7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Super Mario 3D All-Stars Gets ANOTHER Switch 2 Update... But You Still Can't Buy It
Way back in 1993, Super Mario All-Stars released for the Super Nintendo, featuring re-made versions of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, updating the visuals of the old NES games to the standards of SNES titles like Super Mario World. Fast forward a few decades, and 2020 saw the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which collected two of the greatest games of all time, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy... And also Super Mario Sunshine. (I kid, I kid. We love you, Sunshine!)
For some reason that's still unknown to this day, Super Mario 3D All-Stars was marketed as a "Limited Edition" release and was only on sale between September 2020 and March 2021. Today, if you want the game, you'll need to shell out well over $100 to buy a physical copy.
Thus, it came as a surprise when Super Mario 3D All-Stars was updated for the launch of the Switch 2 last month. The patch notes were vague, with unspecified "improvements" to make optimize the game for Switch 2. Then, it came as an even bigger surprise when 3D All-Stars was updated AGAIN. Version 1.1.3 is similarly vague with its patch notes, with "several adjustments" to "improve gameplay on Switch 2."
Neither of these patches transform the games. Super Mario Sunshine and Mario 64 still only run at 30 FPS, for example, and Mario 64 is still only in 4:3 aspect ratio. Alas, the dream of a 120 FPS 4K version of Mario 64 is still just a dream.
It's absurd that Super Mario 3D All-Stars is currently unavailable for purchase. We can only hope that the folks at Nintendo are working on a true Switch 2 version of the game, perhaps including Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario 3D Land, which are kind of like "lost episodes" in Mario's 3D oeuvre. Then again, Nintendo marches to its own drum, for better or worse. If something seems expected, then Nintendo is more than likely to do the exact opposite. But hey, maybe that's just part of what we love about them.
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