When it comes to fan remakes, you tend to expect them for popular games. Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the original 5 generations of Pokémon games…
All are beloved classics with millions of dedicated fans, and titles which have been remade by fans over and over again as a result.
But Hotel Mario is different. Known as one of the worst Mario games ever made and released for the Phillips CD-i in 1994, the game is mostly remembered for its hilariously cringey and off model cutscenes, with the actual gameplay rarely factoring into the picture in any meaningful way. As a result, while the cutscenes themselves have been upscaled a few times, the actual game has mostly gone forgotten as far as fan remakes and sequels are concerned.
Well, until now anyway. Why? Because completely out of the blue, a YouTuber user called Tiniest Turtles has revealed Hotel Mario: Rebooked, a fan remake of the original with updated visuals, characters and game mechanics. Here’s a trailer showing the project in action:
As you can see, it captures the spirit of the original game really well. The hotels look and function like they do in the CD-i original. The characters and concepts have been kept entirely intact, no matter how goofy they might be. And most surprisingly of all…
The game actually looks like it might be half decent.
Yeah, we’re surprised too. Despite appearing exactly like the infamous original, this remake actually seems to play pretty well, and seems like something that could actually be a decent arcade style action game. It’s certainly not going to win awards, or compete with the average 2D Mario platformer on a quality level…
But it’s also seemingly not looking like a Superman 64 or Big Rigs style trainwreck either. Just a fairly typical and sometimes fun arcade experience.
So yeah, a fan-made Hotel Mario remake is now in development, and is due to be released in 2025 when it’s ready. Check it out if you’re a fan of quirky Mario arcade games, or bizarre fan projects as a whole.
Source:
Project Renovation – Full Teaser (Tiniest Turtles on YouTube)