10 Weirdest Video Game Ports You Won't Believe
2. Super Mario Bros. Special (NEC PC-8801)
Nintendo is famously litigious and protective when it comes to their brand, almost to the point of paranoia. There are many reasons for this, chief among them being that characters like Mario are central to the public's perception of Nintendo.
Another reason might be because they got seriously burned the last time that they trusted someone else with the plumber.
Enter Hudson Soft and their NEC PC-8801 computer in 1986, where they were given permission by Nintendo to port the original Super Mario Bros. to their system as Super Mario Bros. Special.
What came of this was one of the worst ports of a game that you've ever heard of. Because like with the Zelda CD-i games, Nintendo was very thorough with making sure this little mistake was swiftly forgotten.
And also like the CD-i Zelda games, Super Mario Bros. Special is a giant pile of buffalo droppings. The music is bit crunched to oblivion, the graphics look like someone trying to draw a level from the NES classic purely form memory and without their dominant hand, and the controls are the kind of abysmal that can only be played to be understood.
But we recommend that you don't bother.