The first sequel in the New Super Mario Bros franchise will be coming to the Nintendo 3DS.
Nintendo found success in both New Super Mario Bros DS and New Super Mario Bros Wii, though both games were very different. The Wii version had more throwbacks to the classic Super Mario Bros series and seemed to be a more genuine return to those old-school mechanics.
For the next entry in this franchise, Nintendo has ditched the notion of including the system name in the title of the game. This one will be, simply, New Super Mario Bros 2.
Recently, it came to light that Nintendo had registered a website domain for ‘Super Mario 4’ though no details of such a game have been announced. It’s unlikely this title has anything to do with that website.
It does underline a trend, though, in that despite all the amazing new technology – online play, stereoscopic 3D graphics, augmented reality, etc – there is something about those golden days of gaming that just cannot be imitated.
Sega acknowledged that when it began working on Sonic the Hedgehog 4, a spiritual sequel to a game that was released on the Sega Genesis in the 1990s, as well as Sonic Generations, which was a throwback to classic Sonic titles.
And now Nintendo is showing that old-school is in many ways better than new-school. To have a game like Super Mario Bros be the headlining title, more than two decades after the first Super Mario Bros was released shows just how magical those early days of gaming were.
