Every Cancelled Super Mario Game - Ranked

Super Mario made his debut as Jumpman back in 1981 with the release of the arcade classic, Donkey Kong. Aiming to replicate the successes enjoyed by the likes of Pac-Man, the plumber was given his name and his very own series in 1985 with the release of Super Mario Bros, and has been the poster boy for all things Nintendo ever since.

With over 600 million sales worldwide in the Super Mario series alone, Mario is the gaming world's most successful franchise and one of its most recognisable characters. From stomping on Goombas in World 1-1, to tossing Bowser in some lava and saving the Princess, audiences have fallen in love with the Mario universe and its unique styles of adventure and platforming.

However, like any video game franchise, there have been plenty of Mario-themed titles that audiences haven't been able to get their hands on. With a longer history than most in the industry, Nintendo have gone through their fair share of ups and downs in the development world and come through it with more than a couple blips to show for it.

From cancelled sequels to daring and ambitious technological leaps that weren't quite on the cards, Mario might have many games to his name, but he could've had even more.

It's fair to say that the Wii U never really hit the heights that Nintendo had set themselves up for.

A lack of a proper target audience, fatigue from all the Wii hysteria that had come before, a seriously underpowered engine and a lack of third party support all helped bring the console down, but the games shoved out by Nintendo for the console were hardly going to help it either.

One of the biggest culprits behind this was the New Super Mario Bros. franchise, which basically summed the laziness plaguing Nintendo at that point. New Super Mario Bros. Mii was first unveiled at E3 in 2011 and was essentially the successor to New Super Mario Bros. Wii, as well as the showcase piece for the Wii U's controller capabilities.

The game, which never made it off the E3 stage, would have allowed players to take control of their Miis and navigate them through all of the usual desert, underground, water and volcano levels that make up a New Super Mario Bros. game. Instead of continuing that one original idea, Nintendo pulled the Mii concept and ended up releasing New Super Mario Bros. U in 2012.