Super Mario 128
Super Mario 128
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Super Mario 128
Release date(s)
2006 (speculative)
Adventure/Platform (speculative)
Mode(s)
Single player (speculative)
Nintendo Revolution (speculative)
Super Mario 128 is a video game supposedly under development by Nintendo, the next game in the Mario series and is being called the "true" sequel to Super Mario 64. It is currently under very close wraps, supposedly so that Nintendo's competitors would not be able to copy their new ideas. Veteran creator Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that developer focus is for release on Revolution. It has been expected that the game would be revealed, at least in part, at the three previous E³s from 2003 to 2005, however, it has not been shown. The game is close to vaporware as a lot has been said about it for many years but little concrete has been shown.
Super Mario 128 may have been just a Japanese demo for the GameCube. Other demos of this sort include one for Luigi's Mansion and Meowth's Party.
Early originsThe name Super Mario 128 was first coined by Miyamoto during an interview for Nintendo Power as early as January of 1997, as a possible name for a Super Mario 64 sequel on the Nintendo 64.
NP: Why did you make Star Fox 64 for Nintendo 64, a remake of the original Star Fox?
SM: We wanted to produce an interesting game design, rather than a new story. Sometimes I ask myself if we should continue this approach. For example, should we keep trying to put all the new technologies into each new Mario game. What comes next? Super Mario 128? Actually, that's what I want to do. (laughs). [1]
However, no further regular Mario games were released on the Nintendo 64. Focus moved to a next-generation Mario title with the announcement of 'Project Dolphin' in 1999 as the codename for their next console, which eventually became the Nintendo GameCube. In another Interview, with Nintendo Power (in January, 2000) Miyamoto spoke about the next-gen Mario game:
SM:"I'd like people to think that the new Mario for Dolphin is something that they've never seen before. That's what I'm thinking about right now. I think I can make an entirely new game experience, and if I can't do it, some other game designer will. I'd like to make a new Mario game that appeals to everyone, full of interesting new ideas. If it turns out that Mario doesn't really fit into the type of game I want, I wouldn't mind using Zelda as the basis of the new game." [2]
The game apparently appeared at the penultimate Nintendo Spaceworld event in August, 2000 with a demo called "Super Mario 128" being shown, with a large 2D Mario splitting off into 128 smaller marios across a kind of circular Monopoly board. This game, as Miyamoto stated, was "something they've never seen before" in the Mario series. It is now widely thought that technology used in this demo was put into Pikmin, using large numbers of characters at once on screen.
In the end this game merely turned out to be just a tech demo. One year later at Spaceworld 2001, Super Mario Sunshine was fully unveiled as the next Mario game; it was released in July, 2002, in Japan, and a month later in North America. It was very similar to Super Mario 64, and not the 'different' game Miyamoto had spoke of before. Many people believed Mario 128 turned out to be Mario Sunshine, and the name quietly sank into oblivion.
Chasing Mario 128On the 10th of December, 2002, IGN reported that according to an interview in Japan's Weekly Playboy magazine Miyamoto had mentioned, and confirmed the continuing development of Mario 128:
"In the interview, when asked about what's next from the company, producer Shigeru Miyamoto comments, "'Pikmin 2' and the 'Mario 128' game that was shown at the [GameCube] unveiling are both in development." Miyamoto elaborates a bit about the latter title, stating "I believe that with this game you'll be able to feel the "newness" that was missing from Mario Sunshine." [3]
Miyamoto mentioned the game a couple of times before E³ 2003, but it failed to appear at the expo. Instead, Miyamoto demonstrated Pac-Man Vs. and concentrated on connectivity and its relation to Nintendo products. Mario 128 was not mentioned. In an interview after E³ with Computer and Video Games, Miyamoto confirmed that Mario 128 and Mario Sunshine had been separate games.
Miyamoto:"In the case of Mario, obviously we were doing work on the Mario 128 demo that we were showing at Spaceworld, and separately we were doing work on experiments that we made into Mario Sunshine." [4]
Rumors later surfaced that Nintendo did not show Mario 128 at E³ 2003 because the game was very innovative, and Nintendo did not want other developers stealing the ideas from the game. As reported by IGN:
"The latest issue of Japan's Nintendo Dream magazine is apparently home to good news for Mario fanatics who were a bit disappointed with Mario Sunshine. According to the magazine, Nintendo's upcoming Mario 128 title is being built around a new idea that's never before been seen in a game. Apparently, Nintendo refrained from putting the title on display at E³ in order to prevent it from being stolen." [5]
Miyamoto later confirmed this in an interview with Nintendo Official Magazine UK, stating when asked what was happening with Mario, "I can't say anything concrete yet -- sorry. We're making it, of course and as afar as Mario games go, I want to make this a different -- but still Mario-esque game." [6]. Later in the year, there was a disappointing message from Nintendo's George Harrison where in an interview with CNN Money he stated that Mario 128 may not appear on GameCube at all.
"George Harrison, senior vice president of marketing for Nintendo of America, told me Tuesday that while a new Mario game for the GameCube is still a possibility, it's definitely not certain. Nintendo game master Shigeru Miyamoto teased a crowd with footage of what he called "Mario 128" when the GameCube was unveiled in 2000, but has said little else since. Harrison said the title is still under development, but he stopped short of saying it would be a GameCube game." [7]