Officially, the Super Mario games for Famicom numbered sixteen, counting his three adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom, the time Mario played Golf, fought Donkey Kong, and even that moment when Nintendo taught us to knit a sweater (on the Famicom Disk System). But, of course, and as we have already seen at NeoTeo, the Japanese version of the console was one of the most pirated in video game history and hacks were the order of the day. That's why that list of games starring Super Mario became much (MUCH) longer (and ridiculous).
First of all, let's clarify that one thing is a pirate game, which are titles developed unofficially, generally abusing the intellectual property of their respective owners; and another thing are hacks, which are just modifications of other games, mostly cosmetic, to pass them off as something else. The latter case is what brings us together before this collection of screenshots of Super Mario hacks, where the shameless pirates barely changed a sprite or two and wanted to sell us a game as if it were another. Cat for hare, as they say in street slang.
Let's remember that this was long before the Internet, so kids were easy prey for these tactics. How could we know that that Super Mario IV was not a Super Mario IV but a hack of Armadillo? The cartridge covers, super generic, seemed more or less legitimate and, as always, enthusiasm always beat distrust. However, we didn't always end up disappointed, because hacks were usually made on more or less good games and, if we hadn't played them, we probably didn't even notice. The problem came when you had already played Tiny Toons Adventures from cover to cover and you got unlucky with the hack of that same game under the name of Super Bros. 6. Right then, damn pirates!
With these clarifications made, we leave you with the ridiculous screenshots of these Super Mario hacks, made possible thanks to the help of Bootleg Games Wikia. Want more Famicom pirate games? Here's an article with many of the best, here's another with the best fighting games, and even a heart-stopping list with fake operating systems for Famicom and its clones. Don't miss them!
The Hack Gallery
