MAR10 Day has brought with it three new games on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack but are they the best way to celebrate the world’s most famous plumber?
It’s Mario Day this week (MAR 10, of course) and while it has become an increasingly high-profile celebration of all things Mushroom Kingdom related, Nintendo doesn’t generally use it to announce anything new. There’s a sale on Super Mario related games and a new trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but the centrepiece of their celebrations are these three games, on the more expensive Expansion Pack tier of Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo is being extra unpredictable at the moment, so there’s always a chance they could do something else later in the day, but in all likelihood Mario’s Tennis, Mario Clash, and the original version of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong are what they want to use this year to celebrate their iconic mascot.
Mario has certainly appeared in many games a lot better than these, but the Virtual Boy and its weird stereoscopic 3D effect remains a fascinating glimpse at Nintendo’s greatest failure; one that they’re clearly not that embarrassed by, as they still try to make money from it 31 years later.
Mario’s Tennis
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Developer: Nintendo R&D1 and Tose
The latest entry in the Mario Tennis franchise was released just last month but while most would accept the series began on the N64, this came out five years prior. It’s not by regular developer Camelot though, and you have to wonder whether Nintendo even remembered Mario’s Tennis by the time the N64 came around, but technically this is the first game in which Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom crew played tennis – although Mario was the umpire in the succinctly named NES game Tennis, in 1984.
It’s debatable as to whether the Virtual Boy ever had a killer app but while it’s generally regarded as being Wario Land, that wasn’t a launch title. Strangely, neither was Mario Clash and so if you were picking up a Virtual Boy in the summer of 1995 (in Japan or North America, it was never released in Europe) the obvious game to get alongside it was Mario’s Tennis.
Unlike the subsequent games there are no power-ups or gimmicks here, it’s just a regular tennis sim that happens to star Mario and his friends. It plays fine and the 3D effect is neat – even if everything is still coloured blood red.
The very obvious problem though – and one of the many intrinsic flaws of the Virtual Boy – is that there’s no multiplayer. So all you can do is play against the AI and since there’s only seven characters that doesn’t take very long at all, even in a tournament. So as fun as the 3D effect is, it’s a novelty that is all too fleeting.
Score: 3/5
Mario Clash
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Although Nintendo is usually keener to celebrate the anniversaries of Super Mario Bros., which turned 40 last year, that series was not Mario’s debut. He first turned up in the Donkey Kong coin-op from 1981 and starred in or cameoed in over half a dozen games (including Tennis) before Super Mario Bros. was ever released. The most notable of these was plain old non-super Mario Bros., which introduced Luigi, as well elements like turtle enemies and an obsession with pipes.
The original version was a single screen arcade game where you attempted to knock over the turtles and other enemies, usually by bumping the platform they’re walking on from below and then kicking them away. The game is often referenced in modern titles, or even offered as a minigame, but it’s so simple it can’t really offer much in the way of sustained entertainment.
That’s a problem that Mario Clash is unable to overcome, since it’s a quasi-remake but in stereoscopic 3D. If anything, you could argue that Mario Clash is more simplistic, as while there’s a greater variety in enemies there’s less platforming, as you run between the foreground and background, via a pipe, trying to jump on Koopas and then throwing their shells at other more armoured enemies.
Later levels do introduce extra vertical layers but it’s all very dry and usually far more frustrating than it is exciting, which is perfectly in keeping with the original game. We’ve used the same retro scoring system from our original Virtual Boy reviews here, but Mario Clash is a dud however you score it.
Score: 2/5
Mario Vs. Donkey Kong
Developer: Nintendo Software Technology
The odd man out in this Mario Day trio is the original Game Boy Advance version of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, which is also only available via the more expensive Expansion Pack tier – so there’s actually nothing new today if you’ve only got a standard Nintendo Switch Online account. Originally released in 2004 it was remade for the original Switch in 2024, which instantly made this version seem redundant.
It’s still not really clear why Nintendo remade it, since they rarely do for anything else and there’s been no sign of a new sequel since then. It is a good game though, a spiritual sequel to the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong, which interpreted the original coin-op as a puzzle title. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong takes things even further, with intricately designed level layouts where you have to guide little clockwork Marios to the exit.
This is a great little puzzle game but the problem with re-releasing it is that the character graphics are all pre-rendered, perhaps as a homage to the Donkey Kong Country series, and they just look like a blurry pixel mess at first glance. They’re better on the Switch handheld screen than on a giant TV but it does take some getting used to and the remake is by far the more preferable way to enjoy the game today – even if in gameplay terms they’re essentially both the same.
Score: 4/5
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