In what has become a yearly tradition of denoting March 10 as Mario Day – or MAR10 Day as it’s often stylized – Nintendo left it to today to put out a handful of Mario-related announcements. And perhaps, the more surprising bit of news released today was the release dates of not one, but two of the studio’s upcoming Switch remasters, previously slated to launch sometime in 2024 and having made prior appearances during Nintendo’s last major Direct presentation in September of last year.
Both Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door’s Switch remake and Luigi’s Mansion 2’s (originally known in the States as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon) HD remaster have now been confirmed for release on May 23 and June 27 respectively. The Thousand Year Door is the second title in the Paper Mario series, having originally been released way back in October 2004 for the Gamecube and is, to this day, still lauded as the best entry in the series. Due to its improved turn-based combat, stellar writing, cast of characters and ventures to completely new and un-Mushroom Kingdom-like regions. An achievement that subsequent entries have, in many people’s eyes, failed to match or even come close to replicating as the series transitioned across Wii, Wii U, 3DS and even Switch platforms alike.
Review: Paper Mario: The Origami King
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a wonderful new entry that helps sell the idea that trying new things was the right move.
The Return of Fan Favorites
The Thousand Year Door on Switch follows the release of the series' last original outing, The Origami King, which came out in July 2020. A game that despite positives, much like a lot of its brethren, failed to live up to the highs experienced by the series' first two entries. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD on the other hand, finds its former portable-only form jumping to the realm of home consoles (albeit the hybrid-console type), having previously been tied to the Nintendo 3DS handheld when it originally launched in March 2013. Back then, the second in what has now become a trilogy-strong series. Dark Moon originally coming nearly a full twelve years after the original entry debuted on the Gamecube back in 2001.
Both re-releases of past titles come at a time when it seems Nintendo is, presumably, preparing for the unveiling of the long-rumored and anticipated successor to the Nintendo Switch. 2024 as a result, while not without some original games here and there, defined more so – as has been the case over the past twelve-or-so months – by remakes and remasters alike of older games to tide fans over for what is around the corner come next year.
