Super Mario FX: a homebrew project brings Mario 64 to the SNES

Game of Tobi explores an irresistible retro-gaming “what if”: a Super FX-powered take on Super Mario 64 for the Super Nintendo.

What would a free-roaming 3D Mario game have looked like on the Super Nintendo? Developer Game of Tobi is exploring that question with Super Mario FX, an unofficial project that brings a simplified version of Super Mario 64 to the SNES using the Super FX chip. The creator introduces the experiment in a video appropriately titled “Fine, I made Super Mario FX.”

This is an early homebrew prototype, not a Nintendo announcement or the discovery of a long-lost cartridge. Nevertheless, the demonstration includes recognisable locations such as Peach’s Castle, Bob-omb Battlefield and Jolly Roger Bay, alongside enemies including Chain Chomps and Piranha Plants. Mario can explore a three-dimensional environment rather than simply appear in a static recreation of a familiar scene.

A familiar world, with substantial compromises

The transformation comes at a visible cost. Environments are heavily simplified, the graphics are chunky, and performance is rough. This should be approached as an experimental adaptation, not a finished replacement for the Nintendo 64 original.

Rendering is not the only challenge. Gaming Reinvented reports a 2 MB ROM budget for this Super FX implementation, leaving very little room for the game’s environments, graphics and other assets. The problem is therefore not merely getting Mario moving: it is deciding how much of his world can fit alongside him.

That is what makes the experiment interesting. The question is not whether this would be the most comfortable way to play Super Mario 64, but how much of its identity can survive such an aggressive technical reduction.

A modern project, not a recovered Nintendo prototype

The name Super Mario FX needs a little historical care. It has long been associated with rumours of a cancelled 3D Mario game for the SNES. However, when SNES Central directly asked Star Fox programmer Dylan Cuthbert about it, he explained that “Super Mario FX” had been an internal codename for the FX chip itself. Tobi’s project should therefore be understood as a new homebrew interpretation of that idea—not the restoration of a verified, abandoned Nintendo game.

It also fits the creator’s wider interest in pushing older hardware in unexpected directions. Previous projects include Minecraft and Super Mario 64 adaptations for the Game Boy Advance, while his Patreon carries development updates for Minecraft GBA. For retro-computing enthusiasts, the appeal is straightforward: sometimes a machine’s limitations are not a reason to stop. They are the entire reason to start.

Original source: Game of Tobi — Fine, I made Super Mario FX.
Creator’s page: GameOfTobi on Patreon