Super Mario 35th Anniversary: Information and Reactions

After months of leaks, rumors, and discussions, Nintendo just released a video detailing their celebration of the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. It was full of content and merch and games… and some rather odd commercial decisions. We’ve included everything in it below, along with materials revealed outside the Direct itself:

• A limited edition custom Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch releases November 13, complete with various embellishments themed around the anniversary. It features both Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels, as well as a remake of the original Ball Game & Watch game.
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, a remastered version of the 2013 big band co-op Wii U platformer, releases February 12, 2021. The title refers to a new section in the game about which details are spurious, other than that it has some sort of online component. Notably, the characters’ movement speed is significantly sped up.
  • The game size is significantly larger than the original (5 to 1.7 GB), which could indicate remaster tweaks, features in the online component, or new content.
  • Related is the announcement of Cat Mario and Cat Peach amiibo.
• Super Mario Bros. 35, a frenetic battle royale translation of Super Mario Bros. made by the developers of Tetris 99, releases October 10 as an exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online members. However, it is a timed release, and will only be playable until March 31, 2021.
• Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, the next iteration of Mario Kart, has players build courses in their own physical homes, before driving through them on RC cars controlled by the Switch. Releases October 16.
• Super Mario All-Stars, the SNES compilation of remakes for Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3, and The Lost Levels has, as of today, been added to Nintendo Switch Online.
• Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the long rumored compilation pack of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine (itself having not been released since a Player’s Choice re-release in 2003), and Super Mario Galaxy, releases September 18. It features various tweaks to graphics, frame rate, and controls. However, this is a timed release, not only physically but digitally; Nintendo will take it off the eShop after March 31, 2021.
  • Galaxy’s motion controls are now mostly optional and relegated to buttons. The “pointer” functionality of the second-player mode does require motion controls, either through a Joy-Con or, if undocked, touch control.
• Mario Kart Tour will get SNES-style Mario and Donkey Kong Jr. racers added on September 8.
• Super Mario Maker 2 will be getting a 35^th Anniversary Ninji course in November.
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will have an online tournament “later this year” themed around Super Mario characters and stages. The Japanese tournament is vaguely placed at being between November and December.
• Splatoon 2 will have a Mario themed “Mushroom Vs. Star” Splatfest in January 2021, complete with keychains and T-shirts.
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons will get Super Mario themed furniture in March 2021.
• Between September 3 and March 31, 2021, various timed events (called “missions”) are spread about Nintendo’s main website, all with various prizes.
• Various Mario and 35th Anniversary specific merchandise and clothing will be available in October, via the Nintendo World NY store. Other clothes and games, such as a Mario Monopoly different from the previous Mario Monopoly boards, are also available from today onward. The Switch eShop has a temporary red and white makeover for the same reason.

Full video:

Wolfman’s Soapbox: So, let’s just get the elephant out of the room. Turning three of the more seminal games in Mario’s history into a timed release is nuts. It’s especially so for Sunshine, which was last being published in 2003. I do genuinely believe that Nintendo isn’t doing this in the interest of forcing scarcity, and that they genuinely want this to be a “Celebration” – one that’s exciting partially because it’s fleeting. But taking that so far as to take back an actual collection of major, historical games after a vaguely random six month date? It’s bizarre, it’s uneconomical, but it’s also just kinda rubs me the wrong way. I think back to how Super Smash Bros. features content from Sunshine (and, to a lesser extent, 64 and Galaxy, which actually have been re-released), advertising things that don’t even really exist in the marketplace – almost mining nostalgia for experiences that are only cherry picked from other experiences. People should have the opportunity to experience these games, and not in this weird, capricious timeframe with a needless limit.

Ditto Super Mario Bros. 35. That’s a really cool looking game, innovative and exciting – and it’s one made by a studio who’s been working with Nintendo for years (looking them up, I found that Arika made Endless Ocean? Damn). I don’t mind time sensitive content in and of itself, but this seems genuinely brilliant and probably deserves to be explored more. It probably will, admittedly, in another fashion. I don’t think it’s at all implausible that the 3D collection will get rereleased, either as itself or (probably much more likely) with each game separate – that’d be a great way for us to get Super Mario Galaxy 2, whose absence is pretty strongly felt. But the current situation with how these are being sold isn’t great.

But, while those are my artistic and philosophical complaints, the actual material is deeply exciting! I was grinning as the Direct went from game to game, even to the point where 35 might be the first battle royale to ever excite me. The 3D collection has been a long time coming (I feel bad to note that Galaxy 2 should be there, when those are already three fascinating and tremendous landmarks for Nintendo and, to a lesser extent, game design as a whole). I’m interested to see what new things there are in 3D World, a game that was already pretty full to bursting of neat, compelling ideas. Most of the various embellishments and cosmetic changes aren’t exciting to me in and of themselves, but I like them, regardless of how little I’ll actually get out of them – which’ll be, most likely, almost nonexistent outside of stuff like the Animal Crossing furniture. I have a lot of nostalgia and affection for so much of Mario’s history that even when I have ideological or critical problems with some of the things Nintendo’s doing in selling their games, I can’t help but enjoy it. And I can also look at something that doesn’t interest me, like the fascinating and brilliant new Mario Kart, and feel happy. There’s some really unique and incredible ideas going on under that one’s hood, pardon the pun. It’s nice to remember that Mario is a big tent, and that while you’re probably not gonna like quite everything, there’s probably stuff for almost everyone, too.

So I guess that while I have legitimate concerns – and really, they’ve probably taken up a disproportionate part of this writing compared to the genuine sense of joy I felt from watching it – they aren’t the only conclusion I drew or experience I took from the presentation. I’m excited to explore at least some of these, and it’s nice to have this anniversary for a character who’s been a part of my life for so long. It feels good.

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Wolfman_J

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