It’s exactly 40 years ago to the day that the Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. launched on the Famicom. Nintendo has been consistently awesome over the years at acknowledging the major milestones for fans, ever since the first major celebration for the 20th anniversary.
I was in Japan for that one all those years ago, and the excitement for new Mario ideas and reveals never ceases to amaze me with each passing console era.
Yesterday’s extended Nintendo Direct didn’t disappoint with its announcements, except maybe for the absence of a true AAA follow-up to Odyssey. Although with the Odyssey team working on Donkey Kong Bananza, this was sort of expected.
The Direct felt like it was rumoured and much speculated over for most of the year. It was inevitable that this was going to happen – there was no way Nintendo wasn’t going to announce something, but they certainly kept us guessing until just a few days before. There were some genuine surprises and fan favourites mixed into the presentation. I’ll cover these in more detail in another post.
40 formats in 40 days
So if you’ve seen the Direct, you’ll know how Nintendo is planning to mark the anniversary. For those who follow me on socials, you’ll know that I have also created my own personal fan tribute to the big day.
I’ve been counting down 40 formats in 40 days to celebrate 40 years. Each day I’ve been highlighting a different physical media format that Mario has appeared on over the past four decades. From classic box art to rare variants, quirky trivia, and retro memories, the countdown has been my way of showing just how far Mario has travelled in 40 years. And being uniquely curated from a fan perspective, it covers much of the early history, which is often overlooked and sanitised these days, despite still being “official”.
The response has been fantastic, with people sharing their own favourite memories, retweets by major players such as Sharp Corp. and Brother USA, plus also getting some coverage in the media. I aimed to make this a real celebration of a true modern popular culture icon, “warts and all”.
Look back at the last 40 days and relive the campaign!
Bonus – games room reveal!
The announcements have been coming fast and furious over the last day or so. A very special project I have been working on for a long time, let’s say a lifetime, is my games room. Bringing together my collection and displaying it in a purpose-designed room, for the very first time since I began collecting and preserving game media, all those years ago!
Much more to come on this, but here are the first pics! Enjoy! I’d love to get your feedback! Happy #SuperMarioBros40!
