A Lost Miyamoto Project - Super Mario 128 54
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 can't remember exactly... (Score:1, Redundant)
(You know, to show of the polygon processing count)
Re:I can't remember exactly... (Score:1)
Re:I can't remember exactly... (Score:5, Interesting)
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).
Re:I can't remember exactly... (Score:1, Interesting)
Originally, before SK was a Nintendo second party, Too Human was to be released on the Playstation (in 1997 IIRC); later Nintendo aquired SK and it was announced that Too Human had moved development to the N64 (to be released in 1999 IIRC); then Too Human was moved to the Gamecube where it (pretty much) was just vaporware for a generation and it was finally released on the XBox 360.
I'm actually surprised it was ever released
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I can't remember exactly... (Score:1, Informative)
Inspiration from Mario 128 demo... (Score:2)
Re:Yes, sort of (Score:4, Informative)
The tech demo would eventually be reworked and refined to become "Pikmin".
Not surprised (Score:4, Insightful)
Projects (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Projects (Score:1)
What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:1)
Speaking of the 64DD, what ever happened to that thing? So many people used to talk about it, and Nintendo Power had it in its "Most Wanted" list for a long time...and then nothing ever happened. I believe we were promised a new "Earthbound" game, as well, the production of which was delayed so that it could be released as a 64DD game. What happened to that?
All 64DD indicates to anyone now is Scarlett Johansson's bra size.
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:3, Informative)
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).
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:2)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:1, Troll)
abuse of moderation (Score:2)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:2)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:2)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:1)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:1)
Apparently people are making ROMs for it?
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:2)
The only game worth playing was Zelda: OoT Master Quest, which was subsequently released in North America on the GameCube (and is the same game as Z:OoT except the dungeons are totally different and harder) on the pre-order bonus disk for Wind Waker.
Re:quote the Wikipedia (Score:2)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:2)
Re:What ever happened to the 64DD? (Score:1)
Gross. I would hope not.
I'm sure everyone already knows this, but... (Score:2, Redundant)
It was hard, even if you did a constant Donkey Kong hand-slap
Re:I'm sure everyone already knows this, but... (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:I'm sure everyone already knows this, but... (Score:1)
That is exactly what Super Mario 128 is. It was just an experimental platform Miyamoto (and most probably others) used to demonstrate new gameplay concepts. A lot of these concepts have apparently been implemented in Super Mario Galaxy, but I would
Re:I'm sure everyone already knows this, but... (Score:2)
Koopa (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd be willing to bet money that Mario does fight the monster that replaced Godzilla in the Super NES port of SimCity.
Re:Just putting this out there... (Score:2)
This time last week I bought my first new Mario game in many a long year. About eighty seconds later I yelled 'OMG COOL! MARIO-ZILLA!' and smashed up an entire level.
Mario vs Godzilla could work really well. In fact I think I'll go to one of the castles which has a proper giant Bowser, not the baby one, and go Mariozilla at the final fight. MARIO SMAAAASH!
Pikmin?! (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Pikmin?! (Score:2, Informative)
Tech Demo (Score:1, Redundant)
So here's my question.... (Score:2)
What else is Miyamoto experimenting with? And I don't mean that as a joke. I'd love to see an interview where Miyamoto takes someone though all the things he's got in the hopper. I've seen this with writers before -- one of my favorites walked a reporter through about 30 poems he was working on. In some cases the poems had been in development for years. It was fascinating. Creative people can juggle a dizzying number of ideas, for long periods of time.
-Tony
I'd pay a bit for a "beta archive" disc (Score:3, Interesting)
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.