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A Lost Miyamoto Project - Super Mario 128
Wowzer writes "After the 1996 release of Super Mario 64, magazines for years mentioned Super Mario 128 - a game that would feature both Mario & Luigi for release on the N64 or its 64DD add-on. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto lays the game to rest as one of his lost projects. From the article: 'Super Mario 128 was just one of many experimental games we had. Suddenly, everybody started talking about it. I'm in the all-too easy habit of starting a project only to later on not do much of it. There is a great deal of unfinished work on my desk. I worked on a prototype for the Nintendo 64 game with Mario and Luigi in it for some time." As it turns out elements of Super Mario 128 live on in Super Mario Galaxy on Wii.'"
I would be surprised if he didn't have unfinished work on his desk. The fact that he's using elements from 128 in Galaxies probably means that only the best parts were used and the rest was fodder. The fact that 128 stayed unfinished is probably a good thing.
I have nothing to say.
I'm sure there's thousands, if not millions, of ideas and projects that he has thought upon or even started on. To simply badger at him for laying one to rest shouldn't be too harsh; at least he mentioned it was half-alive in Super Mario Galaxy, meaning he combined ideas he had - usually a very difficult thing to do for game designers.
well, Earthbound 2 was canceled before the death of the 64DD was offical, IIRC (which I may not)
of course, Earthbound 2 (or Mother 3 as it is called) lives on for the GBA now. Only in Japanese, though, for now. From what I had read, most of the characters and story elements from 64DD version was used to make the GBA game (which resembles a lot like Earthbound / Mother 2 in look).
It was released in Japan and was a commercial failure. I would've loved to have one, though, even if only to play with the F-Zero X track editor and to have some nice new tracks to race on. I don't know what other games were actually released for it, but I'm sure there were more.
The "Mario 128" demo you refer to for the Gamecube was nothing more than a tech demo. It had 128 Marios on a small sphere of a world walking around, hitting each other, tripping over each other, and doing a good deal of other stuff.
Just like the Meowth Pokemon singing video and the Link/Ganon fight, it was purely a tech demo. There was wild speculation about potential games arising from each demo, but I don't believe any of them were fruitful (well, except the Too Human demo, which apparently debuted to lackluster results on the XBox/360.)
Speaking of the Link/Ganon demo, while the graphics I've seen for Twilight Princess are awesome, I will be disappointed if I don't get some FMVs that look as beautiful as the originall 2001 demo did (especially since I plan on getting the Wii version).
There was a demo early on showcasing some of the processing power of the Gamecube by displaying dozens of little Mario characters running around on the screen. Some game journalists referred to that as being "Mario 128".
The tech demo would eventually be reworked and refined to become "Pikmin".
Was it just me or did that video from the article look a lot like Pikmin? The sounds seemed to be the same, and the throwing was similar. It makes sense because he was instrumental in that one too. Pikmin is one of my favorite GC games.
I think Miyamoto would be a cool guy to talk to for even just 5 minutes. He seems to have a lot going on in his mind yet he somehow manages to keep it all coherent enough to get the relevant information to the right people to make great games. That's impressive.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
I'd be willing to bet money that Mario does fight the monster that replaced Godzilla in the Super NES port of SimCity.
Instead of trolling like the other reply, I'll be helpful. ;)
IIRC you unlock the random track mode by completing the Joker cup on Expert difficulty. It then shows up as the X Cup and randomly generates new tracks each time you play. And as the grandparent poster said, some tracks would cause all the CPU cars to go flying off the track to their deaths!
And I must say that I still prefer F-Zero X to GX.
It was already ported over to Gamecube (sorta). In Super Smash Brothers Melee, one of the challenge states set you up as a huge character versus 128 tiny marios.
That's not the same thing.
There was a GameCube tech demo shown at E3 and Space World before the GC's release called "128 Marios". A lot of people over the years have confused this with Super Mario 128. They are two different things. 128 Marios was literally just 128 Marios - it was intended to show the power of the GameCube by rendering 128 Mario characters from the N64's Super Mario 64 simultaneously. That idea is what made it into SSBM.
Super Mario 128 was supposed to be the next actual Mario game after Super Mario 64. The "128" was really just a number, it didn't mean anything, really, and probably would have been changed before the game's release. It was just how Miyamoto and co. referred to the game internally and in the press.
From what I understand, SMB128 was more of a concept and maybe some early programming demos rather than a nearly-finished game, as some have speculated. But it was supposed to be a real game, not just a bunch of Marios running around, which is what 128 Marios is.
I'm one of those weirdos who loves betas of games and such. I love seeing the features that never worked out, the levels that were cut, etc. It'd be awesome if Nintendo (or any company really) released a disc full of the various betas, demos, and preleases of major games. I think it'd be cool.
I bought a gameshark just to play with the stuff in Zelda 64. Who'd a thunk there was a fully-functional arwing enemy left in there that cirlces and takes potshots at Link.