Super Mario's Wacky Worlds

Template:Infobox Super Mario's Wacky Worlds was a planned successor to Super Mario World, developed by NovaLogic for Royal Philips Electronics's unsuccessful CD-i system. The game was never officially released although three prototype copies are in circulation.

History

Wacky Worlds emerged in a time in which its developing company, NovaLogic, was hoping to be hired by Nintendo.^[1] Then helping Nintendo with the "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 Nintendo sales executive that simple Nintendo titles could play on the CD-i, sparking the idea of putting "a popular Nintendo game, "Super Mario World" onto a CD-i disc", making the project an intended sequel or follow-up to the launch title exclusively for the CD-i hardware.

Developers Silas Warner and John Brooks were drafted as the game's designers, and worked 24 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 8:00 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 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 (partly to clear their reputation surrounding 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.

Version 0.11, the game's final prototype (an early alpha), was finished on March 3, 1993 after the project had about a year of work. Approximately 80% of the game's art, 95% percent of its design, and around 30% of its code was finished.

Three prototypes are in circulation, one of which was sold on the online auction website eBay for $1,000.^[1] A certain prototype, perhaps the same one as that sold on eBay, has been leaked to the internet in ISO form and can be played both on emulators and as a burned disc on an actual CD-i.^[2]

Gameplay

Sprites of Mario from the game

As it is a pre-alpha, the prototype is rather limited; Super Mario can only walk both ways and jump, and no Power-ups exist. He cannot slide or swim, but it would appear that these abilities would have been implemented had development continued.^[1] Enemies are also not programmed correctly; they disappear when Mario ends up above them, suggesting incomplete stomping attempts.^[2] Enemies also cannot harm Mario and are stopped in their tracks if touched, even if it means ending up floating in the air.^[3]

Level progression 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 as the Trojan Horse in Greek 1), whereas the last most often has a stylized "M" object holding tape, presumably a similar aspect to the 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.

Both "M" marks and Warp Pipes are non-functional,^[2] so one must restart the CD-i or emulator to escape a level.^[1]

Graphics

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.^[2] To create their characters, they actually pirated their designs from Super Mario World,^[1] producing Mario, as well as several Koopa Troopa variations based on the Super Mario World sprites: Greek Koopa Troopas clad in tunics and laurel wreaths, knight Koopa Troopas with feathered helmets, blue Inuit Koopa Troopas in parkas, and dark vampire Koopa Troopas with capes and fangs. The development team also sprited an enemy of their own creation, a walrus drawn in a similar manner to the Koopa Troopas, with similar poses and a turning animation.

The various backgrounds of the game were all hand-drawn by the development team^[2]; in fact, they were indeed based off of paper drawings.^[1] Of related note is that the game's levels are based on real-world Earth locations.

Sound

The prototype contains music taken from Super Mario World and no sound effects besides the jumping sound.^[2] 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.^[1]

Levels

Ancient

Greek

Greek 1	A very short desert level with a few brown ruins and five Greek Koopa Troopas. It ends with some stone steps up into the mouth of a model of the Trojan Horse, which cannot be entered but presumably could be had development continued.
Greek 2	Mostly consists of the interior of the Trojan Horse, inside of which are some knight Koopas and, oddly, a walrus. There are exits at the bottom of both of the legs, one of which leads to a small enclosed area before the other, which lets off at a small ledge before much completely blank space (which, perhaps because of unfinished programming, pulls Mario toward itself), which would have either been removed or expanded upon later.
Greek 3	A water stage completely without enemies. Mario must walk through it in the prototype, as swimming had not yet been programmed. The farthest Mario can go is to a large stone pillar after some volcanoes; although a Warp Pipe of unknown purpose lies beyond the pillar, Mario cannot jump high enough to reach it.

Egypt

Egypt 1	Knight Koopas reappear in this long, ruin-filled desert, which moves from traditional designs to walking up and down sandy slopes by the middle. It ends with a Koopa sphinx, on which are three Warp Pipes.
Egypt 2	An underground stage that consists only of a long, enemy-less tunnel with a few holes in the ceiling and floor and a Warp Pipe at the end.
Egypt 3	A short level with no enemies. It consists of a large, sandy mountain and marks the debut of the "M"-shaped level ender mentioned above.

Aztec

Completely unfinished, with no levels made in any form. However, its two stages are named.

Aztec 1
Aztec 2

Haunted

Castle

Castle 1	A mad scientist's castle that is mostly one room. Mario can walk across spikes at the level's surface, as well as rafters at its top and caves at the right, one of which leads to a Warp Pipe, the others being useless. Cone-shaped electronic devices, perhaps intended to emit harmful electricity in the final game, are found throughout this level, which otherwise has no enemies.
Castle 2	A more luxurious interpretation of the castle, with two chandeliers, curtains, and paintings of Koopa ladies and noblemen. It includes more non-functional spikes, as well as Inuit Koopas (perhaps to-be-replaced by a more fitting design for the final game) and vampire Koopas exclusive to this level. Its bottom surface is mostly blank, but leads to a stone room with an "M" object.

Ship

Ship 1	A large pirate ship without enemies. Mario can climb on its masts, and can see the Moon far off in the background if he jumps high enough. It ends with two pipes.
Ship 2	A very short level that seems to finish the unseen rightmost part of the pirate ship, with two pipes (different from the two at Ship 1's end) and an "M" mark. A Koopa figurehead can also be seen at the ship's front.
Ship 3	The ship's hold, in which are several platforms and some water. Its end is unknown, for Mario cannot jump high enough to reach it. This level seems to break normal level progression, being located after a stage with an "M", meaning it may have not technically been Ship's third level or could have been unlockable.

House

Like Aztec, neither of these levels have data.

House 1
House 2

Jungle

Cave

Cave 1	A cave with a waterfall, skull platforms similar to Lava Lifts, and Inuit Koopas (once more, possibly placeholders) and walruses as enemies (oddly found only at the stage's end).
Cave 2	A falling, enemy-less level that starts out in a circular room and has one other compartment, an open space filled with animated, solid mask objects similar to Phantos or Mask Gates. Then, there is a small section of floor with an Easter Island moai-like statue that, like the Trojan horse, would presumably serve as a Warp Pipe substitute.
Cave 3	Begins with another stone statue that exits into a hilly cave with some more Eskimo Koopas and walruses, as well as a bottomless pit. The cave is exited at the end, which features an "M".

Swamp

Swamp 1	An underwater level (once more, Mario cannot swim) with various platforms and harmless spears. There are multiple Warp Pipes throughout this stage.
Swamp 2	A very small screen consisting mostly of a Warp Pipe and "M".
Swamp 3	This stage, as well as the rest of Swamp, is another small level with Warp Pipes, two in Swamp 3's case. From this, one can infer that Swamp may have been a maze of pipes ultimately leading to Swamp 2, presumably its exit.
Swamp 4	There are four Warp Pipes in this room.
Swamp 5	A two-pipe screen similar to Swamp 3. It may be worthy of note that what appears to be a blue, reptilian skull is found in the upper-right-hand corner of this stage; although skulls were common in Swamp's backgrounds and foregrounds, this one appears to be an object and may be a non-functional enemy.
Swamp 6	Another empty stage.

Village

Another world without level data. Its high stage amount might suggest a final layout similar to Swamp.

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

Arctic

Iceberg

Iceberg 1	A fairly long iceberg stage whose elements, among which are slopes, give it some comparative similarity in level design to Super Mario World's levels. Greek Koopas are found here. A closed-off door is at its middle, and a Warp Pipe at the end. Also of note is that an aurora can be seen in the background.
Iceberg 2	Another iceberg stage (mostly consisting of ice chunks floating in the water) in which more Greek, as well as Inuit Koopas can be found. Its end, a plain after a slope, is completely blank.

Igloo

Igloo 1

A large ice maze inside of an igloo, with many walruses. It has two main exits one with an "M" and one with a Warp Pipe. The exit that leads to the warp pipe looks like one of the pits in the maze. This could have been a secret exit. The stage itself freezes and has many graphical glitches when inside the igloo.

Ice Mountain

Ice Mountain 1

A climb across a mountain that deviates from a simple slope up and slope down very little (only with holes does it change). After this, Mario must traverse down clumps of snow to reach an "M".

Wacky

Neon City

Neon City 1

Though some of its data is finished, the level's graphics are not and it hence appears as only a blue-and-green void. Presumably, it would have been a colorfully-lit metropolis.

Geometropolis

Geometropolis 1

The background in this stage is a more buggy version of the one found in Pipeworks, and it is not known whether Geometropolis or Pipeworks would keep their design, or if it was simply a placeholder. Other than that, this level is completely identical to Pipeworks, with the same enemies and foreground pipe placements.

Land o' Plaid

Land o' Plaid 1

Like Neon City 1, this level has some solid layouts but no graphics. It would presumably end up having some relation to the plaid color or pattern in the final game.

Tubular

Pipeworks

Pipeworks 1

A 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.