In 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released, letting you compete against Bowser with Mario and Luigi. Now, 35 years later, you can also race against other players – but not forever.
What was happening at Nintendo: On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo held a presentation showcasing a lot of new Mario content. Such as the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection and an expanded version of Super Mario 3D World for the Switch.
In addition, Nintendo showed the new “Super Mario Bros. 35” – a battle royale variant where you can compete against other players. The game will be released on October 1, 2020, at no additional cost for all Nintendo Switch Online members and is playable until March 31. Thus, the game joins the list of free Switch multiplayer games, but for now remains available for only six months. A new trailer showed what it will look like:
Who is the best Mario?
This is how the matches work: As seen in the trailer, you don’t try to take out your real opponents directly with a head jump or fire flower. Instead, you just need to navigate your little plumber through classic Mario Bros. courses the best way you can. Whoever is still standing at the end wins.
While your own screen is displayed large in the middle, you can see in the small display on the side what your opponents are up to. But that’s not the only way you can notice that there are other Marios out there as well.
Because: Every in-game opponent that gets defeated lands on the course of other players. So, Mario Bros. 35 is a kind of indirect battle royale – quite similar to the principle followed by Tetris 99 on the Switch.
It’s worth attacking Koopas, Gumbas, and Stachis in abundance to send them over to your opponents and make their lives harder. You can choose from four strategies:
- Lowest Time
- Most Coins
- Attackers
- Random
There is also an item roulette that distributes upgrades.
Why Nintendo has limited the game to six months for now is still open. After all, it fits perfectly with the retro collections that can also be played with the Switch Online membership.
