Every Cancelled Super Mario Game - Ranked
7. Donkey Kong Racing
So technically the Kong Racing franchise doesn't contain any Mario. But, it does all take place in the same universe as the Italian plumber and draws heavily from the success of the Mario Kart franchise, so no doubt plenty of Mario fans were excited by the possibility of playing Donkey Kong Racing when it looked set to be on the cards.
Diddy Kong Racing had made a real splash on the Nintendo 64 following its release in 1997, with players going made for the impressive graphics, inventive courses and fun-to-use characters. Just as the game came to help define the 64 era, its follow up, Donkey Kong Racing, was supposed to take the Nintendo Gamecube world by storm.
It took Mario Kart until its 7th release to introduce underwater driving and gliding through the skies, but Donkey Kong Racing was planning on introducing these things to kart racing games about a decade earlier. However, Microsoft's purchasing of Rare Limited and the limited amount of gameplay produced for the game at the time combined to lead to Donkey Kong Racing being shelved in September 2002.