As Nintendo continues to celebrate 35 years of its mustachioed mascot Mario, the developer has continued to dole out some classic material in new forms on the company’s latest hybrid console. The latest of these is Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, though it may be a good idea to look a little further back and focus on bringing some classic mobile titles to the popular Switch system.
Specifically speaking, it’s some of Mario’s many trips into the RPG genre that deserve to be re-explored on Switch in the same way that Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is currently seeing. Series like Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi titles would do well to arrive to the more popular system than the previous consoles that they have been stuck on.
So, the elephant in the room of porting anything from these RPG series is the fact that some of them are still releasing titles, with Paper Mario: The Origami King releasing in 2020. However, it is possible that Paper Mario will abandon the RPG genre soon, meaning that newer titles might not exactly scratch the same itch for players. Then there’s the Mario & Luigi series, which saw it’s last new release as a crossover with Paper Mario on the 3DS back in 2015.
It should also be noted that Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story did receive a 3DS port in 2019 and Superstar Saga was brought over in 2017. So, the entire Mario & Luigi series is currently available to be played entirely on the 3DS, which is a bit of an odd choice considering that the last two ports launched after the Switch had hit stores. Though, even considering the success of the DS and 3DS in the past, the Switch now has a wider reach than either of those mobile consoles had seen.
Packing these titles onto newer consoles, the Switch in the case of Nintendo’s games, means that players now have new ways to become familiar with older games. Not only would this remove the barrier of entry of gathering together multiple classic mobile platforms, but it could also open up older games to younger players. Considering that the demographic for these games extends from new, younger players to veteran, pro-level Mario streamers and speedrunners, there is plenty of room to let some players catch up.
There are plenty of other series that have been consolidating their extended titles onto modern consoles, including Nintendo’s more recent Super Mario 3D All-Stars. For some players who never had access to older consoles, due to age or other restrictions, getting these titles all onto one system could be the only way to play them. Especially considering the success of the Switch, this could not only make the game more accessible, but also boost their popularity.
Both the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series have large fanbases that vocally request new games or have publicly supported older titles. However, when compared to the success of Mario as a whole and the full series of Mario’s more familiar ventures into course clear titles like Super Mario 3D World, the RPGs are much smaller in comparison. Part of this is due to the way that these games have somewhat been sidelined as spin-off titles, with less of the wide audience appeal of a standard Mario title.
In the case of the Mario & Luigi series specifically, having all of its titles relegated to mobile platforms like the Game Boy Advanced and DS, has severely limited its reach. This is true for Western audiences at least, thanks to mobile gaming never really taking off in the same way that it did for Nintendo’s local market. Then, of course, there’s the added possibility that reintroducing the classic games that fans first enjoyed to the Switch could pave the way for sequels.
While it looks like Nintendo is definitely still interested in continuing the Paper Mario series, especially after the success of The Origami King, Mario & Luigi doesn’t look so strong. At this point it’s been five years since a new Mario & Luigi title launched that wasn’t a remake or remaster of a previous title. So, fans of the series really haven’t had much in the way of new content, aside from small additions made to the 3DS remakes, for quite some time.
Unfortunately for Mario & Luigi fans in particular, the chances of an actual sequel might be nonexistent, thanks to developer AlphaDream filing for bankruptcy in 2019. For those unfamiliar, AlphaDream is the developer that has made every Mario & Luigi title in the past, including ports. It’s unsure if Nintendo consolidated any of the developer’s resources into the larger company, but this does leave the RPG series dead in the water without a considerable push by players.
Now, among all of the Mario RPG titles that Nintendo has to pull from, there is one that has consistently been left in limbo by the company. That would be Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, developed by Square for the SNES. This retro title still maintains such a fanatical following that one of it’s characters, Geno, is one of Smash Ultimate’s most requested fighters. So, even the first attempt at an RPG in the series is still impressive enough to deserve a similar treatment that the already relatively recent Super Mario 3D World is preparing to receive.
Of course, even with the game’s own success, the cult-classic following it continues to maintain, and Nintendo’s previous attempts at reviving classic titles, Super Mario RPG is still relatively obscure. If there is any RPG that really needs to be brought up from its humble origins on an older console, it’s this title. The game has even been ported to Virtual Consoles before and appeared on the Super Nintendo Classic Edition, so bringing it to Switch should be the next logical step.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is set to release February 12th, for Switch.
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