Nintendo Officially Confirms Mario Anniversary Collection

 

Today, Nintendo’s beloved portly plumber enjoys his 25th birthday (well, since he’s been prefaced by the word “Super”, at least) as on September 13, 1985, the original Super Mario Bros. was released on the Famicom to a Japanese public that instantly made him an international megastar. Since then, the one and only Mario has starred in countless titles and risen to become the biggest selling games franchise of all time, with games not only engrained into the minds of gamers, but into general pop culture as well. And as he continues to evolve, Nintendo has decided to take a gander back in time to Mario games past.

As rumored, Nintendo is releasing a special Wii compilation of Mario goodies this October, including what is considered one of the greatest Mario games of all time. Super Mario All-Stars compiles the original classic, plus Super Mario Bros. 2 (the real one), Super Mario Bros. 2 (the fake one), and Super Mario Bros. 3, all with 16-bit graphics and sound. Also included in the package will be a special soundtrack containing tunes from many of the mustachioed one’s games throughout the last 25 years, plus a booklet about the series. It will be released on October 21 at a low, low price of $30.

That is, at least in Japan. Will North America be seeing it too? It should be without question, but many Nintendo decisions of the past could cast heavy doubt on an international release.

First off, this is a re-release of a 15-year old game. Nintendo often tends to stick this stuff on the Virtual Console, not on disc. Add in the fact that the game will have no motion control support (an extreme rarity for a disc-based Nintendo title), and it’s very clear that Nintendo in North America and Europe could only stick this game on the Wii Shop.

 

 

If they even do that, that is. All four games from Super Mario All-Stars are already available in their non-enhanced forms on the Wii Shop, at a combined cost of $21. Nintendo could forgo the All-Stars release on VC entirely, since the game would likely only go for the standard SNES game price of $8, in order to profit more from the proceedings. But in that regard, maybe releasing the Mario Collection on disc for $30 would be a smart idea.

Perhaps Nintendo will give more details at their end-of-month event on the 29th, where the company will reveal the release date and price of the Nintendo 3DS, and hopefully give out some details of the rest of their upcoming lineup for 2011 and beyond.