Canceled Mario Platformer For The Virtual Boy Has Resurfaced

Summary

• Lost screenshots from an unreleased Mario platformer have been rediscovered.
• The images are from an unnamed Mario game created for the Virtual Boy.
• Nintendo quickly pulled the Virutal Boy due to its commercial failure, so the Mario game was never released.

The Virtual Boy was a short-lived console you wore on your head, released by Nintendo in the mid-1990s. The console's lifespan was so short that it didn't even get its own Mario platformer. That's despite Nintendo showing one off in 1995, and now screenshots from the unnamed platformer that were previously believed to have been lost to time have been discovered 30 years later.

The discovery was made by rabidrodent who shared the images on Bluesky (thanks, Polygon). They found the screenshots in an AOL Directory on The Internet Archive, meaning they were likely put there by Nintendo a long time ago. The very red screenshots reveal that the unreleased Virtual Boy game would have included a combination of typical 2D Mario sidescrolling and top-down elements that were more commonly associated with Zelda games at the time.

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Since the Virtual Boy game was never released, it never officially got a name. Rabidrodent refers to it as Mario Smash in their post, but apparently, Nintendo called it VB Mario Land when it was showcased to attendees at CES 1995. The attendees weren't given the chance to play the game, nor could they see what it might look like through the Virtual Boy. Instead, the game was shown on a big screen and those watching had to wear glasses in an attempt to replicate the Virtual Boy's 3D effects.

The Virtual Boy Was Supposed To Have Its Own Mario Platformer

But It Didn't Last Long Enough To Get One

⬆️Perhaps the best part of this directory is the screenshots for "Mario Smash", the cancelled Mario game for Virtual Boy. These are VERY high quality and high resolution. The pixels are clean enough, someone could accurately recreate them all in pixel art with some patience. — rabidrodent (@rabidrodent.bsky.social) 2025-04-12T15:32:17.091Z

The Virtual Boy was released in Japan and North America in 1995, and by 1996, it had been discontinued in both regions, failing so hard that it didn't even make it to Europe. There were 22 Virtual Boy games in total, it's limited library being one of many reasons it flopped, but Mario Smash, or VB Mario Land, wasn't one of them.

Mario did make it onto the Virtual Boy via a game called Mario Clash and a VB version of Mario Tennis. However, the Virtual Boy's lifespan was so fleeting that none of Nintendo's other flagship characters were featured. No Kirby, Zelda, Metroid, or Star Fox. There was a Virtual Boy Tetris game, but most of the other titles in its library were created to show off what it was capable of rather than as excuses to give its best-known characters the chance to star in what could have been groundbreaking games.

We're now less than two months away from the launch of the Switch 2. Some have criticized Nintendo for playing it safe by simply creating a better version of what might soon become its most successful console ever. To those people I say, look at the Virtual Boy. Sometimes playing it safe is the right thing to do.

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