Nintendo always seems eager to experiment with theSuper Mariobrand. Although the series ofSuper Marioplatforming games still form the heart of the overarching franchise, Nintendo has generated a ton of spinoffs, and many of them are big hits in their own right.Mario Kartprovides Nintendo with a lucrative series of racing games, while theMario Partyseries of party games offers minigames aplenty. In 2022, however, Nintendo will return to a long-abandoned type ofSuper Mariospinoff. Nintendo is working with Illumination ofDespicable Mefame to produce aMariomovie with a star-studded cast playing the franchise’s most well-known characters.
One wonders if the movie will stand all by itself, however, or if Nintendo has broader plans to support it.Super Mariomerchandise themed toward the movie would make sense, but Nintendo might make the even more dramatic move of developing a newMariogame that’s based on the events of the movie. The game’s plot is up in the air, and there’s no tellinghow closely it’ll stick toMarioconventions, but Nintendo is so enthusiastic about the film that a game adaptation seems like the logical next step, even if that game adaptation is a totally new kind ofMariogame.
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The Potential for a Mario Movie Game
For most video game adaptations, screenwriters can take the lore and plot of a franchise and rework it to fit a movie or TV format. In that way,Mariois an odd franchise to adapt because there really isn’t a broad story. Many games repeat narratives about Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach, leaving Mario and Luigi to save her, but there isn’t much cohesion between games, save for specific spinoffs liketheMario and LuigiRPG subseries. TheMariomovie will likely focus on the coreSuper Mariogames in spite of their modest plots,which means Illumination will have to weave a complete story out of a franchise that’s traditionally light on storytelling.
There isn’t anySuper Mariogame with a particularly more compelling plot than another, so the movie likely won’t focus on a specificSuper Mariotitle. As a result, Nintendo has an opening to make a game adaptation of theMariomovie. Withso few public details about theMariomovieso far, it’s hard to say what kind of game that would turn out to be. AMariomovie game could be a 3D platformer with heavy voice acting and a few mechanical twists, or it could be totally different, taking something like an action-adventure angle, should that match the movie’s style. Regardless, Nintendo certainly has the power to make a creative adaptation of the film.
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The Mario Movie’s Future
With complete control over its IP, perhaps the only thing standing in the way of aMariomovie game is public sentiment. Some Nintendo fans were on the fence about Illumination working on the film, and Nintendo saw more outspoken criticism when fans learned thattheMariomovie’s voice actorswere largely Hollywood stars rather than the actualSuper Mariovoice cast. That response may have already scared Nintendo off of a theoretical game adaptation.
On the other hand, Nintendo has voicedsuch enthusiastic support for theMariomoviein these early days that it may power through the development of aMariomovie game, regardless of the film’s reception. A video game companion to theMariomovie certainly seems like a good way to advertise two products at the same time and capitalize onMario’s return to the big screen. Since Nintendo is excited about the movie, a game adaptation seems more like an inevitability than a likelihood. It’s just a matter of waiting on Nintendo to announce something.
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