Video Game / Hotel Mario

Mario: We gotta find the Princess!
Luigi: And YOU gotta help us!
Mario: If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed instruction book!

— The intro cutscene. You're probably thinking, "What enclosed instruction book?", if you're using an emulator, or worse, if your copy of the game didn't come with one.

One of four Philips CD-i games with Nintendo characters resulting from a deal between Nintendo and Philips. This deal would have led to Philips making a disc-based add-on for the SNES, but it fell through. Philips was left with a license allowing them to release games with some of Nintendo's characters. So they made this, and three Zelda games.

In Hotel Mario, Bowser gets the idea to capture Princess Toadstool (big shocker) and hide her in one of a set of seven themed hotels, each of which is run by one of the Koopalings (with the exception of Bowser's Seizure Palace, run by Bowser himself, though you still fight the seventh Koopaling there). Taking the role of Mario once again, your goal is to travel through all of the hotels, closing all of the doors to complete each level. If you let all of the doors be opened, get hit by an enemy, walk off either edge of the hotel (there's no side walls), or run out of time, Mario loses a life.

Another two Mario games were planned for the console, but Super Mario's Wacky Worlds (a sequel to Super Mario World) didn't get very far. Neither did the edutainment title Mario Takes America, for that matter.

Despite everything, this was actually the best-selling game for the Philips CD-i, which goes to show... something.

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I hope she made lotsa examples!

• Arboreal Abode: Morton's Wood Door Hysteria Hotel is situated inside a giant tree, though other smaller trees appear in the background. Mario and Luigi gradually ascend the tree as they complete stages.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Ludwig's Thump Castle Hotel is a haunted castle that's filled with Skeleton Koopas^note Otherwise known as Dry Bones. and Boos.
• Blackout Basement: The HardBrick and Chillton Hotels are variants of this trope. HardBrick suffers power outages because the electricity is being drained by too many toasters toasting toast in a hidden room, and the Chillton Hotel is deep underground and only the level you are currently on is lit up unless you defeat the right Koopa and take his flashlight.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: See the quote at the top of the page. Beside this, the rest of the dialogue is mostly a case of No Fourth Wall.
• Canon Discontinuity: To the extent that the series has continuity, no less. The game was not published by Nintendo, and they don't acknowledge it whenever they discuss all the Mario games.
• Captain Obvious: "You know what they say, all toasters toast toast!" Also counts as Department of Redundancy Department.
• Chest Monster: Wendy's Blitz Snarlton Hotel contains living coins that act as enemies.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • Wigglers are defeated by jumping on their head multiple times, something that was never in any Mario game. It's possible that the developers got them mixed up with Pokeys, another type of enemy that is also made up of multiple segments.
  • Throwing fireballs is also different. Instead of it being the 1 button (which is basically the B Button), you have to press both 1 and 2 at the same time.
  • Unlike in the main series, fireballs can hurt Buzzy Beetles.
• Deadly Euphemism: After Mario (infamously) says they don't have a light for a dark cave, Luigi of all people suggests this.
  Luigi: Well maybe a Koopa will lend us his, if we persuade him.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "You know what they say, all toasters toast toast!"
• Deranged Animation: The lackluster animation was a staple of CD-i games.
• The Dragon: Iggy, the only Koopaling not to have a hotel of his own, instead fights the Mario Bros. immediately before they face the Koopa King himself.
• Elevator Escape: Along with open doors, Mario can camp inside elevators to dodge enemies.
• Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": The Princess. She is neither called Princess Peach nor Princess Toadstool in-game, just "the Princess".
• Evil Laugh: Not a bad one, either. Maybe coming from someone other than a brightly-painted Bowser. Ironically, the low-quality uploads of the cutscenes provided by Quebec Gamers make his laugh even more sinister due to the echoing of the audio.
  Luigi: That's that creepy Bowser's laugh!
• Fantastic Racism: Luigi comes off as a little prejudiced towards the Koopa race.
  [The Mario Bros. arrive at Morton's hotel]
  Mario: Looks kinda' peaceful.
  Luigi: Looks are deceiving when Koopas are involved.
• Four-Fingered Hands: The norm for the animated cutscenes, even though Mario has his fifth finger on the cover art.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: You're supposed to be looking for the Princess inside the hotels, aren't you? So why are you closing all of the open doors instead of opening all of the closed ones?
• Gimmick Level: Many of the hotels have these. Fortunately, there's also a secret door that cancels out each gimmick. Lights flickering on and off? Get toasters to stop toasting toast. Clouds getting in your way? Blow them away with a giant fan. Doors vanishing in front of you? Get some ghost cologne. Wendy's pennies harassing you? Break the piggy bank holding the real ones.
• The Goomba: The Trope Namer naturally appears as a common enemy, with bellhop and Elvis variants.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: "If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed instruction book."
• Helicopter Pack: Lemmy wears one, which makes him fly through floors at will.
• Hell Hotel: Seven of these, with Bowser's Seizures Palace coming the closest to a literal example.
• Hey, You!: "Get offa my cloud!"
• Holiday Mode: If the CD-i's clock is set to a certain date, the "Here We Go" message will be replaced with a message relating to that holiday.
• Inherently Funny Words:
  • "You know what they say, all toasters toast toast!"
  • "I hope she made lotsa spaghetti!"
• Invincibility Powerup: The Star Man is a hidden power-up in some levels.
• Just Eat Him: If Morton, Roy, Larry or Bowser come across a Mario Brother hiding in a door, he gets devoured. Averted with the other Koopalings, which don't check inside doors; subverted with Ludwig, who performs a One-Hit Kill but it isn't clear what he does.
• Lethal Lava Land:
  • The first stage of Ludwig's Thump Castle Hotel has a pit of lava below.
  • Bowser's Seizures Palace Hotel is as close as it gets. The whole place appears to be on fire.
• Level in the Clouds: Lemmy's High-ate Regency Hotel is suspended in the skies. There are clouds with faces that tend to obstruct Mario's sight. By turning on a large fan (by pressing a button that says "I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN"), the clouds can be blown away.
• Little "No": Mario's response in the cave cutscene manages to be both a Little "No" and a Big "NO!" at the same time:
  Mario: Gee, it's kinda dark.
  Luigi: Did you bring a light?
  Mario: No...
• Luck-Based Mission: Viewing the infamous toaster scene in the HardBrick Hotel. When the power goes out, you have to look for sparks coming out of the door, and then quickly enter that door. This is completely random, and it's almost never the same door. Added to the fact that the sparks' sprites are incredibly small.
• Made of Explodium: Larry's Cave Hotel explodes for no apparent reason after Larry is defeated, sending the Princess flying out.
• Medium Awareness: "Check out the enclosed instruction book!" "You're the best player ever!!"
• New Year Has Come: The "HERE WE GO" screen instead says "HAPPY NEW YEAR" on January 1.
• No Fourth Wall:
  • Mario and Luigi sometimes break the fourth wall and speak directly to the player. "We gotta find the Princess! And YOU gotta help us!" "It's hard to see through those clouds. I hope we can get rid of them! Get the hint?"
  • Not to mention the entire ending sequence. "You're the best player ever!"
• Non-Dubbed Grunts: Bowser's laugh in the intro is the same in the French dub, except it doesn't have echo for some reason.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Luigi loses his Italian accent past the intro cutscene.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Iggy's Bowser costume is basically just him wearing a giant bobble-head of the Koopa King himself.
• Piggy Bank: A huge one appears in a hidden cutscene in Wendy's Blitz Snarlton Hotel. Destroying it somehow gets rid of the penny enemies.
• Projectile Toast: If Mario finds the Toaster room in Roy's HardBrick Hotel, he unplugs the toasters, which causes all of them to launch the toast out.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The bouncy organ theme that plays over the opening cutscene and credits is actually a reused piece of incidental music originally composed by Max Steiner for the 1933 film version of Little Women.
• Pun:
  • Each stage is a pun on an existing hotel name (Chillton = Hilton; Seizures Palace = Caesar's Palace), aside from one Elvis Presley reference.
  • This mine is mine!
  • I'm your biggest fan! (Mario is using a large fan to blow away clouds)
• Read the Freaking Manual: "If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed instruction book!"
• Russian Reversal: "Be careful! When you pinch Wendy's pennies, they pinch back!"
• Say My Name: The Princess screams Mario's name as she is blasted from Larry's hotel when it explodes. The lower-quality uploads of the cutscenes provided by Quebec Gamers made it hard to tell for sure, but increase the quality and you can't unhear it.
• Seen It All: Mario's response to the Princess suddenly vanishing after rescuing her from Lemmy's High-ate Regency Hotel? "It's been one of those days."
• Shock and Awe: Ludwig's attacks by firing a beam of lightning out of his hands. The attack travels diagonally, meaning it can zap Mario even when Ludwig is on a different level from him.
• Shout-Out:
  • "HEY YOU! GET OFFA MY CLOUD!" (which, according to an interview with voice actor Marc Graue, was actually ad-libbed). There's also the hotel names (see the Hurricane of Puns entry above).
  • "We ain't afraida no Koopas!"
  • "Maybe this will keep that Lizard King from playing with the doors."
• Slapstick: Half the time, Princess Toadstool gets whisked away to the next hotel like this. She even gets blown out of a mine at one point!
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Larry's Chillton Hotel is located in an icy cavern. Certain turtle enemies have piles of snow atop their shell, though the Hotel otherwise lacks any ice-related mechanics like Frictionless Ice.
• Stock Footage: Several of Mario and Luigi's "animation cels" are recycled several times throughout all of the cutscenes, including the close-up of Mario holding up one hand, an animation of Mario walking toward the background, and another animation of both plumbers walking towards the background.
• Timed Mission: Each level is given 200 seconds to be beaten. Like the main Mario games, it's plenty of time to beat the level.
• Too Dumb to Live: Why did Lemmy jump in front of the giant fan?
• Trumplica: Ludwig serves as one in this game with his Thump Castle Hotel.
• Villain Ball: Bowser leaves a note telling Mario and Luigi he kidnapped the Princess and challenging them to find her.
• You Know What They Say: All toasters toast toast!

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''Aha, here's the problem: Too many tropers! You know what they say: All tropers trope tropes!''

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