Mario PC Port Has Fans “Living In The Future”

The PC is one of the last places you’d expect to see a Mario game. It’s not a totally unprecedented destination — Mario Teaches Typing, anyone? — but it’s hard to imagine Nintendo bringing any normal Mario game over to the platform in this day and age.

As luck would have it, fans have taken it upon themselves to do what Nintendo itself won’t. Following the recent PC decompilation port of Animal Crossing, another group of fans has completed a similar feat for a classic Mario title. While it may not be quite the same as an official release, it’s the next best thing.

Mario Party 4 Is Playable On PC

A YouTube video from Video Game Esoterica shared an update on Mario Party 4‘s decompilation, which has reached a playable state on PC. While the port is still a work-in-progress, with a number of mini-games currently unable to function, it’s possible to play and enjoy a good portion of the game at the moment.

Since Mario Party 4 has a random mini-game selection, actually being able to complete a game will depend on the luck of the draw, as you may or may not stumble into one that doesn’t work. The current state of the decomp is largely exciting, and a comment from YouTube user acdnan declaries that fans are “living in the future” thanks to the current state of decompilation releases.

This Isn’t The Only Exciting Port

Broadly, decompilations are projects that translate a game’s code to run natively on PC, providing more of a proper port experience than emulation can. This can set the stage for various enhancements and improvements to games, and the process also allows for a greater understanding of how these games were made to begin with.

Decomps are nothing new for classic Nintendo titles, but in the past, progress was focused primarily on the Nintendo 64 era. More recently, the development of the Mario Party 4 port and release of the Animal Crossing decompilation brought the GameCube to the table, which could set a precedent for more hits in the future.

Development of the Martio Party 4 decomp is still very active, so the list of problems and limitations with the current point should continue to narrow. Hopefully, Mario Party 4 on PC will go from playable to perfect in time, bringing a classically chaotic Mario experience to an entirely new audience in the modern day.

Released

October 21, 2002

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

Nintendo, Hudson Soft

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Engine

miyamoto

Multiplayer

Local Multiplayer