The worst-kept secret in Nintendo history
has finally been announced.
Super Mario 3D All Stars, a collection of
Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and
Super Mario Galaxy, has finally been confirmed
for the Nintendo Switch.
There’s no prizes for guessing why Nintendo
wanted to re-release these popular Mario titles
on the Switch.
The real question is, why on Earth did it
take this long?
After all, Mario 64 was one of the original
titles available on the Virtual Console when
this service debuted on the Nintendo Wii.
When the Switch was first announced, fans
were certain that not only Mario 64, but also
Mario Sunshine, would be available soon after
launch.
Instead, it’s taken three and a half years
for the 3D Mario games to be ported to the
Switch, and the rest of Nintendo’s Gamecube
and Wii libraries are nowhere to be seen.
Looking back at the history of the Switch,
it’s clear that this was actually the plan
all along.
According to a Nintendo spokesperson all the
way back in 2018:
“There are a variety of ways in which classic
games from Nintendo and other publishers are
made available on Nintendo Switch, such as
through Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo
Switch Online, Nintendo eShop or as packaged
collections.”
From the sounds of it, Nintendo has always
been considering 3D All Stars style game bundles
on Switch, but that may not have always been
the company’s Plan A for re-releases.
So why, if Nintendo knew that fans were eager
to play classic 3D Mario titles on the Nintendo
Switch, did the company make us wait this
long?
Simple: Nintendo genuinely did bet everything
on the Switch’s online subscription service.
While a packaged Mario collection had always
been a possibility, the company was eager
to focus first and foremost on Nintendo Switch
Online.
Also in 2018, then-President of Nintendo Reggie
Fils-Aime was asked in an interview how fans
would be able to play Nintendo 64 games in
the future.
He made it clear that the plan was to release
new titles on the Nintendo Switch Online service,
saying:
“We’ve … now been very clear that as
the consumer looks forward to engaging with
our classic content that is going to happen
more and more with the subscription service.”
Similarly, in a 2019 shareholder meeting,
Nintendo Representative Director and President
Shuntaro Furukawa said:
“Subscription-based services are becoming
common in all sorts of industries, not just
the games industry.
Those sorts of services have already been
implemented within the game industry and it
was even a popular topic of conversation at
this year's E3.
Nintendo, also, offers the Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES) Nintendo Switch Online service,
which allows members of Nintendo Switch Online
(a subscription-based service) to play NES
games.
“We believe that we need to further enrich
these sorts of services in the future.
Nintendo's policy is that we will consider
whether each product we offer is suited to
a subscription model as we expand our business
in the future.”
From this, it’s clear where ideas like Super
Mario 35 have come from.
The NES Mario Battle Royale seems like a logical
way to further “enrich” Nintendo’s subscription
service.
In the same shareholder meeting, President
Furukawa was also asked specifically about
N64 and Gamecube games on the Switch.
He said:
“We cannot provide any new information about
how or in what form software developed for
past platforms will be delivered to consumers
in the future….[Nintendo Switch Online]
is just one of a variety of forms in which
consumers could play past titles, and we'd
like to deliver them in some form.
We are very aware that many of our consumers
have been asking for a way to play older titles
like this.”
From the sounds of it, Nintendo went into
the Switch era expecting that a Netflix-style
subscription model was the smartest way of
providing a Virtual Console style library
of games.
It seems that Nintendo struggled to make this
system a reality, and as time went on, the
company heard increasingly loud and enthusiastic
feedback from fans asking for a better way
to access classic games.
Thus, Nintendo started considering repackaging
some classic games as a new way of bringing
titles to the Switch.
Presumably, Mario games made the most sense
as a trial for this system, especially with
Super Mario Bros’ 35th anniversary on the
horizon.
Then there were delays for reasons that we’re
all familiar with, because 2020 has been an
eventful and yet also very uneventful year,
and finally, Nintendo sheepishly announced
Super Mario 3D All Stars just two weeks before
the package launches.
Notice that 3D All Stars is, according to
Nintendo, only available until March of 2021.
This certainly does sound like a trial before
the rollout of similar packages.
Let’s hope this is the case.
Some of us have been waiting for a better
way to play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
for a very long time!
