The Mario Day is upon us and Nintendo has a few really cool things to show us this year. From the latest release dates for new games to a new Mario Bros. Movie from Illumination! We have plenty to talk about, so let’s go.
As you may know already, march 10th has been an official Mario Day for some time now and Nintendo loves celebrating its biggest franchise with a few surprises each year. Two years ago we got a big 35-year anniversary of Super Mario. Lately, Nintendo opened two major theme parks in Japan and the USA, with plenty of Mario activities. And let’s not forget the Lego Super Mario sets pouring out every now and then.
This time we have a few smaller and, in my opinion, one really big announcement from Nintendo.
Release dates for Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
We got a bit of a surprise with the announcement that these two games will be released very soon. I wonder what Nintendo could still have in store for Nintendo Switch owners for the rest of the year.
Both titles are remakes of beloved games. Especially Paper Mario is considered as one of the best Mario games Nintendo ever made. But Luigi’s Mansion 2 is a biggie too. I would love to see all three games on the Nintendo Switch. Let’s get this done, Nintendo.
Here are both games release dates:
– Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – 5.23.2024
– Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD – 6.27.2024
Nintendo Switch Online gets three new Mario games
The service will get three new Game Boy Titles, Dr Mario, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. Not the biggest classic games out there, but better than nothing. All the games will be available for subscribers of Nintendo Switch Online from March 12th, 2024 I would love to see a proper Super Mario 64 remake or a port of Super Mario 3D Land, but the first one got its release already (which was pretty lazy) and the second one is pretty much forgotten. But who knows what the future will bring?
A new Lego Mario Kart set
We only got a glimpse of what’s coming, but nevertheless Lego and Nintendo are coming up with a Mario Kart set and I’m all in for it. Super Mario sets have evolved a bit since their launch and some of them are just awesome. The Mario Kart set (or sets hopefully) is set to release in 2025.
A new Super Mario Bros. Movie is on the way!
The biggest announcement was delivered by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. Yes, we will get a sequel to Super Mario Bros. Movie. It comes as no surprise since the first one made a crazy profit of 1.36 billion $. Plus, it was a great animated movie.
The work on the project has already begun at Illumination. According to Chris Meledandri, CEO of the company, their team already started storyboarding the next movie and will go into the animation process soon. That means we most likely have a completed script and hopefully we will get some more details soon. The movie is set to be released on April 3rd, 2026.
With the same team on board, I’m confident we will get another hit.
