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

A picture of the GameBoy Atlantis

Status: Existence Unconfirmed

Mario's Castle was an unreleased Mario game that was going to be released on the GameBoy Atlantis project.

The Atlantis Project

The GameBoy Atlantis was going to be a predecessor to the original GameBoy 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 didn't revealed an official release date until 1997; the handheld's release would miss this date. It would then be cancelled without public acknowledgement sometime in 1998.

In the same Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine which listed the specs, it was also mentioned that there was going to be a new Mario 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 system. It could be assumed that the game was cancelled along with the system.

No other information about the title has been given from any other official gaming media source than the Electronic Gaming Monthly article. There might be some assets from Mario's Castle hidden away somewhere, but it isn't likely.

Gallery

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LSuperSonicQ's video on Project Atlantis and Marios Castle.