tracks if touched, even if it means ending up floating in the air.

Level progression in the prototype is not explicit, but can be pieced together by the selectable stages. Most worlds have two or three levels, the first of which end with Warp Pipes (or similar things, such Greek 1's Trojan Horse), whereas the last most often has a stylized "M" object holding tape, presumably Super Mario's Wacky Worlds 's answer to Super Mario World 's Giant Gates, but ending worlds instead of levels. However, the mysterious "M"'s may serve another purpose, as one is found alongside a Warp Pipe in Igloo 1; perhaps they would have signified bonuses. Either way, both "M" marks and Warp Pipes are non-functional ; one must restart their CD-i or emulator to escape a level.

Graphics
Accurately capturing the sprites of Super Mario World was difficult for the Super Mario's Wacky Worlds development team, for the CD-i had a different sprite-making style than that of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. To create their characters, they actually pirated their designs from Super Mario World, producing Mario, as well as several Koopa variations based on the Super Mario World Koopa sprite: Greek Koopas clad in tunics and fig leaves, knight Koopas with feathered helmets, blue Eskimo Koopas in parkas, and dark vampire Koopas with capes and fangs. The development team also sprited an enemy of their own creation, a walrus sprited true to the Super Mario World style. Aside from this, an unused Thwomp enemy graphically identical to that featured in Super Mario World exists in the prototype's programming.

The various backgrounds of the game were all hand-drawn by the development team ; in fact, they were indeed based off of paper drawings. Of related note is that the game seems to take place on Earth.

Sound
All of the game's music is taken from Super Mario World. There are no sound effects.

Aztec
This world is completely unfinished with no levels made in any form. (However, its two stages are named.)


 * Aztec 1
 * Aztec 2

House
Like Aztec, none of these levels have data.


 * House 1
 * House 2

Village
Another world without level data. Its high stage amount might suggest final layout similar to Swamps 2-5.


 * Village 1
 * Village 2
 * Village 3
 * Village 4
 * Village 5
 * Village 6

Neon City

 * Neon City 1 – Though some of its data is finished, this level's graphics are not and it thusly appears as only a blue-and-green void. Presumably, it would have been a colorfully lit metropolis.

Geometropolis

 * Geometropolis 1 – A buggy, incomplete stage with many Pipes (some of which are small and may be oriented diagonally) and water elements such as water-shooting pipes, showers, and metal Koopa heads. Greek and Eskimo Koopas are found here.

Sewer
This world's one level lacks data, like many above.
 * Sewer 1

Chemistry Lab
This world and its one level are also without data. It is interesting to note, however, that the theme of chemistry labs is already explored in the prototype with Castle 1.


 * Chemistry Lab 1