The Super Mario Bros. 40th Anniversary Celebration is a Lie
A sad day for Jumpman
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Last Friday’s Nintendo Direct was really two presentations in one.
The first twenty minutes focused solely on Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. 40th Anniversary “celebration,” while the remaining 46 minutes was a traditional Direct, complete with official release dates for long-awaited titles and footage for brand-new games.
I’ll definitely be going over the latter in a future post, hopefully later this week.
Today, though, I’d like to focus on the strange and disappointing SMB 40th Anniversary segment.
This is going to be a long and rambly post as is, so without further ado, let’s jump right in.
SUPER MARIO BROS. 40th ANNIVERSARY
As the Direct begins, we’re treated to a montage of Mario art from across the decades with SMB Level 1-1 music playing in the background. Miyamoto-san enters and thanks everyone for playing all of Mario’s games in his typical adorable and endearing manner.
At this point, my fever pitch is at a high. The images and music are smothering me in candy-coated nostalgia. What is he going to announce? A brand-new Mario platformer where all previous Mario incarnations from the original SMB to Odyssey interact with each other on a dimension-hopping adventure? A compilation of every Mario game up to Odyssey, including weird Game and Watch titles, complete with never-before-seen content? Let’s goooo!
Turns out, the first announcement is a plug for the Nintendo Museum’s new Mario-themed art gallery, with illustrations spanning the many decades of Mario games. The admission ticket to the Museum will change to have an SMB 40th Anniversary logo on it (as seen above). Nintendo’s also going to have a light display on the Museum for the holidays. So, uh, that’s… neat? I guess?
Miyamoto then reminds us that Super Nintendo World is open at Universal Studios Florida, just in case a Japan visit is out of our reach. Nintendo will also be supporting the Kyoto Marathon in February 2026. This is notable because Mario’s been running for 40 years so Nintendo wants to support runners or something? I couldn’t figure out the logic behind announcing this during a Mario 40th Anniversary segment.
The Direct is three minutes in and I am already confused and disappointed. What the hell is happening? Miyamoto is a living legend, and they brought him here just to talk about some peripheral Mario celebration events that most of the world will not experience?
Next, a movie trailer for the next Mario movie, surprisingly called “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” The intro itself is a psych-out with music from Super Mario World playing as the camera follows a butterfly through beautiful Mushroom Kingdom vistas. (I had heard that “Super Mario World” was actually going to be the name of the next film, so I imagine Illumination was playing off of that rumor.) Then we see the title, hear an iconic Galaxy motif, and there we have it. Spring of 2026. As The Dude once said, “I’ll be there, man.”
Miyamoto then passes the torch to Chris Meledandri, head of Illumination, who proceeds to wax eloquent in corpo-speak about the brilliance of the Mario franchise. He also confirms that all the key actors from the first movie are returning (Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong was not mentioned, make of that what you will).
We’re now nearly seven minutes into a Nintendo Direct without one game shown, which has to be a record. At this point, I was thinking, “Gee, sure would be nice if there were a way to play the Mario Galaxy games on Switch before the “Galaxy” movie comes out. Oh we-“
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 1+2
Nintendo releasing these two legendary games as a package deal makes sense, given that the “Super Mario Galaxy” movie is coming out in less than a year and a whole generation has grown up without having access to the Galaxy games. But as a purchaser of the limited-time Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation, I can’t help but feel a little gypped. “Why the sweet hell isn’t Super Mario Galaxy 2 on this compilation,” was the question we were all asking back in 2020. Apparently, the long-overdue answer from Nintendo is, “Because in 2025, we’re going to release a Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 compilation on the Switch, and… thank-a you so much for giving us your money!” Who cares if you already own Galaxy 1 on 3D All-Stars, if you want to play Galaxy 2 on a physical copy, you gotta buy this new compilation.
Sure, you could buy Galaxy 2 digital, but guess how much that’ll set you back? Wait for it… $39.99. That’s right, both Galaxy games, separately, will cost forty dollars each on the eShop. If you want the joy – nay, the privilege - of owning a physical copy, that will be $70.
I dunno, man. Am I crazy or is this steep? I love the Galaxy games, and I don’t hate paying $70 for brand new games. But I am not keen on paying $70 for two 15-20 year old games with just a slight graphical upscaling, and, er, new additions to Rosalina’s story book. The latter in particular is a bold, fascinating choice. No new levels, no new content of any kind to these beloved classics, but some more story time with Rosalina? Yes, that’s what the fans were craving.
You can buy both Mario Galaxy Wii games on eBay, complete-in-box in good condition right now for less than fifty dollars. Sure, they’re not in HD, and not everyone owns a Wii. I get that. If you do own a Wii and you just want to play Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 before the movie comes out, this is a no-brainer.
New Galaxy-themed amiibo on the way as well. One is of Mario soaring in the sky, and the other is of Rosalina reading to a Luma. They look great. They’ll also probably be really hard to find and expensive (edit: they’re $39.99 each. Just like the games).
Oh, and Rosalina’s storybook is getting a physical release as well. $24.99 for this beauty. Just the original storybook content from the Wii games, though, not the enhanced Switch storybook content. How dare you think otherwise.
So if you want the Galaxy 1 and 2 Switch collection, the amiibo, and Rosalina’s storybook, you’re looking at $175 for all of it. Shaking my head as I’m writing this.
I’m just one man, though, one crazy Nintendo-loving fool who thinks they’ve gone too far. Let me know what you think of these prices in the comments!
Alright, that’s enough expensive nostalgia bait.
Let’s bust out some too-high shorts and sweatbands.
MARIO TENNIS FEVER
Ok, a new Mario Tennis game! This one has a bunch of different rackets with special powers and 38 characters, which seems like a lot, but is sure to satisfy the person who wants to control a Snifit. The Adventure and Trial Tower modes look like the most fun to me, but I’m a single player kinda guy. All told, I’m surprised at the amount of content that seems to be here. Never played a Mario Tennis game before, but this might be the first one I pick up.
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER, NINTENDO SWITCH 2 EDITION + MEET UP IN BELLABEL PARK
When your title almost takes up a full second line, you know it’s too long.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the best 2D Mario since Yoshi’s Island (or Super Mario World if you don’t count Yoshi’s Island as a “true” 2D Mario game), and it sold gazillions of copies, so this “Switch 2 Make More Money Edition” shouldn’t come as a surprise.
What is somewhat surprising, though, at least for this trailer, is the emphasis on multiplayer mini-games. This DLC almost looks like a Mario Party experience, sans board. Every level has one specific goal, like “Collect the most coins to win!” or “Work together to get to the goal!”
As a single player guy, this definitely isn’t for me, but I can see families who own a Switch 2 really enjoying this. And for gaming loners like myself, it looks like there might be more single-player content (complete with Koopa Kids!) announced at a later date.
Oh, and if your wallet’s not tired enough already, you can also purchase a Talking Flower that really talks. Incredibly superfluous it may be, but the build quality looks great. I’m sure, like the amiibo, it will not be affordable.
Onward to the next, uh, Mario game?
YOSHI AND THE MYSTERIOUS BOOK
The Yoshi games are such a strange sub-series in the Mario universe. They all seem to have weird visual gimmicks like worlds made of yarn or kindergarten arts-and-crafts, but their gameplay is largely the same. Control Yoshi through a series of platforming levels, eat enemies which give him eggs, then use the eggs to get out-of-reach items needed for level completion.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book seems like it might shake up the formula a bit. The visual tricks are still here – Yoshi and all the other creatures look like stop-motion storybook characters– but the goal is about uncovering the mysteries behind the book’s denizens and worlds. The trailer doesn’t go into too much detail, but this looks like the most promising Yoshi entry since Wooly World on Wii U.
SO THAT’S IT
Friends, I don’t like to hate on things just for the sake of being a hater. I’m a huge Nintendo fan. I like supporting their games. But… what is this?
All of these games – Mario Wonder Switch 2 Edition, Mario Tennis Fever, Yoshi, the Galaxy compilation – would have been released, regardless of Super Mario Bros.’ 40th birthday. For Nintendo to tie them into the latter event, like these titles were created specifically to celebrate the game that brought their company so much long-lasting success, feels disrespectful.
Consider the Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary back in 2020. Sure, the Mario 3D All-Stars collection could have been handled with more care, but Nintendo honored the original Super Mario Bros. with the underrated battle royale, Super Mario 35 (RIP king) and the Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch. All this smack dab in the middle of the pandemic.
Nothing in this 40th Anniversary Direct corresponds to the original Super Mario Bros. in any way, save for some of those design documents in the Nintendo Museum.
Now personally, I don’t care if Nintendo chooses to celebrate beloved characters’ anniversaries or not. They’re nice, but unnecessary.
But if they do decide to honor Mario or Zelda or whoever, why not put some more effort into the whole affair? These characters and their games are your prized possessions, the very reason you’re successful. Without them, Nintendo is just a toy company striving to remain relevant.
TLDR; Super Mario Bros. deserved better for its 40th anniversary. That is all.
If you’ve made it this far and you’re still reading, thank you! Please look forward to my breakdown of the Nintendo Direct later this week. I plan to be slightly more positive there. Until then!
- DC
I wish they called the movie Super Mario Bros. 2 and just made it a remixed version of the first one where it’s even harder for Mario to save the Mushroom Kingdom.
Thank you! I'm glad I wasn't the only one fairly disappointed. STILL no new Mario game announcement even upon the 40th ANNIVERSARY of the character? I really don't understand it. It's not like the anniversary "snuck up on them". I guess it's possible they are working on something but development issues are delaying things. But even still, a 30 second teaser with just a title is enough for now. I'm excited for Yoshi and if I hadn't already played Galaxy 1 and 2 recently, I would even pick up that collection. But man, it just smacks of Nintendo not having a plan for their biggest character of all time.