Nintendo is reportedly planning several releases and events to coincide with Mario's anniversary, which marks 35 years since the Italian plumber first appeared in 1985. Part of the company's celebrations includes re-releasing a lot of the franchise's 35-year back catalog this year, remastered for Nintendo Switch.
According to Eurogamer, Nintendo will remaster Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64, Super Mario 3D World, and a new installment in the Paper Mario series. Along with game releases, the company will also announce an update regarding its partnership with Universal involving a Super Mario movie and the Super Nintendo World theme park. Previously, Nintendo announced a special interactive Lego Mario set to commemorate the character's anniversary.
It was originally scheduled that the Super Mario 35th Anniversary would take place at E3 in June, but since the gaming event was canceled, Nintendo has changed its plans in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
It was 2015 when Nintendo last celebrated a Super Mario milestone when the franchise reached its 30-year mark. The celebration was marked with lots of merchandise releases, including Trump cards, Moschino, Hot Wheels, and super adorable Mario Amiibos. Nintendo also released Super Mario Maker for Wii U in September that year, exactly three decades since Super Mario Bros. was released for Famicom in Japan.
Nintendo has become bolder in leveraging its popular IPs in many ways while maintaining its core business of creating and selling games. The Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios Japan was supposed to launch this year, but the Nintendo Tokyo Store had already opened last year. Among others, there's also fashion merchandise for every Nintendo-crazed fan, including those from Levis and Uniqlo.
Previously, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa happily announced that even non-gamers are visiting Nintendo stores. According to the exec, the company's efforts in reaching for more audience outside of video games is bearing fruit. Director Shigeru Miyamoto also talked about their success in a recent Famitsu interview.
"We want to expand our video game characters to a variety of settings - not just in games, all while keeping their value," Miyamoto said. "In other words, we'll be collaborating with various other companies. If we're able to accomplish that, we can create more opportunities for people to make contact with our characters on a much larger scale than usual."
If the report is true, Nintendo Switch owners will have a lot to look out for. Nintendo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
