Super Mario is Nintendo’s biggest hitter, where nowadays only the best will do the for the overall-clad plumber. In times gone by however, he’s face has appeared on some weird and wonderful projects and today we’re looking at some of the strangest indeed.

Mario’s Cement Factory (Game and Watch – 1983)

Being that the Game & Watch was one of Nintendo’s least successful consoles (beaten only by the disastrous Virtual Boy), there’s many games on the hardware that have been lost to annals of time.

Mario’s Cement Factory is one such game, along with a host of others that looked to cash in on the immense success of the Donkey Kong arcade title by mimicking very similar game design.

In this construction-based title, Mario has to guide the cement spewing from the machine above him and into the trucks below him without covering his co-workers on either side of him in the process. To do this, he has to release the cement in each unit to the bottom before it overflows, and is impeded by the fact that moving platforms dictate when he can access the right and left side of the screen.

Both a tabletop and handheld version exist, as do multiple updated remakes of the game, but none are quite as peculiar as the original game.

I Am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater (Famicom – 1986)

Early on in the life of video games in the late 1980’s and early 90’s, the surge of a new industry led to everyone wanting to get in on the act and take a nice slice of the pie. Looking to breach specific markets while at the same time targeting a very young demographic and selling the game to parents, and an influx of edutainment titles flooded onto home consoles.

Now we can look back with the hindsight of intact cringe, but Nintendo were not immune to this explosive frenzy. Super Mario had been established as their mascot and the chief way of marketing to ensure a seal of quality, so the Italian plumber was slapped onto a number of educational games.

Possibly one of the strangest Super Mario games (and even one of the oddest Nintendo games) is I Am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater, in which players would use the software to design a print and then send floppy disks to the Japanese sewing company Royal Industries Co Ltd. along with a fee to have their designs printed onto jumpers.

A US version was considered that would ship with a full-size knitting “printer”, but after the Japanese version had very limited appeal, it was (thankfully) scrapped.

Super Mario Bros & Friends: When I Grow Up (PC – 1991)

Following on from the wave of educational related games is another one that is more loose in its approach to teaching but becomes a stretch to call it a fully-fledged “game” and is more a piece of creative software that kids can use to digitally colour things in, akin to a specialised version of MS Paint.

Produced by Merit Software in their line of Electric Crayon games, this title featured various scenes of Mario and Luigi that the player could colour in, acting as a sort of virtual colouring book but with the bonus of that it could be reused again and again.

Super Mario appeared in scenes inspired by games like Super Mario Land and Dr. Mario, with a screen of text giving context to the illustration and an explanation or series of facts about the act the brothers were performing or their location, e.g. Mario and Luigi are at a pharmacy, the following text explains what a pharmacy is, what they sell, etc.

Other Nintendo IPs pop up in a few scenes like Link and the Monster buggy, as well as additional Super Mario characters like Peach, Bowser, Toad, and Lakitu.

You can also print the pictures once you’ve coloured them in, which to give it it’s due, having a drawing of Mario in his SMB3 Tanuki form being examined by vet Luigi is quite cool.

Mario’s Time Machine (NES/SNES/PC – 1993/1994)

A more purist entertainment title and one of the better known ones, Mario’s Time Machine focuses on teaching kids about human history by having Mario stop Bowser screwing up the course of historical events.

In MTM, Bowser travels back in time to various points in history to steal special artifacts like the declaration of independence using his special time-travelling Timulator, displaying the items in his castle’s museum. As Mario, you use the Timualtor to return the items to their correct year and location while learning about the events and people associated with the item by answering questions and talking to people.

The game does have a strange look to it with very un-Nintendo visuals set as the background with the Mario sprite from Super Mario World overlaid on them, but the game at least achieves its goal of giving children an overview of various historical events, albeit in snapshot form (with some errors and inaccuracies actually being present).

The game was re-released on PC in 1996 as Mario’s Time Machine Deluxe with (cheesy) voice acting and updated visuals.

Hotel Mario (Phillips CD-i – 1994)

Coming about from the deal Nintendo struck with Phillips that allowed them to use the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda characters (the latter being infamous for their awful games), Hotel Mario was a puzzle game developed by Fantasy Factory and published by Phillips Interactive Media, and is often mentioned in the same damning breath as the Zelda games.

In this very hollow outing, Mario has to save Princess Peach from Bowser and his adopted children (hardly breaking any new ground for the plumber story wise) by visiting hotels and closing all the doors. That is literally the entire game.

Now I’m not saying you can’t make a great game based around a single mechanic, but the variety factor is non-existent, relying on the same trope over a tedious amount of levels, and the bizarre plot is the most perplexing element in this puzzler.

The game shared the same strange animated cutscenes that were present in The Legend of Zelda CD-i games, with equally weak/strange voice acting. As such, Hotel Mario is often cited as one of the worst Super Mario games in existence.

Mario No Photopi (Nintendo 64 – 1996)

A Japan exclusive, this oddity was apparently meant to widen the fissures of the Japanese PC market by way of using Mario as Nintendo’s infiltrating agent on the Nintendo 64 to give people a glimpse of what types of things were possible using this N 64/PC hybrid.

Mario No Photopi is sort of like a Super Mario themed version of Photoshop before it became the global standard in image editing as well as a colloquially adopted verb. The cartridge itself has two slots in the top for SmartMedia cards that allow you to import and/or export images to and from the game and other devices that support SmartMedia. There were also special SmartMedia cards created for the game that featured special Nintendo themed images.

Using preset tools, players can create their own pieces of art using clipart, borders, and fonts that can be output in several formats like postcard and poster. Images then feature in mini-games as backgrounds or as part of puzzles.

It was meant to have a compatible version with the elusive N64DD, but this never saw the light of day, and the game has since become a true collector’s item.

Mario Picross/Mario Super Picross (Game Boy/Super Famicom – 1995)

Mario Picross and its sequel Mario Super Picross definitely fit the category of an eclectic title. Occupying the same niche as games Brain Training or the mathematical conundrum generator Sudoku, Mario Picross is a puzzle title that has become a cult classic.

In Picross, one is given a nonogram (a paint by numbers or picture logic puzzle) to solve in a 5×5, 10×10, or 15×15 grid by chiselling away at blocks to reveal a picture underneath, guided by the numerical clues. Players have thirty minutes to solve the puzzle and an incorrect chisel will cause a time loss.

The game didn’t really excel in North America, so it’s sequel Super Mario Picross only came out in Japan and supported the Super Famicom mouse. It’s largely the same but with colour/better visuals, and with Wario levels that alter the gameplay.

Mario Paint (Super Nintendo – 1992)

Similar in spirit to Mario No Photopi but having a more focused approach that oddly gave it more breadth that the N64 title, Mario Paint was an unconventional title that had a real element of charm to it despite it’s very un-Mario themes.

Playing very much like a Super Nintendo version of Microsoft Paint, Mario Paint came bundled with the Super Nintendo Mouse Peripheral and offered players different avenues of artistic creation to explore, from different forms of animation to creating Nintendo-centric music. Any created work could then be recorded to VCR (yes, VCR).

Not without its gameplay, there was a mini-game to play called Gnat Attack where you played as a sentient fly swatter who had to squish a horde of tiny insects before taking on their queen. Even though it is merely a nice novelty addition, the level of challenge present is fairly substantial.

While its reception split reviewers down the middle at the time, in retrospect Mario Paint offered a very accessible way for people to flirt with what can be very daunting creative prospects, and was a great way for children to discover a new interest or hobby.

Yoshi’s Safari (Super Nintendo – 1993)

While it’s not strictly a Super Mario game, Yoshi’s Safari is too unique to not include in this list, mostly because it’s a First-Person Rail Shooter. A Super Mario, First-Person Rail Shooter.

Also known as Yoshi’s Road Hunting, this was another game looking to shift one of the Super Nintendo’s many additional peripherals, this title requiring the SNES’s light gun the Super Scope in order to play it, developed with the intention of bringing relevance to the gun controller.

The game takes place in Jewelry Land, with Mario and his trusty dinosaur steed having to get back 12 sacred gems from the villainous Bowser and his Koopalings. Across 12 levels, you ride your green pal across the aforementioned land, blasting Koopas, Goombas, and all manner of Super Mario enemies off the screen whilst managing your weapon’s power and avoiding taking damage.

The game has the bright visual pop that Super Mario is known for, and the gameplay stands up pretty well even today. However, the game is fairly short and the difficulty curve is more of a speed bump than anything else.

The game was also a victim of circumstance, being released at the same time as the SNES port of Mortal Kombat which had amassed a whirlwind of controversy and bad press, taking all focus off of it completely.

 

Mario Artist series (Nintendo 64DD – 1999/2000)

Yet another stab at reuniting the Mediterrainian tradesman with both brush and canvas, the Mario Artist series was likely a semi-revival to the previously stated Mario No Photopi for the ill-fated Nintendo 64DD, featuring three games for the series in total.

Altogether, there were three versions actual games under the umbrella; Mario Artist: Paint Studio, another painting and animation title standing on the shoulders of Mario Paint and No Photopi featuring tools based around Pokemon, Banjo-Kazooie, and Diddy Kong Racing; Mario Artist: Talent Studio, a more contextual application that put more emphasis on video and had functionality with VCRs; and Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, a version that focused on 3D art and computer graphics.

An internet utility called Mario Artist: Communication Kit was also released that allowed users to share content with and download content from other artists via the Radnet dial-up service.

If nothing else, the Mario Artist games are an interesting window into failed technological ventures at the turn of the millennium, which stand in stark contrast to the successes of the era such as Old School Runescape.