I wouldn’t have anticipated Mario tossing his trademark hat into the ring for the most divisive release of 2010, but here we are. The 25th Anniversary Edition, which essentially wraps a book and CD around the SNES release of Super Mario All-Stars has produced equal shares of grumblings and indifference from some acquaintances this week, while at other places, Eurogamer comes to mind, you can hear people rustling pitchforks over the release and review.
Odd as it may sound, at no point did I stop to consider this a game release, or something that was reviewable – just a commemorative grab that made it to North America in time for the holidays and potentially prettied up the shelf. All-Stars simply fills the inside of the box to justify the package getting space on retail shelves – if it was just a random box of Mario swag, where on earth would poor Nintendo stock it after all?
In some ways the release could come across as something better suited to Club Nintendo, but then of course it would cost one hundred times more. In other ways the release could have offered more not only from the Mario library to create a truly commemorative game, but also as a videogame release, seeing as that is the medium Mario is celebrating his place as a founding institution of.
What say you sugarfiends?