Cancelled Mario Land Revealed

The Mario series, which has a different place in every gamer’s memory, has a history full of dozens of successful games. However, there is one game in this history that has almost been completely forgotten. This unnamed game, known as Mario Land and developed for the Virtual Boy, was quietly lost in 1995. Now, some images that have emerged from the depths of the archives have rekindled curiosity about this canceled project.

Mario’s Lost Game Seen So Clearly for the First Time

Bluesky user “rabidrodent” discovered three screenshots among old AOL files on The Internet Archive. These images are thought to be from official promotional materials that Nintendo shared with the press in 1995. In other words, they are not completely new; but this is almost the first time they have been made public with such clarity.

This game, called “VB Mario Land”, was introduced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show event held in January 1995. However, participants could not play the game directly on the Virtual Boy, they only watched the first episode’s promotional video on wide-screen televisions. The demo, shown with special glasses simulating the 3D effect, attracted attention despite the limited technological possibilities of the time.

The game would include both side-scrolling and top-down sections. It also featured a system that allowed transitions between different layers. These mechanics inspired the Virtual Boy Wario Land, which was released later. However, there is no clear explanation as to why the game was shelved.

Many people think that the rapid commercial failure of the Virtual Boy console was the main reason behind this decision. Thus, the Virtual Boy went down in history as the only Nintendo console not to receive a traditional Mario game. These new visuals shed light on one of Nintendo’s projects that makes you wonder “what if it had happened?”

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