List of unreleased media
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Template:Distinguish2 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 status, concepts present in cancelled games can be reused in commercial releases, and some cancelled games are repurposed into different projects.
A game in development 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.
List of cancelled Mario games and vaporware
| Game | System | Reason/Description |
|---|---|---|
| Return of Donkey Kong | Nintendo Entertainment System | A sequel to Donkey Kong, cancelled for unknown reasons. |
| Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi | A music-based spin-off of Donkey Kong, also cancelled for unknown reasons. | |
| Wario Land 2 | Game Boy | Original Japanese-development version of Wario Land II with a copyright of 1997;[1] a tweaked English version was released Internationally the following year, but this particular version was cancelled for the Game Boy Color port. It is unknown if it also had Super Game Boy support like the other versions. |
| Mario Takes America | Philips CD-i | Cancelled due to financial issues caused by Philips being unsatisfied by the development's progress. Attempts to rework the title with the Sonic license and original properties fell through.[2] |
| Super Mario's Wacky Worlds | A sequel to Super Mario World. Cancelled likely due to development requiring a higher budget.[3] | |
| Donkey Kong | Untitled Donkey Kong game. Production stopped when it was discovered Donkey Kong was considered a separate license from Mario, so there was no permission to work on it.[4] | |
| VB Mario Land | Virtual Boy | A sequel to Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins; scrapped in favor of expanding the Mario Bros.-esque mini-game and releasing it as Mario Clash.[5] |
| Donkey Kong Country 2 | Preliminary work on a Donkey Kong Country sequel for the Virtual Boy. Released as Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for SNES.[6] | |
| VB Mario Kart | A follow-up to Super Mario Kart. Very little is known about it other than its place on a release schedule.[7] | |
| Argonaut Yoshi platformer | Nintendo 64 | Due to the third-party pitch not approved by Nintendo, it was reworked into Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. Super Mario 64 allegedly resembles its original design. |
| Luigi's Mansion | Got reworked onto the Nintendo GameCube with the same name.Template:Refneeded | |
| Mario Artist | Nintendo 64DD | Of the Mario Artist series, only Paint Studio, Talent Studio, Communication Kit and Polygon Studio were released; Game Maker, Graphical Message Maker, Sound Maker (originally part of Paint Studio) and Video Jockey Maker were cancelled due to internal politics between NoA & NoJ over control of the project.[8] |
| Super Mario 64 2 | Abandoned due to a lack of progress and the failure of the Nintendo 64DD. Certain aspects were carried over to Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario 64 DS. May be related to Super Mario Disk Version, a similarly-unreleased working port of the prequel shown at Nintendo Space World 1996.[9] | |
| Mario Paint 64 | It allowed for many processes while playing, and used a controller different from the original mouse. | |
| Ultra Donkey Kong | Also known as Donkey Kong World and Donkey Kong Universe while in development. Got reworked into Donkey Kong 64.[10] | |
| Super Mario RPG 2 | Also known as Super Mario Adventure while in development. Due to complications involving Square, it was reworked into Paper Mario and released as a standard Nintendo 64 title. | |
| Diddy Kong Pilot | Game Boy Advance | Not finished before Rare was bought by Microsoft in 2002 and Nintendo not approving of the concept. It was later reworked into Banjo Pilot.[11] |
| Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers | Much like the aforementioned Diddy Kong Pilot, it was not finished before Rare joined Microsoft. It was eventually reworked into It's Mr. Pants.[12] | |
| Donkey Kong Plus | Nintendo GameCube | A remake of Game Boy Donkey Kong shown at E3 2002 as a proof-of-concept for GBA/GCN connectivity, but its intended system is unclear. Presumably canned in favor of Mario vs. Donkey Kong, an original game based on its gameplay.[13] |
| Donkey Kong Racing | Just as how Diddy Kong Pilot and Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers were unofficially cancelled, it has not been finished before Rare joined Microsoft. It was soon reworked into Sabreman Stampede for the Xbox 360; this iteration of the title, however, was also entirely cancelled, unlike the aforementioned games.[14] | |
| Yoshi Touch & Go | Got reworked onto the Nintendo DS with the same name. | |
| DK Bongo Blast | Got reworked onto the Wii as Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.[15] | |
| Super Paper Mario | Got reworked on Wii with the same name.[16] | |
| Super Mario Spikers | Wii | A cancelled volleyball-wrestling hybrid game in development for Wii by Next Level Games.[17] |
