Image: Youtube (Unseen64)
The games Nintendo greenlights are just as interesting as the ones they don’t. And one of those pitches was a PC port of Super Mario Bros 3 – made by John Carmack and John Romero themselves.
The projects that Nintendo shut down are covered as part of the latest video from Unseen64. Some of those include a remake of Star Fox with crisper graphics and an improved frame rate, or a Kid Icarus revival from the Metroid Prime makers.
But perhaps the most fascinating pitch shut down in 1990 was a PC port of Super Mario Bros. It was pitched by John Romero and John Carmack, which blended Dangerous Dave into a playable Super Mario Bros world.
The pitch was sent to Nintendo’s Kyoto offices, but the Japanese corporation eventually turned the pitch down. The logic was that Nintendo was wary about selling on platforms that they didn’t manufacture themselves, although they were reportedly impressed by the project.
It would be interesting to see a new Art Academy in the Switch era, mind you. There aren’t many games that take advantage of the Switch’s touch screen functions. A retail package with a little stylus would be real nice.
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