10 Obscure Video Game Spin-Offs You Totally Forgot Existed

2. Hotel Mario

Now here's a twist on the tired old Mario formula of saving the princess from a castle in every single game: shack her up in a hotel instead! As the horrible, freakishly animated CDi cut-scene at the start of this game informs you, Bowser is now keeping Peach hostage in a hotel instead of a castle, and it's your job to go to one of these treehouse abodes and... shut all the doors. Yep, that's pretty much it. Mario effectively becomes a stand-in concierge for a series of samey hotels, slamming doors to prevent goombas, koopa troopas and caterpillars continually emerging from them. There's no sense of traversal here, as each level takes place on a single screen where you repeatedly take elevators up and down to keep those doors a'shutting. Each level has a slightly different backdrop and a unique boss at the end of it, but that does little to mask the tedious gameplay, clunky controls and those nightmarish animations that aren't fit to be viewed by kids, or anyone really.