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'Super Mario Bros. 35' turns the classic platformer into a battle royale
In a surprise Nintendo Direct presentation this morning, Nintendo announced a slew of games celebrating Mario’s 35th birthday. One of the most intriguing things on the menu is Super Mario Bros. 35, a battle royale-style reimagining of the original Super Mario Bros. game. Like the Tetris 99 battle royale game Nintendo released last year, Super Mario Bros. 35 doesn’t cost anything to play, but you do need a subscription to Nintendo’s Switch Online service.
Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary book out in Japan next week
For those Mario lovers who want more commemorative book than is included with the Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition, Enterbrain is publishing its own brand of "Super Mario 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book" in Japan on December 9. The 144-page page-turner includes a retrospective interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, a collection of Mario manga, stickers and a poster, and a CD of orchestrated Mario music from the Press Start Symphony of Games concert series. If you don't mind a little (okay, probably a lot) of Japanese text along with your Mario ephemera, you can pre-order a copy from Amazon Japan for ¥840 -- that's about $10.
Super Mario All-Stars was almost 'Mario Extravaganza'
Before Super Mario All-Stars got the name we're familiar with (and the even more staid Japanese game "Super Mario Collection"), the team considered other titles, including the more exciting "Mario Extravaganza." That's one of the factoids revealed by this Iwata Asks interview with Naoki Mori and Tadashi Sugiyama, who worked on the SNES remakes of the NES series. It became "Super Mario Collection," as far as the two could recall, at the suggestion of Shigeru Miyamoto. After the break, we have a video detailing another factoid: the composition of Bowser's castle in both the NES and All-Stars versions of Super Mario Bros. We promise you've never paid this much attention to that castle.
Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition hits North America on Dec. 12
Nintendo of America has announced plans to celebrate Super Mario Bros.' 25th anniversary by selling us Super Mario All-Stars again. On December 12, the Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition will be released in North America, with the same contents as the European and Japanese releases: the game on a Wii disc, a Super Mario History CD with tracks from classic and modern Marios, and a 32-page Super Mario History booklet. Nintendo says that sales will continue "while supplies last," which makes it sound like there will be only one run of the All-Stars collection. Considering the bonuses, that $30 price actually compares pretty favorably to buying All-Stars on eBay.
Super Mario used to pack a beam gun
OK, so our jealousy of Japan and Europe and their Super Mario Bros. collectors editions has become utterly crushing. N-Styles provides the proverbial camel-back-breaking straw with some original design docs included in the package's history book. Not only are they so totally gorgeous that we want to lay them out on a bed and go full Indecent Proposal, but Andriasang's translation shows they're full of interesting tidbits like the fact that Mario was originally supposed to have a beam gun. Boy, fireballs seem pretty tame now that we know how close we got to ... Mario Chief? Master Plumber? ... Sorry, give us a second, we'll come up with something.
Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary hits Europe on Dec. 3
Europe will be able to play Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii -- and, perhaps more importantly, collect some new Mario stuff -- on December 3. Nintendo of Europe announced plans today to release Super Mario All-Stars: 25th Anniversary in the region, in a deluxe package similar to the Super Mario Collection Special Pack coming out in Japan this month. The new Wii package includes Super Mario All-Stars (SNES versions of Super Mario Bros. 1-3 and The Lost Levels), a history booklet, and a CD with selections from throughout the series, through Super Mario Galaxy 2. With all the special edition items in Japan and this in Europe, we in North America feel left out of the festivities. We're checking with Nintendo of America about potential release plans for the collection here. Update: Nintendo UK posted an image and a press release here.
Nintendo of Japan releasing Mario collection for Wii in October
Nintendo's Japanese release calendar includes a currently unannounced game called "Super Mario Collection Special Pack." This coincides with the rumored announcement of just such a thing from a Nintendo retailer conference in Japan. Andriasang translated a Game Jouhou report of leaked information from this event -- normally we'd put little stock in third- or fourth-hand information like this, but the subsequent inclusion of the game on Nintendo's official calendar lends a bit of credence to the claims. According to this translated scuttlebutt, Super Mario Collection is a "revival" of Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES. We don't know if that means just a port, or additional included games, or further graphical updates -- though at 2,500 yen ($30) we don't expect extensive remaking. The "Special Pack" name reportedly refers to an included book showing material from 25 years of Mario game development, along with a soundtrack CD featuring music from the whole series. Nintendo has scheduled the release of this game for October 21, which means that we should see official information very soon. It also means that No More Heroes 2, out in Japan the same day, officially has no chance of selling any copies.
How to justify buying expensive SNES games
Do you crave awesome, quite rare SNES games? Do you wish you could buy said games without feeling guilty about coughing up the kind of money that would go a long way on the Virtual Console? Then we have a solution, dear reader -- head over to one of the two auctions we've linked below and bid away on whichever takes your fancy. The first lot consists of Square duo Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana auction (current price: $68), while the second consists of Super Mario RPG and Super Mario All-Stars (currently at $57). Even though they lack boxes, all four are quality games, and will serve a worthy cause -- every cent spent will go to Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana-West, a non-profit provider of training, career services, and education for people with disadvantages, including homelessness, lack of education, and physical, mental and emotional disabilities.Go on, do it! It'll make you feel all fuzzy inside, and may even assuage the guilt of the thousands you wasted on Stadium Events. But probably not.Read: Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana Read: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Super Mario All-Stars [Via GamerTell]
