Footage of the famously canceled Super Mario 64 multiplayer mode has been uncovered after over two decades. The seconds-long clip shows Luigi jumping on the screen next to the main focus, and that was enough to get the internet to pop off.
In a video uploaded to YouTube (via VGC), it featured Nintendo’s Japanese Space World show, which was the first instance of the Nintendo 64 brought to life. Assuming this is real, this is the first documented footage seen of the mode. Of course a leak in 2020 showed it was in development, considering the classic game’s files had a model for Luigi, which never appeared in-game.
Multiplayer in the N64 game was famously a feature, but memory issues and a lack of players likely to have more than one controller for a singular minigame, based on interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto back in 1996. Since then, players have done everything in their power to revive this mode like creating mods to add Luigi and other other characters as Player 2.
Of course, it’s all too possible this doctured footage, but if it is real, it definitely fits the ticket to what Miyamoto was talking about in the interview. Regardless, at this point this famed mode will never be properly debuted, but since then, Mario and co have gotten tons of love with multiplayer titles. So, while it would’ve been a wonderful addition, it just wasn’t meant to be.