This year marks the 35th anniversary of one of gamings most popular video game series, Super Mario Bros. Growing up, Mario was my favourite character and I spent countless hours playing Mario games, and to be honest I still do.

As part of the celebrations, today Nintendo did a special Direct, which are their announcement videos, all about Mario. Here is what they announced.

Quick side note, at the start of the video a notice was displayed about how due to Covid-19, the release dates could be changed.

Game & Watch Super Mario Bros.

This is a remake of the Nintendo Game & Watch, with a fully colour LCD screen. On the device is the original NES Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros The Lost Levels (the proper, original Super Mario Bros 2), and the original Game & Watch Ball, featuring a juggling Mario.

It also functions as a clock! It is due for release on November 13th.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury

Super Mario 3D World originally came out for the Wii U, which did not do so well in terms of sales, so many people will not have had a chance to play this game. It is a good looking, fun multiplayer game, combining the traditional Mario platforming with a bit of 3D Mario.

The Switch version features both local and online multiplayer, and will launch alongside two new amiibo:

Bowsers Fury was teased at the end, it looks like it could be an expansion to 3D World, but Nintendo has not given any details on it as of yet.

The release date for this is 12th February 2021.

Super Mario Bros. 35

Jumping on the battle royale hype train, Nintendo have announced Super Mario Bros. 35, an online Mario battle royale where you face off against 34 other players. You each will be racing through the original Super Mario Bros. game but with a few twists, for example any enemies you defeat are sent over to another players game, and vice versa.

The game is only for Switch Online members, and is launching digitally on October 1st. It looks like it will only be available for a limited time until March 31st 2021 however.

Mario Kart Live Home Circuit

This looks pretty cool. It looks like you buy a Mario Kart kit which contains a remote control Mario Kart (well it's controlled on the Switch, but it is a physical toy car), and some gates to race through. The game then uses a camera on the kart to produce an augmented reality race track and opponents. You can still use items, if you hit another real player, their cart is stopped!

It seems like your options are Mario and Luigi at the moment. The release date for this is the 16th of October.

Other Mario Stuff

As part of the celebrations, Nintendo announced a whole load of other special stuff they have planned right through until March 2021.

The first was an event in Mario Kart Tour, the mobile game, starting on the 9th of September (8th in the US).

They announced lots of new Mario merch which will be available in their Nintendo stores. At this point it's probably best to mention that there are some differences between the American and UK video, I will try to outline what events were only mentioned in one of the videos. Thats not to say for sure that it won't be available in the other country, it just was not mentioned.

A special Super Mario Maker 2 speedrun level is coming in November 2020.

A Super Smash Brothers Ultimate in game tournement will be held in November/December 2020.

A Super Mario themed Splatfest will be held in Splatoon 2, with players picking either team Super Star or team Super Mushroom, in January 2021. There will also be merchandise such as T Shirts and Keyrings to go along with it.

Mario Furniture will be added to Animal Crossing in March 2021.

Mario themed board games such as Mario Jenga (US) and Mario Monopoly, Mario Lego including the Lego NES, a Mario toy from jakks Pacific (US) and Mario Kinder eggs (UK) are all available now.

From today on the US site, there are little missions you can do to unlock rewards, potentially earning a limited edition pin set.

Also available in the US on September 4th is a collaboration with Puma for a Super Mario shoe and a collaboration with BlackMilk on October 5th for some Mario themed clothing.

Super Mario All Stars

Another remake, this time of the SNES game of the same name. This collection includes remakes of the first 4 console Mario games; Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario Bros The Lost Levels. The graphics and music have been improved, and the game is available today on the Nintedo Switch Online SNES app.

Super Mario 3D All Stars

Saving the best for last, the final announcement in the video is the biggest. Coming to the Switch on September 18th is Super Mario 3D All Stars, a collection of 3 wonderful games from Mario's history.

Super Mario 64, the original 3D platformer that changed gaming, is finally coming to the Switch. It seems to be a straight port, with no changes to gameplay, and the only change being a higher resolution.

Super Mario Sunshine however has been updated to have a 16:9 screen ratio, and Super Mario Galaxy has been updated to work with the 2 joy-cons of the Switch (rather than the Wiimote Nunchuck combo of the Wii).

Music from all three games are also included in the collection.

I am extremely excited for this, as these are three of my favourite games, however I am a little sad to see there are no real improvements made to Super Mario 64. As much as it is fun playing the original, having seen Peach's Castle remade in Super Mario Odyssey in full HD, I can't help but think about how awesome a fully remastered Mario 64 could be.

It sounds like the Super Mario 3D All Stars collection will only be available for a limited amount of time through to the end of March 2021 though, so if you want to play it don't hang about too long!

And that is it for now. It sounds like Nintendo is going all out for the 35th Anniversary of it's biggest character, and arguably the most well known video game character of all time, so perhaps there will be more announced in the future. For now though I will be counting down the days until the 18th of September...