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A copy of ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ sold for $156,000
It's the most expensive game ever sold at auction.
Nintendo is reportedly planning to remaster classic Mario games this year
This year marks the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. and Nintendo could be set to mark the legacy of its flagship franchise in a major way. The company is reportedly working on several Mario games for this year, including remastered versions of some classic titles.
Nintendo Switch Online is adding 'Super Mario Bros. 2'
Nintendo Switch Online is adding two more gaming classics to its growing library of NES titles. Starting on February 13th, you'll be able to play Super Mario Bros. 2 and Kirby's Adventure on the subscription service. The second Super Mario game doesn't have multiplayer mode like its predecessor, but it has several protagonists to choose from in your battle to free the dream world from Wart the tyrant. You can play not just as Mario and Luigi, but also as Toad and Princess Toadstool.
Animated 'Super Mario Bros.' movie tentatively planned for 2022
That Super Mario Bros. animated movie in development finally has a release window. In a chat with Variety, Illumination founder Chris Meledandri confirmed that the animated flick was in "priority development" with hopes of putting it in theaters by 2022. And yes, as Nintendo announced in January, Shigeru Miyamoto is involved -- the iconic game designer is "front and center" in the process, Meledandri said. The involvement of the series creator will theoretically add depth to the (frankly rather threadbare) plot without souring the spirit and producing a fiasco like the 1993 live-action flick.
The official 'Super Mario Bros.' encyclopedia is here
After a years-long wait, the official Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia is available outside of Japan. The 256-page compendium is available in both a $40 standard edition as well as an $80 limited version with a random, holofoil-trimmed cover in a question mark slipcase. Whichever version you pick, it should be a relatively comprehensive history of the Mario series up to its 30th anniversary in 2015.
'Super Mario Bros.' encyclopedia comes to the US October 23rd
Nintendo did many things to mark the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., but there's been one you couldn't usually get your hands on unless you lived in Japan: the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia. You'll be glad to hear that it's coming to the West, though. Dark Horse Publishing has announced that the official guide to Mario's universe will be available in a standard edition in the US on October 23rd for $40. Amazon is also hinting at releases in the UK and Europe, although we don't have official information as of this writing.
Nintendo might be making an animated 'Super Mario Bros.' movie
Nintendo's plans to return to movies appear to include its most beloved franchise. Wall Street Journal sources understand that Nintendo is close to a deal for an animated Super Mario Bros. movie from Illumination Entertainment, the Universal-backed studio behind the Despicable Me series. While the exact terms aren't clear, the pact would theoretically allow multiple movies. Nintendo has also been bending over backwards to maintain creative involvement, and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is expected to be a producer.
UC Berkeley researchers teach computers to be curious
When you played through Super Mario Bros. or Doom for the very first time, chances are you didn't try to speedrun the entire game but instead started exploring -- this despite not really knowing what to expect around the next corner. It's that same sense of curiosity, the desire to screw around in a digital landscape just to see what happens, that a team of researchers at UC Berkeley have imparted into their computer algorithm. And it could drastically advance the field of artificial intelligence.
Super Nintendo World coming to Universal Studios Japan
Nintendo will launch the Super Nintendo World park attraction at Universal Studios Japan, the two companies revealed. The themed area will open in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with similar attractions coming later to Hollywood and Orlando in the US. Nintendo first revealed news of the attractions last year, and in November announced the three locations. It has now added more details, saying the park attraction will have "state-of-the-art rides, interactive areas, shops and restaurants, all featuring Nintendo's most popular characters and games."
Nintendo tour lets you try 3DS games this summer
If you or your kids are jonesing for something to do this summer but would rather play Super Mario Bros. than go on vacation, Nintendo has your back. It's launching a free Play Nintendo Tour that, as the name implies, gives you a chance to play a range of 3DS games in a kid-friendly environment. On top of getting to try some of Nintendo's better-known titles (ranging from the shiny new Kirby: Planet Robobot to an older title like Mario Kart 7), the 12-stop US tour has contests, photo ops and prizes.
Special edition Nintendo Vans prove your inner nerd never died
Vans loves working with iconic pop culture entities. To date, the company has released shoe and apparel collections inspired by Star Wars, The Beatles and, most recently, Disney. Now, as rumored, Vans has teamed up with Nintendo on a line of retro gaming sneakers and accessories for men, women and kids. There are 13 different footwear styles, each featuring prints that pay tribute to Nintendo's first flagship console, the NES, as well as 8-bit graphics and characters from the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
Nintendo is thinking about getting (back) into the movie business
As Nintendo continues to stretch beyond gaming for new money-making opportunities, it might get into the movie biz. According to Nintendo spokesman Maokoto Wakae, details are undecided, but the results could be a big movie release... or a straight to DVD / Blu-Ray affair. The company had broadly referenced the opportunity for using its popular characters and titles in future movies mid-2015, buried in this financial report, but then the mention of "visual content production" could have been directed at Nintendo's recent Star Fox animation -- it's keeping busy with its IPs.
Nintendo's 2015 was the best of times and the worst of times
Let's face it: In the world of video games, Nintendo exists in a state of constant scrutiny. More often than not, the Japanese company is targeted for being "behind the times" or "out of touch" with what its fanbase wants. Looking back, however, we see a more dynamic mish-mash of good and bad decisions. In 2015, Nintendo teased us by promising to build mobile apps, but pleased us by adding some unexpected classics to its digital game library and announcing a new game console. The company had breakout hits like Splatoon, but also fumbled on launch dates, failing to deliver Star Fox Zero and Zelda Wii U by year's end. How is Nintendo doing, really? Let's take a look back at the highs and lows of Nintendo's year and find out.Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Fashion brand Moschino is making a 'Super Mario' collection
Moschino is becoming known for sending bizarre collections down the runway, meshing interesting aspects of culture with fashion. The brand's creative director, Jeremy Scott, has designed pieces based on fast food chain McDonald's, cartoon character SpongeBob and, most recently, Barbie. But it's not stopping there. Now, Moschino has partnered with Nintendo to unveil "Super Moschino," a set of t-shirts, sweaters and leather accessories that use Super Mario characters as the subject.
This 'Super Mario Bros.' watch will cost you $18,950
How much of a Nintendo fan are you? Enough that you could spend as much as you would on a car, just to show the world where your allegiances lie? You'll want to talk to luxury watchmaker Romain Jerome, then. It just unveiled a limited edition Super Mario Bros. mechanical timepiece that marks the 30th anniversary of the plumber's adventures in style. And we do mean style: its 46mm case is made out of black titanium, and the three-layer dial is loaded with enamel-coated pixel figurines to remind you of Mario's early days. It's quite posh-looking, then, although the eye-watering $18,950 price will likely rule this out unless you're a high roller with some fond gaming memories. On the plus side, that ultra-rare Nintendo World Championship cartridge suddenly seems like a bargain.
Gaming hall of fame inducts 'Pong,' 'Tetris' and other classics
The results are in. After a selection process that lasted nearly four months, the newly created World Video Game Hall of Fame has announced its first class inductees. Doom, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and World of Warcraft were chosen by The National Museum of Play for 2015, narrowing down the choices from a list of 15 finalists. So which games, which you helped vote for, were left out? That includes other classics like Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda and The Sims -- although the museum did say these will likely be part of next year's nominee class.
Transform parts of your screen into Mario levels with Screentendo
You know what's a good cure for office boredom? A Mac app that changes parts of your screen into a playable level straight out of Super Mario Bros. Thanks to Aaron Randall's Screentendo desktop add-on, a similar process to that of taking a screenshot can have you playing a unique Mario level in seconds. In this case, game building is a two-step process that first determines the underlying structure of the image before generating those bricks on top. Randall admits that the app isn't without flaws, and that it's more of a proof-of-concept than anything else. For example, the image rendering works best on images with high contrast -- like the Google logo captured in the video after the break.
Super Mario World's gravity isn't possible on any planet
It goes without saying that Super Mario World is unrealistic, but have you wondered just how outlandish it is? PBS has. The broadcaster's Space Time show recently went out of its way to calculate the gravity of the game's planet based on Mario's jumps, and it turns out to be nearly eight times that of Earth. That's a figure that you don't even find on gas giants like Jupiter, and it's only feasible on stars. Moreover, Nintendo's plumber would need both superhuman strength to jump as high as he does as well as non-human blood -- the liquid would be so heavy that a heart couldn't pump it properly. Mario doesn't so much have his own world as his own universe, since there's no way that he or his environment could exist based on our understanding of physics.
Super Mario AI learns how to play by listening to your advice
As fun as Super Mario Bros. games are to play, wouldn't it be nice if you could coach from the sidelines every now and then? The University of Tubingen has developed an artificial intelligence that lets you do just that. Its Mario AI project makes Nintendo's plumber both aware of his environment and responsive to your advice on how he should behave. You can teach him that stomping on Goombas will definitely take them down, for instance. Mario even has his own systems for feelings and needs. He'll explore the world if he's sufficiently curious, and he'll chase after coins if he's "hungry."
Nintendo's characters show up in someone else's handheld game
Nintendo's iconic characters have appeared more than once in third-party console games (hello Soul Calibur fans), but mobile games have largely been off-limits. However, there are new signs that the gaming giant is taking a more relaxed approach to the handheld world. GungHo has unveiled Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, a take on the popular puzzle battler that includes many of the characters from Nintendo's most sacred cash cow. It's not surprising that there's only a 3DS version so far given Nintendo's usual disdain for smartphone games, but the regular Puzzle & Dragons is also available (and successful) on both Android and iOS -- it wouldn't take much to get the Mario variant on non-3DS systems. Will that happen? Probably not. Even so, GungHo's game is further proof that Nintendo isn't as protective of its franchises as it used to be.
