Top 3 Rumored Nintendo Games that Could Have Become Hits

For every iconic Nintendo game Super Mario 64, Super Metroid, or Pokémon Red & Blue, there’s a horde of rumored Nintendo games that never actually existed. And while many of these rumored games can be boiled down to someone telling a lie on a message board, some of them have more interesting back stories. In this article, we’ll be talking about a few of the more interesting and eccentric rumored Nintendo games – some that were completely made up, some that were half truth, and some that may have actually existed but can’t be proven.

Mario and Donkey Kong for SNES

For the first rumored game, we’re going back in time to an era where gaming rumors mainly came from magazines. One of the magazines that were quick to report rumors back in the day was Electronic Gaming Monthly. In their Gaming Gossip section, they told us of the brand new Mario and Donkey Kong game coming to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. They went on to talk about how the game was a 16-bit remake of the arcade version of Donkey Kong with new scenes and better graphics. According to the outlet’s June 1993 issue, the Mario and Donkey Kong title got further into development, but was ‘placed on the Phillips CD-i and Super Famicom CD platforms.’ They also noted that the title was slated to come out sometime in the following year, which is notably optimistic for the game that was never released.

  • There were tons of other cool titles released for the SNES. And as an avid retro gamer, you know it very well. You can play your favorite SNES (and not just SNES) games in the form of ROM files, which you can put in your emulators and play on your computer. What’s more, modern echs enable you to run retro classics on Android devices. Just download SNES ROMs for Android and enjoy the best old-school games on the go!

Metroid Remakes

At E3, in 2017, at E Nintendo dropped a bit of a bombshell during their presentation. Metroid Prime, a subseries that many thought had come to a close, was suddenly revived with a tease of Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch. And if that wasn’t enough, a few hours later, Nintendo revealed that Metroid II was being remade for the 3DS. This drummed up a lot of speculation of what Nintendo might do to fill the gap between two games – if at all. It seemed like a no-brainer that Nintendo would port the Metroid Prime trilogy to the Switch. And this was understandingly a recurring rumor following the Prime 4 announcement. However, some leakers and rumor mongers went a step further than this, believing Nintendo had another remake. In 2019, a group of leakers noted that Nintendo was planning to release two new games – Metroid Prime Trilogy and a Super Metroid remake allegedly mimicking Samus Return. It was clear for many Metroid fans that the latter wouldn’t benefit from the release, since it was loved and played by millions regularly to this day. And as time has shown, it really was just a rumor.

Z-Zero

The last rumored Nintendo game is a little more recent and will leave you thinking about what could have been. In June 2015, Liam Robertson, a much respected gaming historian, posted a video on his YouTube channel talking about the potential F-Zero title on the Wii U. Robertson had been tipped off that Criterion Games was asked by Nintendo of Europe if the studio had any interest in working on F-Zero IP. Criterion are responsible for the Burnout series, as well as several positively received entries in the Need For Speed franchise. Given the studio’s familiarity with high octane racers, it’s understandable why Nintendo might approach them with such an offer. Robertson set out to see if he could confirm the rumor and reached out to the former Vice President and creative director of Criterion Games, Alex Ward. Ward confirmed that the rumor was true and that in early 2011, someone at Nintendo of Europe asked Criterion about doing an F-Zero game for the Wii U. Still, the studio wasn’t available at that time, since they were busy developing Need For Speed. By the time Robertson posted his video, it’s been over a decade since the last F-Zero title was released. So, as you’ve probably understood, the project was never even formally pitched.