List of unreleased media
Due to various reasons (ranging from being of poor quality, being produced for a failed or soon-to-be-discontinued system or having its developer facing financial or legal woes), a game can end up being cancelled and cease production. Despite their statue, concepts present in cancelled games can end up being reused in commercial releases and some cancelled games can end up being repurposed into different projects.
A game in developement can also end up being Vaporware, a term for projects that are announced on which development is started but, for a possible variety of reasons, were never published.
Following is a list of cancelled Mario games and Vaporwares. Both should not be confused with Beta elements, elements from a game that are removed before release, or playable Tech Demos rarely intended to be turned into commercial products.
- Return of Donkey Kong, a sequel to Donkey Kong cancelled for unknown reasons. – Nintendo Entertainment System
- Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi, a music-based spin-off of Donkey Kong, also cancelled for unkown reasons. – Nintendo Entertainment System
- Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, which was cancelled due to the CD-i's drop in popularity. – CD-i[1]
- Mario Takes America, was cancelled due to Philips being unsatisfied by the development's progress. – CD-i
- Donkey Kong, which was cancelled due to the CD-i's drop in popularity. – CD-i[2]
- Super Mario FX, an early attempt at a 3D Mario game cancelled due to system limitations. Certain aspects of this game were carried over into Super Mario 64. – Super Nintendo Entertainment System[3]
- VB Mario Land, which was cancelled due to the discontinuation of the Virtual Boy. – Virtual Boy[4]
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, also cancelled due to the discontinuation of the Virtual Boy. – Virtual Boy[5]
- Luigi's Mansion, got moved to the Nintendo GameCube. – Nintendo 64
- Mario Artist: Game Maker, cancelled due to the failure of the N64DD. – Nintendo 64DD
- Super Mario 64 2, abandoned due to a lack of progress and failure of the 64DD. Certain aspects were carried over to Super Mario Sunshine & Super Mario 64 DS – Nintendo 64DD[6]
- Super Smash Bros. 2, got reworked into Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo Gamecube.[7] – Nintendo 64DD
- Mario Paint 64, it had many processors when playing and the original mouse. – Nintendo 64DD[8]
- Ultra Donkey Kong, also known as (Ultra Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong World and Donkey Kong Universe) while in development got reworked into Donkey Kong 64. – Nintendo 64DD[9]
- Diddy Kong Pilot, not finished before Rare joined Microsoft in 2002 and Nintendo not approving of the concept. It was later reworked into Banjo Pilot. – Game Boy Advance[10]
- Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, much like the aforemented Diddy Kong Pilot, it was not finished before Rare joined Microsoft. It was eventually reworked into It's Mr. Pants. – Game Boy Advance[11]
- Donkey Kong Racing, Not finished before Rare joined Microsoft. (Unofficially cancelled) – Nintendo GameCube[12]
- Yoshi Touch & Go, Moved to Nintendo DS with same name. – Nintendo GameCube
- DK Bongo Blast, got reworked onto the Wii as Donkey Kong Barrel Blast. – Nintendo GameCube[13]
- Super Paper Mario, got reworked on Wii with the same name. – Nintendo GameCube[14]
- Super Mario Spikers, a cancelled volleyball-wrestling hybrid game in development for Wii by Next Level Games. – Wii[15]
