Super Mario 128 was the quintessential tech demo. Shown at Nintendo’s Space World in 2000 to put the then-unreleased Gamecube through its paces, it featured — you guessed it — 128 Mario models goofing off on-screen.
According to Player’s Choice Games, the Gamecube laughed its way through the presentation, never exceeding 25 per cent of the console’s capabilities (represented by the green bar in the image). Miyamoto even cranked up the effects and the hardware still sat there, periodically checking its watch.
How did it influence Super Mario Galaxy? Not much, actually. At GDC 2007, Miyamoto stated that its greatest impact was on the game’s level design; it contributed more to the original Pikmin than anything else. It’s been said the Marios ran about on a sphere — in actual fact it was a deformable disc (an impressive feat for the time).
This is just one long lost game covered by E-mpire below. Hit the link for a roundup of four others, including Peter Molyneux’s B.C. and EA’s Black 2.
Image: Player’s Choice Games
Five Cancelled Titles That Were Overhauled to Become New Games [E-mpire]
picky
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 3:45 PMand then what happened?
THXultra
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 4:48 PMB.C. !!! That game would have been great! Wish Lionhead had of went through with that, was very interesting.
Chazz
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 6:35 PMArticle title; Super Mario Galaxy Was Once Super Mario 128?
Article content; How did it influence Super Mario Galaxy? Not much, actually.
This is what I’ve come to expect from KotakuUS not KotakuAU. Not the best start for KotakuAU’s weekend editor.
Rusty
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 7:07 PMThis confused me too.
ABODI
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 10:37 PMyeah pretty lame.
Neil Williams
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 11:31 PMI’m sorry, Logan, but I’m going to have to agree with Chazz in regards to the title of this article being misleading. While I’m loathe to attempt to tell you how to do your job (which I personally think you’re doing really well, actually), you’ll find that quite a few readers get a bit uppity about titles of articles that don’t necessarily tie in to the article’s content, particularly as this is one of the major trademarks of many of KotakuUS articles (which are generally of a much lower quality than what the KotakuAU articles are).
That being said; so far I’ve personally been really enjoying the articles that you’ve been posting for KotakuAU. The content has been of an exceptional quality, and rather than just recycling/copy-and-pasting content from another site (something the US staff are extremely guilty of), you’ve taken the information and given it your own journalistic spin, one unique to the other Australian contributors that makes your articles instantly recognisable as your own.
So here’s to many more fantastic articles from you, and welcome aboard. :-)
ben
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 12:05 PMthat bar graph is totally past 25%.
Brett
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 12:07 PMWasn’t it generally accepted that “Super Mario 128″ eventually morphed from technical demonstration to an actual game concept in Super Mario Galaxy? And hasn’t this been known from interviews with Miyamoto for years?
MikeZdoesit
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 1:42 PMsomewhat, it actualy has more in comen with pikmen as stated in the artcle.