Mario 3D All-Stars’ digital version will still be available after April via retail codes
Nintendo confirms download cards will still work for the limited release collection
Nintendo’s limited Super Mario 3D All-Stars release will still be available digitally after April, via retail download codes, it’s confirmed.
The company is set to pull the three-game collection from the Nintendo Switch eShop after its Super Mario 35th anniversary celebrations end on March 31, and no more physical copies will be produced either.
However, on Tuesday Nintendo’s Japan HQ confirmed that Super Mario 3D All-Stars download cards purchased from retailers will be redeemable “after April”. The company has previously said that owners of the game would be able to re-download it in the future too.
This would suggest that digital codes sold by Western retailers will also be redeemable beyond All-Star’s removal from the eShop. Just like physical products, digital codes sold by retailers are provided by the platform holder in advance and thus can be sold until stock runs out, provided they’re still valid.
Many retailers are currently selling download codes for the Mario collection, including Best Buy in North America and even Nintendo’s official UK store.
Nintendo has long said it would stop selling Mario 35th anniversary titles after March 31, but this week it confirmed it would also pull physical copies and merchandise from its official retail locations.
General retail chains are likely to sell Super Mario 3D All-Stars until physical stock runs out, while anyone who buys the game digitally on the eShop before April 1 will still be able to play, delete and redownload the game after that date.
Meanwhile, the Switch Online battle royale title Super Mario Bros. 35 will also have its online servers shut down on April 1. Unlike Super Mario 3D All-Stars, however, Super Mario Bros. 35 will be unplayable after that date, meaning it will essentially become a ‘dead’ game.
Finally, the Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch, which launched in November, will also no longer be manufactured starting April 1.
Priced at $59.99/£49.99 and released on September 18, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a compilation containing Switch remasters of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy.
As of December 2020, the game had sold 8.4 million copies worldwide, and that number is likely to increase throughout the rest of March as players try to buy it before the deadline ends.
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Nintendo confirms it will pull physical Mario All-Stars copies from its Tokyo store
On March 1, Nintendo reiterated its plans to pull the products from sale at the end of the month.
“The Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary campaign will end at the end of March 2021,” the company said on Twitter. “With the end of the campaign, the production, sales and services of some products will also end.”
The Mario titles won’t be the only Nintendo products to be pulled at the end of March.
The original Famicom version of Fire Emblem was localised to English for the first time and released in December 2020, but it too will be gone from the eShop by April 1.
