In context: When Nintendo announced its 35th anniversary Mario celebration last week, one of the company’s new games felt a bit familiar to some. As it turns out, it wasn’t just in their head as Super Mario Bros. 35 looks an awful lot like a project we saw from a YouTuber a little over a year ago.
In June 2019, YouTuber InfernoPlus created a battle royale version of Super Mario Bros. in which nearly 100 players would compete against each other in a browser-based take of the classic platformer to see who could complete the stage first.
Notably, everyone started as Mario at the beginning of each level and while you couldn’t directly interact with other players (unless you got a star), you could manipulate the world around you to affect others.
It was a brilliant idea, except for the fact that InfernoPlus didn’t have Nintendo’s blessing. Predictably, this made him vulnerable to a cease and desist letter which is exactly what he received. And with that, the idea died… until late last week when Nintendo announced Super Mario Bros. 35.
It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see the similarities between Mario Royale and Super Mario Bros. 35.
In an e-mail interview with Polygon, InfernoPlus said Nintendo didn’t consult him before announcing Super Mario Bros. 35. “My first reaction was ‘Oh wow, should have seen that coming,’” he said.
“It’s honestly really funny that some nonsense joke idea I came up with ended up being yoinked by a giant corporation like Nintendo,” he added. “They must be really out of ideas over there.”
Super Mario Bros. 35 launches on October 1 for Nintendo Switch Online and will remain playable until March 31, 2021.
https://www.techspot.com/news/86675-nintendo-super-mario-battle-royale-game-looks-lot.html
