Hotel Mario

Hotel Mario
Developer(s)	Fantasy Factory
Publisher(s)	Philips Media
Platform(s)	CD-i
Release	1994
Genre(s)	Puzzle game
Mode(s)	Single player

Hotel Mario is a puzzle game produced and developed by Philips Media resulting from a failed deal with Nintendo to make a CD-ROM enhancement of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game features Mario, and the goal is to go through the seven Koopa Hotels within the Mushroom Kingdom. Each of these hotels contain ten stages and the objective for each of these stages is to close every single door. These doors may contain items such as coins, stars, and fire flowers. Hotel Mario was made in place of a failed sequel to Super Mario World, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds.

Gameplay

Having owned the rights to the Mario series at the time, Philips decided to create a Mario game for the CD-i. However, instead of a usual platformer game, it decided to create a puzzle game with a simple concept. Controlling Mario, the player must close all the doors on five floors while avoiding the enemies who try to open them. They can be avoided by hiding behind the doors or by jumping on their head to defeat them. Elevators enable Mario to go up or down from the stages. After having completed nine stages, a boss stage begins, but is played in the same way, having to close all the doors by avoiding the boss and his attacks. Mario will die if he touches an enemy, runs out of time, runs off the edge of the floor he is on, or if all the doors are open. After having completed ten stages, Mario travels to a new hotel and repeats the process, but with new enemies.

Unlike CD-i games Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, which bore little resemblance to their parent properties, the Mario universe is much more recognizable here. The majority of the enemies are familiar enemies in the Mario world, contrary to the Zelda games, which had many enemies invented specifically for them. Enemies include the Goombas, Koopas, Boos, Dry Bones, Wiggler, Bowser, etc., including some new variations of the enemies. The majority of the enemies react as they always have. The Boos only move if Mario turns his back on them, and the Dry Bones collapse and reform themselves. However, the ability to use a Koopa's shell to defeat other enemies is absent. Mario resembles a small mix of what he looked like in Super Mario World and what he looked like in Super Mario Bros. 2, except for in the animated cutscenes.

The familiar Mario items, such as the Star, Flower, and Mushroom, also make appearances. However, they are somewhat altered from their typical functions: the Star does not have music to inform the player when its effect has ended, and the Super Mushroom increases Mario's health, rather than making him Super Mario. Mario can find these items by opening doors, but if an enemy opens the door, the item leaves, and picking it up will be hard. Mario can also gather gold coins which, after a total of 30, give Mario an extra life. However, continues are unlimited, and Mario will start at the stage in which he died if he runs out of lives. It is also possible to have 2 players controlling Mario and Luigi. Each player is free to start with any hotel starting from a save point. The only thing that differentiates Mario from Luigi is the sprite's color.

Lotsa Spaghetti

GAY LUIGI

Cutscenes

Hotel Mario features a number of animated cutscenes in which both Mario and Luigi speak. However, their voices are not provided by later, familiar voice artist Charles Martinet, but by Marc Graue. Both characters have comparatively deep voices and gruff, Italian-American accents. In the opening sequence and before each stage, both Mario and Luigi break the fourth wall by addressing the player directly, giving hints before stages, and asking the player to "check out the enclosed instruction book" (which has since become a popular internet meme) along with "I hope she made lotsa spaghetti!" There is a fault in this quote where Luigi speaks with more of an Italian accent, for it is the first line he speaks. Princess Toadstool, Mario, and Luigi also break the fourth wall in the end of the game by thanking the player directly as "The best player ever."

Legacy

Years after the game was initially released, many different remixes and edits of the game's cutscenes appeared on the Internet, usually splicing the infamous scenes together with clips from other CD-i games (such as Link: The Faces of Evil and its partner game Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon), cartoons and other popular videos on YouTube, rearranging lines from the cutscenes, and remixing the scenes for comedic effect. These remixes are almost always called "YouTube Poop" because the majority of the remixes are found on YouTube. These videos often feature Luigi's "lotsa spaghetti" and Mario's "All toasters toast toast" and "No" lines. Marc Graue, the voice-over artist of Mario, Luigi, and Bowser, has said that he was flattered that "something that was recorded in 1993 has found new life on a completely new platform".

External links

• Quebec Gamers: 236 images and 12 videos from the game (including almost all animations & the ending) (French-Canadian website)
• If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed Instruction Book
• Past to Present Online Feature
• Hotel Mario review at the Goodtime Retro Cafe
• Mappy and Elevator Action, games with similar setting and play
• All Hotel Mario cut-scenes
• Live-action interpretation of all Hotel Mario cut-scenes