Nintendo debuts 'Super Mario Bros. Wonder' as gaming’s holiday 2023 heats up
Nintendo (NTDOY) announced a slew of games for its best-selling Switch console on Wednesday including a new “Super Mario Bros.” title called “Super Mario Bros. Wonder.” The reveal, part of a 40-minute Nintendo Direct presentation, also included the debut of a remake of the classic “Super Mario RPG,” as well as new downloadable content (DLC) updates for “Pokémon Violet” and Pokémon Scarlet.”
The Switch, which was released in 2017, is Nintendo’s second most successful system by hardware sales behind the Nintendo DS and most successful by software sales. The company has shipped more than 125 million Switches to date and 1 billion games for the console.
The company’s latest major release, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” is crushing the sales charts. Nintendo announced it sold 10 million copies of the game just three days after its release, making it the fastest-selling game in the series, and the fastest-selling Nintendo game in North America in the company’s history.
The latest announcements are meant to carry Nintendo through the all-important holiday season and beyond, as the six-year-old console continues to perform well despite lagging behind both Sony’s (SONY) PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox Series X and Series S in terms of raw graphics performance.
“Super Mario Bros. Wonder” is the first new side-scrolling "Super Mario Bros." game in more than 10 years and features a new psychedelic game mechanic called Wonder Flowers that, when touched, transforms parts of the world and characters to create new styles of gameplay.
The game also allows Mario to transform into Elephant Mario, because, well, why not? The title hits store shelves on Oct. 20 and should be a popular holiday seller.
Nintendo also announced a remake of “Super Mario RPG” coming Nov. 17. Originally released for the Super Nintendo, “Super Mario RPG” gets a major graphics overhaul for the Switch and should starch that nostalgic itch that Nintendo leans into for a number of its franchises.
The Switch’s popular “Pokémon Violet” and “Pokémon Scarlet,” meanwhile are getting a DLC update called “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. The DLC will be split into two pieces called “Part 1: The Teal Mask” and “Part 2: The Indigo Disk.”
“Pokémon Violet” and “Pokémon Scarlet” hit the Switch in November 2022 and were met with criticism over poor graphics performance and glitches. And while the games have since received updates to address their most pressing issues, the graphics still leave much to be desired. Part of that has to do with the Switch’s age and relatively anemic performance.
Nintendo also let fly with a number of additional game announcements for 2023 including “Pikmin 4”, a new “Detective Pikachu” game, and a new “WarioWare” title. An all-new game starring Princess Peach is due in 2024.
The company also revealed a number of non-Switch exclusives coming to the console including “Sonic Superstars,” “Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1,” and “Persona 5 Tactica,” and the BAFTA-winning “Vampire Survivors.”
Nintendo will be facing some serious competition this holiday season with Microsoft set to launch its highly anticipated “Starfield” for the Xbox and Sony readying its “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” in September and October, respectively.
Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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