No idea why I'm chasing this down now, but I am certain this game was not created as a Mario game. I think they were developing an un-mario-related platformer and then added the Mario sprite at the last minute. But nobody has ever admitted to it publicly.

Just think about it. Nothing else makes any sense in the Mario universe. And the only other time a Mario game was so non-Mario was Mario 2, which was in fact a reskinned version of an unrelated japanese game.

The vehicles, the super ball, the bosses, it's not even the same princess. It doesn't bother anyone else that Mario is suddenly freeing an unrelated princess? Are we just supposed to believe that Mario is some swarthy mustachioed princess playa??

To answer your last question: Yes. Yes, we are.

Now never speak of this again. *shifty eyes*

I definitely see what you're getting at, I've thought that myself too. Consider how Mario appears to travel the world during the game - Asia, Chile, Egypt; I'm fairly certain Mario never travels to places that resemble the real world in other games. Also, I didn't realise that this was Daisy's first appearance, which definitely does lend credence to the argument.

Having said that though, the game was created by Gunpei Yokoi, rather than Miyamoto; so, it's probably more of a case of a sequel from a different developer with different ideas (consider the Devil May Cry reboot).

Oh, "super suspicious", nice one.

The time has come to return to Sarasaland.