Mario and his friends, as well as enemies, have been known to dip their feet in the sports world on many ocassions. Everything from golf to baseball has had the Mario touch. There was one case, however, in which Nintndo thought maybe this wasn’t the best suite for Mario.
Next Level Games, a developer that has a working relationship with Nintendo, pitched an idea for a volleyball/wrestling game called Mario Spikers. As a follow-up to Mario Strikers, the soccer game, the game would have Mario and the usual cast playing volleyball, but would also be able to hit the opposing players. What made Nintendo decide not to go ahead with the title was the amount of violence that went into knocking down other players. Special moves like pile drivers were added to the game, giving it a strong wrestling feel, but this did not sit well for the Big N.
Next Level Games went on to develop Punch-Out for the Wii and are now currently working on Metroid Prime Federation Force for the 3DS. Check out the video by Unseen64 below to see just how far Mario Spikers came along.