Today is Super Mario Bros's 40th anniversary, marking four decades since the original game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. To celebrate, the Japanese gaming giant held a special Nintendo Direct yesterday and announced two big pieces of Mario news.
First up, Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 will get a bundled release on Switch on 2 October, with a 4K upgrade for the Switch 2 (see our guide to Switch 2 prices). The other big announcement is the name and release date for the follow up to 2023's The Super Mario Bros Movie. Nintendo's jumping straight to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and the news has divided fans.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will feature a return of the cast from the 2023 film, with Chris Pratt as Mario alongside Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day and Keegan-Michael Key. The title announcement sequence above shows us Mario sleeping under a tree and glimpse of Princess Peach's castle before the camera shoots up to the stars, where we catch sight of Luma.
Some fans can hardly contain themselves. “This will be one of the best moments in humanity,” one person wrote on X. “If they nail the music from Galaxy, this might end up the most beautiful video game movie ever,” another person thinks.
Others are delighting over the many references in the short tease, from the theme music and title screens to Mario sleeping under the tree where Rosalina's mother is buried. Some are even optimistic that the movie could increase the chances of a Super Mario Galaxy 3.
But other fans can't understand why the movie franchise is making the leap from Super Mario Bros to Super Mario Galaxy, which was released for the Wii in 2007. That means skipping a whole bunch of Mario lore. Many had expected the next movie to be Super Mario World and fear that there wasn't enough world building in the last movie to progress to Galaxy already.
”The first movie was a fine introduction to the characters and who they are. Next movie should be about the Mario world itself, and then then third can expand into the greater universe,” one fan writes. “This is stupid, how is anybody supposed to understand the plot without the important backstory laid out in Sunshine?” another fan wonders.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be released on April 3, 2026. Also announced at the Nintendo Direct is the launch of Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island and Emerald Rush paid DLC. They're out not and look to add more fun to a game that we gave five stars in our Donkey Kong Bananza review.
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