Hotel Mario. It's a real game most have never heard about. Those who are familiar with it view it with contempt. Unfortunately, most don't realize Hotel Mario's significance to the history of both Nintendo and the gaming industry.
In the early 90s, the new catch phrase was multimedia - games, music, movies -- and the devices that played them. Philips developed the CD-i multimedia player around this time. Philips needed quality games to ignite sales so it contacted Nintendo. Nintendo was already considering the future of multimedia and how the company would be a part of it. Unfortunately, Nintendo found that a contract the company had previously signed with Sony would prevent it from collecting royalties from the sale of CD-based games. Nintendo realized it had to do something fast so it struck a deal with Philips to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo. As an extension of the agreement, Philips got the rights to use select Nintendo characters in some of its CD-i games. One result of this was Hotel Mario. Truth be told, there was a lot of drama that followed. Sony became upset after learning that Nintendo was trying to break their contract; this would convince Sony to strike out on its own and release the PlayStation. Meanwhile, Philips watched as the dismal Hotel Mario had no effect on stagnant CD-I sales. Then there was Nintendo who was frustrated with other companies for trying to profit off its games; this led to the unfortunate decision to stick with cartridges for its next-generation 64-bit console. And that is just a very rough summary of it. Want to learn more? Read the full unfolding history here.
Now then. Hotel Mario was released in 1994 for the Philips CD-i. It's a puzzle game that places Mario in his traditional role of trying to save Princess Peach from the nefarious King Bowser. However, in a puzzling twist we learn Bowser is turning the Mushroom Kingdom into a personal resort. It's up to the Mario Bros. to act as city inspectors and condemn all of Bowser's hotels. Exciting? Not really. There's a reason people want to forget this game ever existed (although you have to admit the music is a bit catchy). Take a look at the videos below and decide for yourselves.