Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has explained why Nintendo has suddenly started going all-in on movies over the last few years.
Since the Bob Hoskins-led Super Mario Bros. film released in 1993, Nintendo seemingly swore off the prospect of letting movies based on its games happen (barring anime adaptations like the Japan-only Animal Crossing film and the various Pokemon movies). However, in the last few years it's been a complete 180, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming out in 2023 and being a massive success, a sequel to it releasing next year and a movie based on The Legend of Zelda coming in 2027 – not to mention chatter of Donkey Kong and Luigi's Mansion movies.
Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pikmin (which recently had a new short film of its own) creator Shigeru Miyamoto spoke to Kyodo News (via TheGamer) and was asked about this change in attitude from Nintendo. Miyamoto said "Games eventually stop running when newer versions come out, but films remain forever."
Frankly, I get what Miyamoto is saying, that as new hardware releases it becomes harder to access the old titles, while films remain watchable regardless of hardware. But I think it's a bit of a strange comment given how prevalent Nintendo classics are on those consoles. The original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 64 are still two of the most popular games of all time when it comes to speedrunners, and both of those games are available on Switch 2.
You can play some form of Super Mario Bros on pretty much any piece of hardware Nintendo has released since the NES (barring the Game Boy, N64, and Virtual Boy). And while Nintendo has done some of the weirdest anti-preservation things in recent memory with the timed releases of Super Mario 3D All Stars and Super Mario 35, Nintendo is popular enough that fans will never let them die, even if it's through unofficial methods.
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