Nintendo Reportedly Remastering Several Classic Super Mario Games for Switch

A new report from VGC suggests that Nintendo is developing Switch remasters of classic Super Mario games which will be released in 2020 in celebration of the franchise’s 35th anniversary.

This report, which cites multiple unnamed sources, indicates that the details of these releases will be revealed alongside information regarding Nintendo and Universal’s Super Nintendo World theme park and the pair’s previously reported animated Super Mario movie. While it sounds like the original plan was to share much of this information at E3, that event’s cancellation due to the spread of the coronavirus has cast some doubt regarding when Nintendo will make these announcements.

It’s certainly worth pointing out that there is some precedent for releases designed to celebrate Mario milestones. In 2015, Nintendo celebrated Mario’s 30th anniversary with a series of licensed partnerships and the release of Super Mario Maker. So far as that goes, this year has already seen Nintendo partner with Lego to release a special series of LEGO Super Mario sets.

When reached for comment by VGC, Nintendo simply noted that the company “does not comment on rumor and speculation.”

Given that there are many reliable sources within the industry who are already commenting on this report, though, let’s assume that this rumor is true in some form or fashion. The first question we have to ask is “Which Super Mario games will be remastered?”

So far as that goes, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that some of Mario’s earlier titles (the major NES and SNES ones) won’t be remastered as players have access to them via the Nintendo Switch’s online service. It’s possible that some of Mario’s Game Boy games might make their way to the console, but that depends on whether or not Nintendo is happy with a relatively simple full-screen port of those games or if they’re more interested in giving them a proper “remake” down the line.

Ultimately, then, we think that this effort will ultimately see games like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, the Super Mario Galaxy series, even the Wii U’s Super Mario 3D World come to the Nintendo Switch via slightly upgraded remasters. Even if the scope is “limited” to games like those (and possibly the New Super Mario Bros. installments not currently available on Switch), that’s a huge influx of quality titles. Honestly, we’re flipping out over the prospect of playing the Galaxy series on Switch, so anything else is really just the cherries on top.

We’ll confirm this information as soon as Nintendo does, but we might not receive official word of this announcement until we get closer to the time of Nintendo’s originally planned E3 announcements.