Nintendo licensed the characters after not going forward with a deal for Philips to create a CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES.

Hotel Mario initially received mixed reviews; critics felt it was fun but had no lasting appeal.

[3] Controlling Mario, or his brother Luigi in two-player mode, the player must search the Klub Koopa Resort[4] for Princess Toadstool, who has been kidnapped by Bowser.

Mario can step on most enemies, as in previous games, but some must be avoided by changing floors or entering an open door.

Mario discovers in a letter left for them by Bowser that he and his Koopalings have turned the kingdom into their personal vacation resort and that they have established seven different hotels that act as their bases of operation.

Afterwards, Mario, Luigi and the princess flee the hotel as it falls to rubble, causing peace to be restored to the Mushroom Kingdom.

[3] According to Stephen Radosh, Nintendo's only involvement in the development was ensuring that the source material was faithful to the Mario series.

[8] Radosh had a concept for a video game that took place in a hotel with various stages and decided to incorporate it into Fantasy Factory's Mario project.

[10] The game's music was composed by Marc St. Regis, who had to write the music as MIDI files on a Mac OS 7 with Opcode Studio Vision using Studio Electronics Obie Rack, Yamaha TG-100, Roland S770 (custom and stock samples), Roland MKS-20, MKS-50, Casio CZ-100, and Casio MT-40 (customized).

[21][22] IGN's Levi Buchanan said that while it was superior to Philips' The Legend of Zelda games, closing doors was not "a strong enough hook for an entire game",[6] and J.C. Fletcher of Joystiq ridiculed the plot: "Apparently Bowser has nefariously plotted to have his underlings open doors in ... his own hotels, thus wasting air conditioning and increasing his own electric bill.

[21] 1UP.com described them as "outright terrifying",[3] and IGN called them "abysmal", resembling "a bad flip-book of images printed out of Microsoft Paint".

[3][6] Danny Cowan of 1UP wrote: "Mario sounds more like someone's ex-smoker grandpa trying to imitate a Mafia hit man...

[24] Hotel Mario's cutscenes have gained notoriety as Internet memes and endure as one of the most common sources for YouTube poop video mashups.

[25][26] A fan remake of the game with several quality of life enhancements, titled Hotel Mario ReBooked, is currently in development.