the cutting room mirror

Punch Ball Mario Bros. (PC-88)

Punch Ball Mario Bros. is a strange and oft-forgotten version of Mario Bros. with the main difference being the addition of the titular Punch Balls, giant rocks that Mario and Luigi must throw at enemies to stun them. Per the instruction manual, this is because Mario and Luigi are actually cavemen who are so isolated from the modern world that they never developed past the stone age (no, seriously). Needless to say, Hudson and Nintendo decided not to explore this addition to the franchise's lore further.

While the port's gimmick never reappeared in the Mario series, the world didn't completely forget about it.

Development Text#

A build date and credit to the programmer, Kikuta "Kiku" Masaaki at 0x19BD9 in the ROM.

VERSION 1 1984 08 11 BY KIKU