Nintendo has released a 25th anniversary game pack of Super Mario video games. Yes folks, it has indeed been 25 years since Super Mario Bros., the game that virtually changed video games forever and ever. This special game includes a CD full of Super Mario music and sound effects, a small booklet about the history of Super Mario, and the first four Super Mario Bros. games---including the Lost Levels. There is only one little problem: their celebration sucks.
While the Nintendo Wii and DS have been anything but disastrous, Nintendo finally kicked themselves in the behind with this celebration. What gamers got was a limited edition remake of Super Mario All-Stars, a 1994 Super Nintendo video game that actually contained more games than the Wii edition. That is pathetic. Really Nintendo? The NES Super Mario games? That’s it? Super Mario has sold over 100 million copies while in appearing in over 100 games, and you give us this? A small booklet full of Twitter-like quotes, one CD with just a few songs, and an essentially pointless re-release of older games we Nintendo gamers probably already own via Virtual Console, GBA re-releases, or simply the still-working Super Nintendo?
Mario Bros., Mario Bros. 2, Lost Levels, and Mario Bros. 3. That is it. On a Wii disk. Let’s put this into perspective: one Wii disk contained the entire Metroid Prime trilogy---which is two Gamecube games and even one for the Wii. Yet, in this disk, just four NES games. No Super Mario World, no Yoshi’s Island, no Super Mario 64, no Mario Sunshine, no Yoshi’s Story, and not even the unsung classic Super Mario Land or Super Mario Land 2 for the original Game Boy! Why Nintendo, why? Are you just trying to upset the hardcore Mario fans? As your supporters and buyers for years, we deserved better. As your ultimate hero, who successfully saved your consoles during times of need and managed to eliminate the competition multiple times before, Mario deserves better. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. This limited edition Mario thingy just won’t cut it.
Well, now that we are on the discussion of collections, Nintendo has a lot of potential for releasing some excellent collections that will trigger memories of the past as well as introduce these classics to a new group of gamers and fans. These collections can be released on the Wii, the DS/3DS, or maybe even both! Last but not least, these collections can revitalize these great franchises. Here comes another list!
10) Old-School Disney
System: Nintendo Wii
Games: Ducktales 1-2, Rescue Rangers, Aladdin, Lion King, Mickey's Dangerous Chase, Magical Quest, Mickey Mania
Before Disney merged forces with Square Enix and created the rather-overblown Kingdom Hearts franchise, they released a series of actually-decent classics on the NES and SNES days. Disney already does a swell job dwelling into the past (sometimes, it seems like that’s all they can do), so why not go back to gaming history and reaching out to some great video games that helped propel the Disney brand to youngsters? The first two DuckTales are among the most underrated platform games of the 80s and 90s, while Mickey had some great games for the SNES and Sega Genesis. Similar to Sega Mega Collection, these games can be grouped together, cleaned up a bit, and then released under a nice package.
9) Donkey Kong Land Collection
System: Nintendo DS
Games: Donkey Kong Land 1-3 (Game Boy)
Before Rareware went to Microsoft and became a sinking ship, they released a slew of classic games for Nintendo. While everyone remembers the Donkey Kong Country series on the Super Nintendo (With part 2 being the best), everyone overlooks the fact that Rareware did a superb job bringing the franchise into the Game Boy. Donkey Kong Land was an entirely new adventure with a different plotline: and the result was great gameplay that kept you busy for quite some time. With the sequels, the plots were the same to their SNES counterparts, but the levels themselves were totally unique. Now, Nintendo can take these games, color them to look like the SNES classics, and then release it in a nice collection. This would be absolutely perfect for the DS, as the system doesn’t have enough platform games outside of Super Mario.
8) Wario’s Greatest Hits
System: Nintendo 3DS
Games: Wario Land I-IV, Wario World, Virtual Boy Wario Land, Wario Ware, Wario Blast
Wario is the Rodney Dangerfield of the world of Nintendo, he gets no respect. Wario’s first appearance was in Super Mario Land 2, and helped propel it into a handheld classic. But Wario’s career didn’t take off until his spinoff occurred, which was the nearly-even-better Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. In this game, his personality was unveiled, and a new franchise of platform gaming was born. Wario would become involved with the greatest I-can’t-die video game in history: Wario Land II. Yet, after all these years, none of his games have seen re-releases or even mentions. He was even in a Bomberman game for crying out loud. No more. With the 3DS, they should group up all of Wario’s best moments (before dropping in quality in latter games) and bring them all together in a nice selfish package.
7) Mega Man Handheld Collection
System: Nintendo DS
Games: Mega Man in Dr. Wily’s Revenge, Mega Man II-V, Mega Man XTreme I-II (All Game Boy titles)
Mega Man had some killer games in the NES and the SNES, and in the early times of the Playstation. But, like the previous entries, no mention of his adventures on the Game Boy. All of his adventures and abilities were remixed together in a series of fun yet challenging Game Boy adventures. Although Dr. Wily’s Revenge and Mega Man II were the best, that doesn’t mean that the other games are not bearable. I believe its time to re-release all these on the Nintendo DS before they are forgotten forever. P.S. Mega Man XTreme is technically Mega Man X, and anything that comes even close to X deserves a re-release.
6) Nintendo Sports’ Greatest Hits
System: Nintendo Wii
Games: 1080 Snowboarding-Avalanche, Excitebike 64, Waverace 64-Blue Storm, Pilotwings 64
Nintendo Sports is a mere footnote in Nintendo history, but was a very underrated group of excellent games that provided N64 owners with some great sports action. While it is impossible to re-release the older sports games like NBA Courtside and Slugfest because of current copyright ownership in terms of licensing, there are still some great sports titles that can see a rebirth. This includes the Waverace series, which to this day has some of the best and most realistic physics in gaming history, the greatest motocross game ever (Excitebike 64), the classic gem Pilotwings 64, and of course the runaway hit 1080 Snowboarding. While not many gamers would be very excited about this package, I for one can guarantee you it will be worth every penny---especially with Excitebike and Waverace at the helm.
5) Mario Party Collection
System: Nintendo Wii
Games: Mario Party 1-8
One of two things should happen here: release one disc with all the Mario Parties attached, or group up all the maps, mini-games, extra goodies into one massive Mario Party creation. While the franchise fell off quality-wise starting with part 4 (Mario Party 2 is the best one of the bunch, easily), if you can take some of the better mini-games and ideas from the later ones and blend them with the superior maps of the original 3, then we have ourselves a great game with enough replay value to last you several years. Then add an online feature to Mario Party and we have ourselves a huge potential hit.
4) The F-Zero Saga
System: Nintendo Wii
Games: F-Zero, F-Zero X, F-Zero Expansion Pack, F-Zero GX, F-Zero Maximum Velocity
This franchise has been begging for a new game for quite some time. It is clearly hands-down the most underrated racing franchise out there, with some gems in its resume. F-Zero GX remains one of the top racing games in the 21st century, while the original F-Zero paved the way for other fast racers like Daytona USA and Wipeout. I say F-Zero, the GBA F-Zero, and F-Zero X should get the Mario All-Star treatment, with updated graphics, an enhanced score, and a smoother framerate. Last but not least, the track creator that never made it to the States needs to finally make its first appearance.
3) Mother Trilogy
System: Nintendo Wii (Might work on 3DS too)
Games: Mother, Mother II (Earthbound), Mother III
For some odd reason, Nintendo still has not forgiven the United States for turning their beloved Mother II into a major flop back in 1995. Ever since, Nintendo has flat-out refused to release anything remotely close to the Mother series out into the west. Outside the Smash Brothers series, we don’t see Ness and his friends anywhere. This collection should ease the pain for American Nintendo fans that want an RPG franchise that isn’t called Pokemon. They should group up the trilogy, clean the graphics, improve the audio, and release it into the world Prime Trilogy-style. Earthbound is a classic, and its about time a new generation of gamers experiences this.
2) The Legend of Zelda Handheld Collection
System: Nintendo 3DS
Games: Link's Awakening, Oracle of Seasons/Ages, Minish Cap
While the Zelda franchise is amongst the most celebrated in gaming history, Nintendo has been very ho-hum about the handheld Zelda games of the 90s/early 2000s. Link’s Awakening was the masterpiece that killed the Sega Game Gear back in 1993, and Oracle of Seasons/Ages were epic games contained in a few gigabites. Last but not least is the superb Minish Cap which was actually made by a small house in Capcom. These are all amazing and surprisingly long quests that have yet to see any sort of re-release in over 10 years (with Minish Cap missing that mark because it came out later). No more, with the 3DS being able to produce games with nearly PS3-like graphics, they can easily fit all these games into one epic package of awesomeness. I think this would be the first handheld game I honestly would pay 50 bucks for, if it means getting 4 Zelda games.
1) Super Mario All-Stars 2
System: Nintendo Wii
Games: Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
And this #1 pick is a reference to the original complaint I made about the original 25th Anniversary Mario collection (seemed way too half-assed to be a true celebration of Mario’s accomplishments). Super Mario All-Stars came out way back in 1994, with even versions of All-Stars containing a watered-down Super Mario World. Fast forward to freakin’ 2011, with gamers getting essentially a copy of Mario All-Stars—minus the ultra-incredible Super Mario World. No, Nintendo can make up for this mistake (which they won’t because the 25th anniversary is selling like hotcakes nonetheless) by releasing the should-have-already-happened-ions-ago sequel to Super Mario All-Stars.
In Mario All-Stars 2, we release all the big Mario releases of the 1990s---and the largely avoided Super Mario Land. We bring over the masterpiece Mario World, and then add in the most underrated game of all-time not called Majora’s Mask (Yoshi’s Island), and throw in the game-that-changed-everything Super Mario 64. And because this game was too epic to overlook, Super Mario RPG deserves its place here with the other adventures.Last but not least, give the original Game Boy Mario adventures a spit-shine, some color, updated soundtrack, and bring them in to the sequel party as well.
Now we have 6 Mairo games, all of them wonderful, in one delightful, much-needed package. Can you imagine the success Nintendo would get if they released the 25th Anniversary, Super Mario All-Stars 2, and a red Nintendo Wii at a price of around $275? Okay, that might be a bit of dreaming (like all of this article) but a Mario All-Stars sequel should happen, for the sake of Mario fans, for the sake of gaming, and to make up for the 25th Anniversary debacle. These games are required to truly start the Super Mario party.
Bottom Line: I know most of these collections may never ever happen for the sake of selling them all individually; but these collections would do a great job reviving Nintendo’s past and also present a new generation of gamers (which started their gaming with the public-friendly Wii) to these unsung classics. A fellow gamer can always dream, right? Especially when well-deserved celebrations don’t meet the expectations.
P.S. Honorable Mentions on the collections list
(collections that should also happen, although it would be rather tough to pull off on Nintendo systems for different reasons):
Chrono Trigger Trilogy [Radical Dreamers, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross]
Final Fantasy All-Stars [Final Fantasy I-VII]
Forgotten Fantasies [Final Fantasy Legend I-III, Final Fantasy Adventure]
Tetris [Tetris, Tetris 2, Tetrissphere, Tetris Attack!]
But before I forget, thanks Mario, for 25 wonderful years! And you too Luigi!
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