Never let it be said that Nintendo didn’t takeSuper Mario’s 35th birthday seriously. 2020 saw a lot of pretty huge announcements that a lot of fans had cause to be excited about. For a long time, fans dreamt of playing nostalgicSuper Marioclassics on the Switch, and that’s just whatSuper Mario 3D All-Starsenabled. For a lot of younger fans of the franchise, it was their first chance to playSuper Mario 64orSuper Mario Sunshine,so it really made an impact on the community to see just how far Mario and company had come.Super Mario 3D All-Starsand all the other exclusive events and merchandise released specifically for this anniversary will certainly stay close to fans' hearts for a long time.
However, the time to celebrate Mario’s anniversary has come and gone. 2021 is a big year of its own. Nintendo hasThe Legend of ZeldaandPokemon’s anniversaries to think about, and it’s already given its fans a taste of what’s in store.The Legend of ZeldaandPokemon’s gain comes atSuper Mario’s loss, though. Nintendo is shutting down andabandoning someSuper Marioprojectsthat really seem like they could’ve kept running a little longer. Unless it has a sudden and unorthodox change of heart, it looks like Nintendo is committed to cuttingSuper Mario 3D All-StarsandSuper Mario Bros. 35short at the end of March.
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End of the Line
Nintendo was up front about the ends of these games.WhenSuper Mario 3D All-Starswas announced, Nintendo notified fans that the game’s production would be a very limited run. Production of the physical copy of the game will cease at the end of March. What’s more, it won’t be available on the Nintendo eShop after March either. Fans still have time to secure a copy of the game if they haven’t been able to yet, but by the end of the year, odds are physical copies ofSuper Mario 3D All-Starswill be really hard to find. The physical game seems like a collector’s item in the making.
3D All-Starsisn’t all that’ll stop production by April. The quirkyMario-themed battle royaleSuper Mario Bros. 35will go offline at the end of the month. While it may not have been quite as big a hit as3D All-Stars,Super Mario Bros. 35still remains a fun, freeSuper Marioexperience for fans to kill a little time with. If the physical cartridge of3D All-Starsis destined to become a collector’s item,Switches withSuper Mario Bros. 35downloadedon them might be something of a collector’s item too, even if the game is defunct. The same goes for a lot of otherSuper Mariomerchandise that’ll cease production at the end of March, like the anniversary’s official T-shirt and theSuper MarioGame and Watch.
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All Good Things
It’s unfortunate that Nintendo is leaving all these things behind after fans got such a kick out of them. However, on a certain level, it’s not surprising. A lot of these games and merchandise were created specifically to celebrate the event, and were never intended to be long-term projects for the company. Part of what makesSuper Mario Bros. 35special is that it was a limited time experience that fans could share to celebrateSuper Mario’s legacy before Nintendo moves forward andfocuses on Mario’s futureagain. Even if all these things are going out of production, Mario isn’t going anywhere. After six months in the spotlight, Nintendo is simply ready to focus on its other projects.
The broad scope of Nintendo’sSuper Marioextravaganza ought to bode well for the aforementioned anniversaries of 2021.Pokemonalready has bright things in its future, including long-awaited remakes ofPokemon DiamondandPearland a brand new open-world experience of the Sinnoh region.The Legend of Zeldaalready hasAge of CalamityDLCs and aSkyward Swordremake coming up while fans are still looking forward tocovetedBreath of the Wild 2news. Nintendo really went all out for its plucky plumber, and understandably so, seeing how far he’s taken Nintendo. It’s probable that Nintendo is feeling the same kind of gratitude towards these other franchises. It’s a shame thatSuper Mario’s anniversary is coming to an end, but it was certainly fun while it lasted.
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