It’s been a whole 35 years since Mario Mario, to give the Italian plumber his full name (seriously), graced the Nintendo Entertainment System and since then he’s become arguably one of the most recognisable characters in the video game industry. Actually, scratch that. Mario is probably one of the most iconic characters of all time and his games reflect that. He’s appeared in some of the best games ever designed and, while there are some obvious duds, with a success/failure ratio as strong as his those failures very easy to overlook. It just so happens that the newly announced Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection serves as a fantastic illustration of the above mentioned ratio as it includes two incredible Mario games and one that’s just…meh.
Announced yesterday during Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct, the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection was easily the biggest announcement of the event. Collecting Super Mario 64 (Great!), Super Mario Galaxy (Incredible) and Super Mario Sunshine (Yawn), all three games are being bundled together and released for the Nintendo Switch. Which sounds amazing but it’s also a little weird. Firstly, if you’re wanting a physical copy, you’ll need to act fast as there’s a limited amount of those being sold. You could just go for the digital version…but even that’s limited to some extent as the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection is only on sale until the end of March 2021. The bundle is also coming out really soon as it launches on 18 September 2020.
Sure, fabricated scarcity is a pretty standard marketing tool but this feels…more than a little scummy. Look, I’ll probably pick them up on day one just because they’re incredible games that are evergreen in their quality (mostly). Other announcements include the addition of the original Super Mario All-Stars Collection to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription and an updated, deluxe version of the Wii U’s Super Mario 3D World, coupled with Bowser’s Fury, which will launch in February of 2021.
Of course, being Nintendo they also announced some really strange new projects including Super Mario Bros. 35 which sees 35 players try to stay alive for as long as possible with the last player standing being crowned as the plumber victorious. It’s a Mario battle royale and it’s…also only available until March next year? What?
There was also a new augmented reality Mario Kart and a new version of the Mario Game and Watch which looks like a cute little gift for mega fans. These are also limited in their stock so best have your credit card ready when it launches on 13 November.
(Source: Eurogamer)
