Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds

1992-1993 NovaLogic Platform: Philips CD-i It still feels strange to imagine a traditional Super Mario platform game appearing on anything other than Nintendo hardware, but thanks to Nintendo’s short-lived agreement with Philips, that almost became a reality. Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds was in development at NovaLogic as a follow-up of sorts to Super Mario World, bringing Mario to the Philips CD-i in what promised to be a globe-trotting adventure. Rather than taking place in Dinosaur Land, the game would have seen Mario travelling across real-world inspired locations including Ancient Greece, Egypt, haunted castles, pirate ships, jungles, the Arctic and a series of increasingly bizarre “wacky” worlds filled with neon cities, geometric landscapes and giant pipeworks. Unlike the SNES original, the environments were all hand drawn, with artist Nina Stanley creating colourful backdrops inspired by real locations. She recalled that the project marked the first time she had created all of…