Today is your final chance to purchase Super Mario 3D All-Stars before it’s gone forever.
As Nintendo announced last year when it revealed the Super Mario 3D All-Star compilation for the first time, it’s due to be taken off sale tomorrow on April 1. No, this isn’t an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke, because after today, Super Mario 3D All-Stars won’t be available for purchase either physically or through the Switch eShop.
The Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation bundles Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy into one package. The bundle was previously made available to purchase last September, when it was first unveiled by Nintendo earlier that same month.
At the time there was understandably some confusion about what was going on with the limited-time release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Nintendo cleared up the confusion pretty quickly, saying that the game would be taken off sale after March 31, 2021, but not really offering up a concrete reason as to why.
As you can imagine, social media and forums have been awash with tributes to Mario on this, his death day. The world’s most famous Italian plumber might not quite be getting taken out back and shot once the clock strikes midnight in your local region tonight, but his compilation trilogy of games on the Nintendo Switch is still being taken down for good, and people around the world are paying their respects accordingly.
With all this being said however, you’ll still be able to purchase Super Mario 3D All-Stars via download codes, as long as they last. Last week, Nintendo Japan confirmed that any download codes for Super Mario 3D All-Stars would still function after March 31, so if you’ve got a download code sat around for the trilogy, don’t worry about it being made inactive after tonight.
It’s never been made clear why the three games are being delisted after tonight, nor has Nintendo ever revealed if they’ll be returning to the Switch at some form in the future. There’s been plenty of speculation that Nintendo could simply relist all games individually, outside of the 3D All-Stars compilation package after March 2021, but there’s never been any comment or confirmation from Nintendo on the matter.
For our verdict of the compilation package of Mario games, head over to our full Super Mario 3D All-Stars review for more.