Fans of Super Mario celebrated Mario Day (or Mar10 Day) on March 10, 2024. In honor of the celebration, Nintendo published a 3-minute video with a plethora of announcements about the super plumber. Arguably the biggest of the announcements was that a new Super Mario Bros. movie is coming in 2026.
“We are not working with the folks at Illumination on a new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros.,” said Shigeru Miyamoto, Representative Director and fellow of Nintendo. “The team at Illumination, who worked on The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is also producing this new film, together with Nintendo.”
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Chris Meledanri, the CEO of Illumination, appeared in the Nintendo Mario Day broadcast to announce that the Super Mario Bros. movie was in the works. The upcoming movie is expected to feature an expanded Mario world and will be directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the same director behind the first movie.
“I am here to announce our return to the Super Mario brothers,” said Meledanri. “Our directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and the very talented artist from Illumination Studios Paris who brought the mushroom kingdom to life in the Super Mario Bros. movie have been busy at work storyboarding scenes and developing set designs for new environments. We’ll start animation soon.”
“The film will arrive on April 3, 2026, in the US and many other markets globally with a few select territories releasing throughout the month of April.”
The upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie will be produced by Meledanri and Miyamoto. Matthew Fogel is the writer of the movie. The announcement stopped short of calling the upcoming movie a sequel which leaves a lot to the imagination.
“Now, as for the details of the new movie, as I often say, we’ll let you know once we’re at the stage where we’re ready to share more,” said Miyamoto. “This time, we’re thinking about broadening Mario’s world further and it’ll have a bright and fun story.”
Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2 gets release dates
The remakes of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 have long been revealed. However, Nintendo has now confirmed their release dates. The announcements came at the end of the Mario Day presentation.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will be released on May 23, 2024, while Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD will be released on June 27, 2024. The last time that players experienced Luigi’s Mansion was the 2023 Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon which was released for 3DS.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake was announced in September 2023 and will be arriving on Switch almost two decades after the first game was released on GameCube. The story follows the attempt of Mario to rescue Princess Peach from a group of aliens called the X-Nauts. Many believe the original game was the best RPG in the Mario series.
Three new Super Mario Game Boy titles will be added to Switch Online
Another interesting announcement that came at the end of the Mario Day presentation was that three Game Boy Mario titles will be added to Switch Online services on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. The announced titles are;
- Dr Mario (Game Boy)
- Mario Golf (Game Boy Color)
- Mario Tennis (Game Boy Color)
Dr Mario is similar to Tetris except that in this case, instead of falling bricks, Mario, dressed in a white lab coat and stethoscope around his neck will be tossing colored pills into a jar filled with viruses. You have to match the color of the pills with the virus to kill them. The jar becomes fuller with more viruses as you level up.
When the game first launched on Game Boy, the colors of the pills were black and white because of the device’s lack of color. However, when the game was remade for Game Boy Color, the pills became red, yellow, and blue.
Both Game Boy Color and Game Boy are available as part of the Switch Online standard subscription which is priced at £3.49/€3.99/$3.99 for a one-month membership, £6.99/€7.99/$7.99 for a three-month membership, and £17.99/€19.99/$19.99 for a 12-month membership. See the full Mario Day presentation below.
