Hotel Mario
Hotel Mario is a puzzle video game developed by Fantasy Factory and published by Philips Interactive Media on the CD-i format on April 5, 1994. The player controls Mario, who must find Princess Toadstool by going through seven hotels in the Mushroom Kingdom; each hotel is divided into stages, and the objective is to close all of the doors on each stage. Each hotel ends in a boss fight with one of Bowser's Koopalings, culminating in a battle with Bowser.
| Hotel Mario | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Fantasy Factory |
| Publisher(s) | Philips Interactive Media |
| Producer(s) | Michael Ahn |
| Designer(s) | Stephen Radosh |
| Artist(s) | Jeff Zoern Mirena Kim |
| Composer(s) | Jack Levy Max Steiner (theme only) Marc St. Regis (uncredited) |
| Series | Mario |
| Platform(s) | Philips CD-i |
| Release | April 5, 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Hotel Mario was one of four games featuring Nintendo characters published for the CD-i; the others were three Legend of Zelda games. Another Mario game, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, was never released while a third game, Mario Takes America was planned but eventually canceled. Nintendo licensed the characters after not going forward with a deal for Philips to create a CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES.
Hotel Mario initially received mixed reviews; critics felt it was fun but had no lasting appeal. It has been retrospectively described as one of the worst video games, receiving criticism for its door-closing game mechanic, unresponsive controls, voice acting, and full-motion video cutscenes.