Super Mario 3D All-Stars Brings Three Mario Classics To Switch: Release Date And More

The Super Mario franchise turns 35 this year, and for the better part of 2020, we've been hearing rumors that Nintendo plans to re-release a number of classic 3D Mario games for the Switch in celebration of this anniversary. The entire time, Nintendo has kept its lips sealed, but today, it finally broke its silence by announcing Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a compilation that includes enhanced ports of three very famous Mario games.Super Mario 3D All-Stars will contain ports of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. While the games haven't been remade, they have been optimized to run on the Switch. Essentially, that means we'll see widescreen support for each game, along with dual-Joycon support, which will be important both in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy.

Nintendo also says that all three games will run at higher resolutions that they originally did, so visuals should be a bit sharper when playing on the Switch. That's it for the improvements, so expect these to be more or less the same games you played back in the N64, GameCube, and Wii years, only with some simple touch-ups to make them play better in the modern era. The compilation will also come with a music player that includes tracks from all three games.

Here's the kicker when it comes to Super Mario 3D All-Stars: this is a limited-time compilation, both when it comes to the physical release and the digital eShop release. The compilation goes on sale on September 18th (pre-orders open today) and will only be available until "approximately March 31, 2021."

So, if you want to own this collection, you'll only have about a six-month window to pick it up before Nintendo stops producing new copies and the price of second-hand copies likely goes through the roof. It's a little strange to make this compilation a limited-time deal, but it certainly isn't unprecedented for a company like Nintendo, which really seems to enjoy its limited products.