Mario's Castle (lost build of cancelled game on Nintendo's "Project Atlantis" handheld console; existence unconfirmed; 1995-1998)

A picture of "Project Atlantis".

Status: Existence Unconfirmed

Mario's Castle was an unreleased game that was going to be released on Nintendo's unreleased handheld console, "Project Atlantis," and was presumably part of the Mario franchise.

Project Atlantis

Project Atlantis was going to be a successor to the original Game Boy and if the handheld was to have been released, the Gameboy Advance would likely have not seen development. The handheld started work in 1995. In 1996, issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly and Gameinformer started listing specs for the console, including that it had 32-bit color, four face buttons and 3" by 2" LCD screen. The magazines also said that it was to be released in late 1996 or early 1997. Nintendo officially confirmed the handheld's existence, but delayed the official release date until late 1997; the handheld's release would also miss this date. It would then be cancelled without public acknowledgment sometime around 1997 or 1998.

Mario's Castle

In the same Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine which listed the specs, it was also mentioned that there was going to be a new game titled Mario's Castle for the system, and it was going to be produced by Nintendo. Almost nothing else is known about the game, except that it was going to be a launch title for the handheld. It could be assumed that the game was cancelled along with Project Atlantis.

No other information about the title has been given from any official gaming media source other than the Electronic Gaming Monthly article. It is also unknown if the game was incorporated into another game at a later time. There might be some assets from Mario's Castle hidden away somewhere, but it isn't likely.

Gallery

• 

  A scan of the EGM article talking about "Project Atlantis" and Mario's Castle.

Videos

LSuperSonicQ's video on the subject.

See Also

• BS Super Mario Collection (partially lost Satellaview broadcast versions of compilation platformer; 1997-1998)
• Mario Demo (lost Virtual Boy tech demo; 1994)
• Mario's Face (lost Nintendo DS tech demo; 2004)
• Mario Motors (lost build of unreleased Nintendo DS racer; early 2000s)
• Mario Kart XXL (lost Game Boy Advance tech demo; 2004)
• Mario Takes America (lost build of cancelled Philips CD-i edutainment game; 1992-1994)
• New Super Mario Bros. (lost early builds of Nintendo DS 2D platformer; 2004-2006)
• New Super Mario Bros. Mii (lost Wii U tech demo; 2011)
• Super Mario 128 (lost build of cancelled GameCube/Wii game; 2000-2006)
• Super Mario 64 (partially found Spaceworld '95 demo of Nintendo 64 3D platformer; 1995)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (lost Japanese prototype of NES platformer; 1987-1988)
• Super Mario Bros. (lost Commodore 64 port of NES platformer; existence unconfirmed; 1986)
• Super Mario Disk Version aka "Super Mario 64DD" (found unreleased Nintendo 64DD port of 3D platformer; 1999)
• Super Mario Galaxy (lost beta builds of Wii platformer; 2006-2007)
• Super Mario Kart R (partially found pre-release version of "Mario Kart 64"; 1995)
• Super Mario RPG 2 (lost pre-release version of "Paper Mario" Nintendo 64 role-playing game; late 1990s)
• Super Mario Spikers (lost build of cancelled Wii volleyball-wrestling sports game; 2007)
• Super Mario's Wacky Worlds (found prototype of cancelled CD-i game; 1993)
• Super Mario World: Mario Attack (lost Japanese arcade game; 1996)
• Super Mario World (partially found early build of Super Nintendo platformer; 1989)
• Super Paper Mario (lost build of unreleased original GameCube version of Wii side-scrolling platformer; 2006)