Hudson soft had a good partnership with Nintendo in its early days. They were able to port a few games to PCs like the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6601, Hitachi S1, IBM-JX and Sharp X1. What is important is that they basically made some Super Mario universe sequels that never came out on Nintendo consoles, these are brand new original games with NIntendo IP. In a way even more official than the CDi games, so let’s take a look at them and what they had to offer.
Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū Great Counterattack
An odd name since it’s a sequel to Donkey Kong 3’s playstyle with Stanley as the protagonist but it’s a different game. Instead of being in some type of green house you will be spraying Donkey Kong through out different area’s which include the countryside,, pyrmaids, cities, space and alien planets. There isn’t much of a story except that. You still spray bugs but this time you want to help Donkey Kong move to the next stage which as mentioned begins on earth until you reach space and another planety. Insnane lore hidden in here.
Super Mario Bros. Special
While it might seem like a port of Super Mario Bros, it’s basically new game. It has new levels, plays different enough, and best of all includes enemies and power ups from Donkey Kong and Mario Bros arcade. This is the perrfect transitional game between old Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros canon. The different ports can look a bit different, one of them having slide screen scrolling but besides not being the best platforms for a sidescroller, it’s still one of the most original takes on classic Super Mario Bros.
Mario Bros. Special
The classic Mario Bros arcade never got a sequel, or never got one until Hudson made one. This is a remix or sequel to Mario Bros. While it features the gameplay you know, it spices things up with entirely new platforms in levels instead of reusing the same one. It’s a brand new game basically and if you ever wanted to play something like it this is the only option besides Mario Clash.
Punch Ball Mario Bros.
This one I thought would be more of a sports type of spin-off that played different but not really. It’s basically another sequel to Mario Bros arcade. Punchball while a game in Japan with very different rules than what you see here in this game, here it works mostly like a power-up. Just a ball you throw enemies. Levels again are unique with different playtforms.
The ports all play different depending on what PC you played in. Although graphics could change the gameplay would be mostly the same even if some were a bit better optomized. But since we’re covering the whole history of Hudson making Mario games let’s move on to some also obscure albeint not as memorable.
Mario World (Family BASIC V3)
The programmable set for the Famicom Family Basic got an upgrade with Family BASIC V3. This version included 4 mini games and sprites that you could play or use and get an idea of the things you could create. One of the games is Mario themed with Mario enemies and Mario as the character. You jsut collect fruit Apples and numbers. Barely a mini game but it’s a Mario game made by Hudson.
Hudson Soft during the 80s also ported other black box Famicom games, like Ice Climber, Excitebike, Balloon Fight, all mostly the same. Ice Climber did get an ending I think and Excitebike a feature. But this article is Mario based and well tehnically Golf and Tennis can be seen as Mario adjacent titles and they were of course ported.
UNDAKE30 Same Game Daisakusen Mario Version BS
Finally the last not Mario Party game Hudson worked on was a puzzle game Same Game which eventually released on the Super Famicom but before that there was a Satellaview version with Mario on it.
Overall Hudson Soft had a great early relationship with Nintendo that gave us 4 exclusive sequels to their biggest IPs like Donkey Kong and Super Mario. The relationship would continue but sadly Nintendo did not buy them out when they had the chance and they would be acquired by Konami. It’s unlikely these games will ever be re-released again but they are a part of Nintendo’s history. The games should not be any more obscure than the CDi games, since in a way these had far more stamps of approval by Nintendo.