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Did you know that there are Millions of people out there who have fond childhood memories of Mario games that technically don't exist?
When you think about it, the famiclone systems and bootleg games had a much wider reach than official NES systems and games all over the developing world. From the Balkans to Eastern Europe, China, India and even Latin America, tons and tons of people owned and played bootleg Famicom and NES games. And of course, living in the Famiclone world had its benefits.
Releases from all over the world regardless of region, all the weird and strange ROM hacks, unlicensed games and...it was amazing.
But one of the most facinating aspects of all of this is how so many people in countries like Macedonia, believe the games we had and played here are actually original Nintendo games.
People who don't follow gaming or even just retro gaming nowadays still believe that many of these ROM hacks were official games.
So that's why I look at 4 of the most popular Famicom exclusive games that were popular in my part of the world and known as Super Mario games.
So how good are these unrelated Famicom exclusives as Super Mario games, could we even tell they weren't real Super Mario titles?
I rate each one of the 4 most popular ones from 1 to 5 starts on how good they are as Mario games.
You can watch the video or keep reading:
The games we're going to take a look at are:
• Kaiketsu Yancha Maru 3 / Kid Niki 3 as Super Mario 14
• Pizza Pop as Pizza Pop Mario
• Don Doko Don 2 as Super Bros 8
• Armadillo as Super Mario IV
-------Kaiketsu Yancha Maru 3 (Kid Nikki 3) as Super Mario 14 ----
Super Mario! 14, you know the one with the naked peeing statues statues that shoot piss projectiles? Millions of people, all over the world have fond memories of this weird Super Mario. We thought that this released when Nintendo just didn’t know what else to do with the series and ended up reinventing Mario once again and send him on one of his most bizarre adventures yet.
I’ve seen at least 2-3 people in the past few years ask about this Super Mario installment and how they can play it nowadays not knowing it wasn't an actual Mario game. Some 10 years ago even one of my friends, a prominent video game developer in my country asked me if I remember this Super Mario game and what it actually was. He knew it was a ROM hack when he asked, but as a kid he too thought it was an official Mario game.
So can this game pass off as a Super Mario game? For many it did surprisingly enough. But the cracks are showing at pretty much every turn. The main character in the intro itself wasn’t replaced with Mario. The sprite often shifts back to its original design. The overall structure and design of the game is as far detached from Super Mario as it gets. Tho given Mario’s history of odd jobs and gameplay styles, him being a Ninja too wasn’t that far off. Some of the areas are very Mario-like indeed, the second world has a very Super Mario like background and setting. The 4th world is a desert and the player spends a lot of time jumping on clouds and which gives off some serious Mario vibes.
If I have to put a number on how easily this could pass up as a Mario game I’d say it would be around 3.5 Stars, however, due to the way this particular ROM hack was handeled at the time, it goes down to 2.5 Stars for me personally. For me, due to the constant sprite changes it was clear this wasn’t originally a Super Mario game, but something else, a situation similar to the character replacements we were already familiar with in Joe & Mac, Tiny Toons and Adventure Island.
Rating: 2.5/5
------- Pizza Pop as Pizza Pop Mario/Mary -----
Pizza Pop is a relatively easy and fun action platformer with some genuinely lovely visuals and one of the best, most impressive transparency effects achieved on the NES if played on RF.
As a kid the thought that this wasn't an official game didn't even cross my mind.
In Macedonia we’ve had the Mario Show and cartoon air both on Satellite TV and dubbed in Macedonian before this even came out. The Mario movie aired on TV multiple times too. We knew they’re Plumbers from Brooklyn or whatever and we had already seen Mario work all kinds of different jobs in different games, from zoo keeper to a doctor and even a construction worker. So for Mario to star in a pizza delivery action/platformer honestly wasn’t weird at all. It actually fit his character fairly well.
Now I own both the original Japanese release and a sadly faulty bootleg of Pizza Pop Mario, but one thing I know about the good Pizza Pop Mario version is that it has a full health meter at th e start and at the beginning of each new life unlike the original and more starting lives, which IMO makes it a much better experience. Tho I love both versions.
So what’s the verdict on Pizza Pop being a believable Mario game? I’d say 5 stars out of 5 stars.
Rating: 5/5
------- Armadillo as Mario IV ----
I don't like Armadillo, it has difficult to get used to controls, I always feel like I'm doing something wrong when playing it. I can get through a few worlds, but I just don't like it much.
Even so the game has a certain charm to it, not going to deny that.
For the bootleg, the original Armadillo sprite was replaced with Mario.
When Mario is not in his ball form, he walks around, jumps and most importantly runs by holding the b button like he does in all of his other games, so there’s nothing to indicate this isn’t a proper Mario game here. Mario turning into a ball is perfectly acceptable Super Mario behavior too, because we also have Somari. When it comes to Somari we assumed that Nintendo ripped SEGA off and made a Sonic-like game of their own featuring Mario. That, or perhaps SEGA and Nintendo collaborated.
Either playground explanation for the game worked and neither made Somari any less of an official Mario game in our minds.
So, seeing Mario transform into a ball in Mario IV to destroy enemies and reveal secrets seemed perfectly natural.
Note that Somari isn’t on this list because that’s not a sprite replacement but, rather, its own independent unlicensed Mario game.
So given Mario’s other outings, Super Mario IV doesn’t seem all that weird now, we’ve seen Mario climb ladders, turn into a ball, he destroys blocks and fights bosses in what appears to be a castle. Overall, other than the lives icon which depicts some sort of "a cowboy looking guy"(Shell, the original character of coursE) and the overworld character(again just good ol' janky Shell), which we can just assume is Mario’s companion since he does turn into different animals in this game, nothing indicates this is a fake.
Armadillo makes for a fairly believable Mario game indeed. Tho if I had to put a rating on it, the cracks are showing at the seams and if someone saw the original they’d probably realize the Mario one was the fake. So 3.5 stars out of 5. But if you never played Armadillo before, it might even be a 4/5 as a believable Mario game.
Rating: 4/5
Honestly as a kid I played this once, at a gaming center, couldn’t figure out the controls or anything and just said “wow Nintendo are running out of ideas with Mario” and ignored it for the rest of my childhood. I didn’t think much of it, just a bad Mario game. But if I spent more time on it, I believe I might have suspected it as a Fake Mario game but who knows, maybe now.
---- Don Doko Don 2 as Super Bros 8 ----
While Japanese kids played Don Doko Don 2 in the early 90's, us Macedonian kids played the same magical adventure, except often it would have Mario characters instead of the default gnomes. How were we supposed to know which one was the original, because Mario and Luigi definitely did not feel out of place here. Well I guess some did if they played the original at the arcades, but as someone who didn't like single screen arcade games as a kid (I do now) I ignored it. Don Doko 2 definitely makes for a very convincing Mario game, after all Mario uses a hammer in Donkey Kong, so the hammer part didn’t seem off. He can also pick up and throw enemies and other items too in some games, so that wasn’t out of place either and of course not all Mario games feature Koopa Troopas and Bowser. Mario doesn’t always hit question mark blocks either, so there’s no doubt, this is, indeed another odd yet beautiful Super Mario adventure.
So as far as Don Doko Don 2 is concerned, it’s a pure, genuine, 100% Mario sequel in both gameplay and atmosphere once the sprites are replaced. From whimsical underwater and cloud levels, to air ships.
As a kid, Super Bros 8 definitely didn’t get past my Fake Mario radar. I genuinely thought it was a Mario game when I first saw it at a gaming center in the city of Struga back when the game first came out.
So let’s put a rating on it now
Just how believable of a Mario game does Don Doko Don 2 make?
5 Stars easy, in my opinion even without the full, complete Mario reskin we have now, this one is a winner.
Rating: 5/5
When you think about it, the famiclone systems and bootleg games had a much wider reach than official NES systems and games all over the developing world. From the Balkans to Eastern Europe, China, India and even Latin America, tons and tons of people owned and played bootleg Famicom and NES games. And of course, living in the Famiclone world had its benefits.
Releases from all over the world regardless of region, all the weird and strange ROM hacks, unlicensed games and...it was amazing.
But one of the most facinating aspects of all of this is how so many people in countries like Macedonia, believe the games we had and played here are actually original Nintendo games.
People who don't follow gaming or even just retro gaming nowadays still believe that many of these ROM hacks were official games.
So that's why I look at 4 of the most popular Famicom exclusive games that were popular in my part of the world and known as Super Mario games.
So how good are these unrelated Famicom exclusives as Super Mario games, could we even tell they weren't real Super Mario titles?
I rate each one of the 4 most popular ones from 1 to 5 starts on how good they are as Mario games.
You can watch the video or keep reading:
The games we're going to take a look at are:
• Kaiketsu Yancha Maru 3 / Kid Niki 3 as Super Mario 14
• Pizza Pop as Pizza Pop Mario
• Don Doko Don 2 as Super Bros 8
• Armadillo as Super Mario IV
-------Kaiketsu Yancha Maru 3 (Kid Nikki 3) as Super Mario 14 ----
Super Mario! 14, you know the one with the naked peeing statues statues that shoot piss projectiles? Millions of people, all over the world have fond memories of this weird Super Mario. We thought that this released when Nintendo just didn’t know what else to do with the series and ended up reinventing Mario once again and send him on one of his most bizarre adventures yet.
I’ve seen at least 2-3 people in the past few years ask about this Super Mario installment and how they can play it nowadays not knowing it wasn't an actual Mario game. Some 10 years ago even one of my friends, a prominent video game developer in my country asked me if I remember this Super Mario game and what it actually was. He knew it was a ROM hack when he asked, but as a kid he too thought it was an official Mario game.
So can this game pass off as a Super Mario game? For many it did surprisingly enough. But the cracks are showing at pretty much every turn. The main character in the intro itself wasn’t replaced with Mario. The sprite often shifts back to its original design. The overall structure and design of the game is as far detached from Super Mario as it gets. Tho given Mario’s history of odd jobs and gameplay styles, him being a Ninja too wasn’t that far off. Some of the areas are very Mario-like indeed, the second world has a very Super Mario like background and setting. The 4th world is a desert and the player spends a lot of time jumping on clouds and which gives off some serious Mario vibes.
If I have to put a number on how easily this could pass up as a Mario game I’d say it would be around 3.5 Stars, however, due to the way this particular ROM hack was handeled at the time, it goes down to 2.5 Stars for me personally. For me, due to the constant sprite changes it was clear this wasn’t originally a Super Mario game, but something else, a situation similar to the character replacements we were already familiar with in Joe & Mac, Tiny Toons and Adventure Island.
Rating: 2.5/5
------- Pizza Pop as Pizza Pop Mario/Mary -----
Pizza Pop is a relatively easy and fun action platformer with some genuinely lovely visuals and one of the best, most impressive transparency effects achieved on the NES if played on RF.
As a kid the thought that this wasn't an official game didn't even cross my mind.
In Macedonia we’ve had the Mario Show and cartoon air both on Satellite TV and dubbed in Macedonian before this even came out. The Mario movie aired on TV multiple times too. We knew they’re Plumbers from Brooklyn or whatever and we had already seen Mario work all kinds of different jobs in different games, from zoo keeper to a doctor and even a construction worker. So for Mario to star in a pizza delivery action/platformer honestly wasn’t weird at all. It actually fit his character fairly well.
Now I own both the original Japanese release and a sadly faulty bootleg of Pizza Pop Mario, but one thing I know about the good Pizza Pop Mario version is that it has a full health meter at th e start and at the beginning of each new life unlike the original and more starting lives, which IMO makes it a much better experience. Tho I love both versions.
So what’s the verdict on Pizza Pop being a believable Mario game? I’d say 5 stars out of 5 stars.
Rating: 5/5
------- Armadillo as Mario IV ----
I don't like Armadillo, it has difficult to get used to controls, I always feel like I'm doing something wrong when playing it. I can get through a few worlds, but I just don't like it much.
Even so the game has a certain charm to it, not going to deny that.
For the bootleg, the original Armadillo sprite was replaced with Mario.
When Mario is not in his ball form, he walks around, jumps and most importantly runs by holding the b button like he does in all of his other games, so there’s nothing to indicate this isn’t a proper Mario game here. Mario turning into a ball is perfectly acceptable Super Mario behavior too, because we also have Somari. When it comes to Somari we assumed that Nintendo ripped SEGA off and made a Sonic-like game of their own featuring Mario. That, or perhaps SEGA and Nintendo collaborated.
Either playground explanation for the game worked and neither made Somari any less of an official Mario game in our minds.
So, seeing Mario transform into a ball in Mario IV to destroy enemies and reveal secrets seemed perfectly natural.
Note that Somari isn’t on this list because that’s not a sprite replacement but, rather, its own independent unlicensed Mario game.
So given Mario’s other outings, Super Mario IV doesn’t seem all that weird now, we’ve seen Mario climb ladders, turn into a ball, he destroys blocks and fights bosses in what appears to be a castle. Overall, other than the lives icon which depicts some sort of "a cowboy looking guy"(Shell, the original character of coursE) and the overworld character(again just good ol' janky Shell), which we can just assume is Mario’s companion since he does turn into different animals in this game, nothing indicates this is a fake.
Armadillo makes for a fairly believable Mario game indeed. Tho if I had to put a rating on it, the cracks are showing at the seams and if someone saw the original they’d probably realize the Mario one was the fake. So 3.5 stars out of 5. But if you never played Armadillo before, it might even be a 4/5 as a believable Mario game.
Rating: 4/5
Honestly as a kid I played this once, at a gaming center, couldn’t figure out the controls or anything and just said “wow Nintendo are running out of ideas with Mario” and ignored it for the rest of my childhood. I didn’t think much of it, just a bad Mario game. But if I spent more time on it, I believe I might have suspected it as a Fake Mario game but who knows, maybe now.
---- Don Doko Don 2 as Super Bros 8 ----
While Japanese kids played Don Doko Don 2 in the early 90's, us Macedonian kids played the same magical adventure, except often it would have Mario characters instead of the default gnomes. How were we supposed to know which one was the original, because Mario and Luigi definitely did not feel out of place here. Well I guess some did if they played the original at the arcades, but as someone who didn't like single screen arcade games as a kid (I do now) I ignored it. Don Doko 2 definitely makes for a very convincing Mario game, after all Mario uses a hammer in Donkey Kong, so the hammer part didn’t seem off. He can also pick up and throw enemies and other items too in some games, so that wasn’t out of place either and of course not all Mario games feature Koopa Troopas and Bowser. Mario doesn’t always hit question mark blocks either, so there’s no doubt, this is, indeed another odd yet beautiful Super Mario adventure.
So as far as Don Doko Don 2 is concerned, it’s a pure, genuine, 100% Mario sequel in both gameplay and atmosphere once the sprites are replaced. From whimsical underwater and cloud levels, to air ships.
As a kid, Super Bros 8 definitely didn’t get past my Fake Mario radar. I genuinely thought it was a Mario game when I first saw it at a gaming center in the city of Struga back when the game first came out.
So let’s put a rating on it now
Just how believable of a Mario game does Don Doko Don 2 make?
5 Stars easy, in my opinion even without the full, complete Mario reskin we have now, this one is a winner.
Rating: 5/5
