It has been almost 20 years since Nintendo rebooted the 2D Super Mario Bros. franchise.
Let that sink in for a moment. In around three months from now, New Super Mario Bros. will be as old as Super Mario Bros. was when it first came out.
Over at Never-ending 80s, we looked at defending the legacy sequel. Here, Nintendo, the most recognised brand in all of gaming, did its own legacy sequel to the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
You see, the name was New Super Mario Bros., not Super Mario Bros. 5 (with Super Mario World technically being the fourth main entry on the SNES). It was not a continuation as such. So, legacy sequel?
Sort of.
It’s important to point out that Mario had never gone away. The “mainline” Mario games had switched to 3D with the well-received Super Mario 64 for the N64 back in 1997 (for us in the UK).
These 3D games had been massively successful overall, and Super Mario Galaxy is a darn good reason to find and power on a Nintendo Wii today. Retro Reaction will get to those in time, too.
This was designed to satisfy those older fans. A throwback to when Mario was a simple case of getting Jumpman to the far right of the screen. A world of flagpoles, fireballs and, erm, dancing Goombas.
Over the next few blogs, we’re going to be looking at Nintendo’s rebooted New Super Mario Bros. series, at a time when Nintendo wasn’t really focusing on 2D games.
We will see how they tested the waters with 2D gaming through a lesser-known character from the Mario universe, and how the 2D games would eventually come full circle, feeding ideas back into the 3D ones.
New Super Mario Bros. arrived in a wave of nostalgic glory. But by 2012, Nintendo was being accused of replaying the same notes one too many times.
It’s requel month at Retro Reaction. As Mario himself would say, “Let’s-a go!”