Nintendo’s Mario Collection is Insane
The Super Mario 3D All-Stars is coming out September 18th. Looking at the picture this game should be amazing as it combines three all time classic Mario games together into one package. This is something that fans have been hoping would be true for months. Several leaks mentioned that the games would be coming this year. Finally it was announced by Nintendo.
If you’re a… Super Mario fan (pun intended) you’ll have a great time playing these games on switch. It will be a great time either revisiting the games or playing some for the first time.
Yet you need to know that there are many issues with this new game.
First off is this collection is just Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. That’s it. It’s a great collection but it’s missing quite a bit. Super Mario Galaxy is here, but it’s sequel Super Mario Galaxy 2 is left behind for some reason. NintendoLife has some interesting theories as to why Galaxy 2 is left out but at the end of the day Nintendo excluded it. It’s wrong but Nintendo will shrug and move on. Maybe even charge us for Galaxy 2 as DLC.
Other issue is that Super Mario 3D World is being released as a stand alone release. It kind of undercuts a “3D All-Stars” collection when the 3D Mario game of the Wii U is left out.
An argument can be made that because 3D World was released on a platform that failed to reach 14 million sales, which the Nintendo Switch surpassed by early 2018. And with more than 60 million Switch consoles sold by 2020 it’s only fair to give Super Mario 3D World a better shot on the Switch. It’s a practice Nintendo has done with practically every first party Wii U game after all. It’s not shocking to see them do this. It’s easier to count Wii U games that HAVEN’T been ported to the Nintendo Switch now.
But if you already have a 3D collection coming just put 3D World in that collection as well. It’s just greed and it sucks. They’ll charge $60 for it and the 3D collection instead of just having one package of all four games be $60. There’s no precedent for just 3 games either since the first Super Mario All-Stars had 4 games.
If you love 3D world so much that you’ll support buying it for $60 be my guest. I just think a 7 year old game with some DLC sprinkled in isn’t worth that much. The Halo Master Chief Collection released in 2014 only two years after Halo 4. Microsoft didn’t charge $60 for Halo 1–3, and then Halo 4 separately for another $60.
Sticking with pricing but slightly moving on, we should talk about the fact that the Super Mario 3D All-Stars game is a limited release. Nintendo even said so themselves. “The packaged version software is a limited-time only production, and the digital version will be a limited-time only release until the end of March 2021,” Nintendo said on Thursday.
They didn’t even mention what that “limited-time” release means. A limited physical release would be just fine but the digital version being limited too seems ridiculous. It sounds like the old Disney Vault idea of limited releases but for video games.
Nintendo could just split Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy up similar to Bioshock, Borderlands, or the Nintendo published Bayonetta 1+2. However out of those three only Bayonetta is unable to be purchased as a one time collection. The Bioshock and Borderlands collections on Switch both have an option to buy all 3 games for either collection.
Another fear is that Nintendo could increase the price on each game once separated. The original Borderlands goes for $19.99 on the Eshop so Nintendo may believe Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy are worth $24.99 or $29.99. Or they could be creating a FOMO effect to try and ramp up sales of the collection before splitting it up under the idea that people who only want Mario 64 now have to pay $59.99 to play it early.
Either way the idea of Super Mario 3D All-Stars being “limited-release” is dumb.
But to top off all this insanity is that Super Mario 3D All-Stars is just old roms with updated aspect ratios. Yeah 16:9 is great and will play like a dream on Switch but thats it. There are no graphical updates to either Mario 64 or Mario Sunshine, or Galaxy.
It’s not a big deal for Sunshine or Galaxy as they still look decent but Mario 64 is just an ugly beast in this day and age. I grew up with an N64 and loved the days of exploring those 3D worlds as a child. I’ve even played Mario 64 on emulators. But it’s still ugly. Even more so when we’ve had two successful remakes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro.
You can debate all you want about art style, but Spryo looks great on the right. It captures the mental image we all had when playing the first games on the PS1. Mario 64 needs that kind of love. Spyro was even remastered by another team than who created it, so image what Nintendo could do to Mario 64 if the tried. And Crash looks just as modern.
Nintendo may be hurt from the coronavirus. It’s understandable if things had to get cut, like Mario Galaxy 2, or funds are tight. But as I wrote before, Nintendo doesn’t have much announced.
The Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection is insane for all the wrong reasons. It’s a mess every way you look at it. If you love Mario you should feel betrayed because there was no love given here to make the 35th anniversary of one of gamings biggest icons a true event. Instead it’s a disjointed and lazy cash grab that should be left alone. Especially if you have old consoles or a pc to legally play backups on emulators.
