Mystery of Super Mario 128 disappearance solved by Shigeru Miyamoto
After the 1996 release of Super Mario 64, magazines for years mentioned Super Mario 128 that would feature both Mario & Luigi for release on the N64 or its 64DD add-on. In an interview with Level3 Magazine in Sweden Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto mentions the game as one of his lost projects. Here’s the quote:
“Super Mario 128 was just one of many experimental games we had. Suddenly, everybody started talking about it. I’m in the all-too easy habit of starting a project only to later on not do much of it. There is a great deal of unfinished work on my desk. I worked on a prototype for the Nintendo 64 game with Mario and Luigi in it for some time.”
Back in 2000 Nintendo showed a “Super Mario 128 tech demo” that, while simply featuring 128 Mario’s to show the GameCube’s power, had everyone guessing as to whether or not a Mario & Luigi 3D adventure would appear on GameCube. Well, a few years later Super Mario Sunshine appeared without Luigi and this is confirmation the idea simply got dumped in Mr. Miyamoto’s drawer.
Maybe with Super Mario 64’s DS revival, we’ll see Mario 128 show up as well, there are already new 3D Mario DS rumors going around. Here’s the year-2000 demo where 128 Mario’s are trying to kill each other:
However, elements of Super Mario 128 live on in future games! In the July 2006 issue of GamesMaster, a short interview with Mr. Miyamoto at E3 2006 reveals that Super Mario Galaxy on Wii is not necessarily Super Mario 128.
GamesMaster: What inspired Super Mario Galaxy and what does it mean for Mario 128?
Miyamoto: Well, Mario 128 was a collection of different experiments. Super Mario Galaxy takes a lot of the experiments from Mario 128 and implements them in the game. Because of that it’s partly 128 but there are also elements that existed in Mario 128 (running around a sphere and gravity). I don’t know when we’ll be able to bring those out. The End?
March 8th 2007 update: At the Game Developers Conference 2007 Shigeru Miyamoto said he’s always asked by people “what happened to Mario 128?” And he responded that most of you have played it in Pikmin on GameCube. He added that you’ll be able to play Super Mario Galaxy on Wii this year.
Level3 quote via Spong, GamesMaster quote via Wikipedia.
Very interesting. I always wondered what happened with the project. I did figure however that it was just some kind of demo or whatnot. Experiment. It’s amazing that no one has covered this story and everyone still points to Mario 128 when it was never even a game (and there were only like two screenshots if I recall from the Mario 64 w/Luigi)! That always bewildered me. At least now we know what happened to it! I think the story can finally be put to rest. 
8 July 2006 14:38supadupagama
Yeh, but what I want to know is… will Mario and Luigi play separately or be available in co-op play in the Wii’s Super Mario Galaxy game?
