Speculation: Nintendo Confirms New Mario Game (Sort of...)

Gaming magazine Edge is scheduled to publish an interview today (April 10th) with Nintendo’s design team, but luckily for us, they released a short preview two days ago!

Within the interview, producer Yoshiaki Koizumi said that a new Mario game was in development, but could not confirm whether the title was for Wii U or 3DS:

“That’s still a secret! I can tell you, though, that we’ve already started approaching our next challenge.”

Koizumi-san also says:

“There’s still a lot more room for discovery and invention, and we will continue to propose new and exciting game mechanics going into the future.”

In addition, EAD Tokyo team leader Kenta Motokura said that if this is to be a Wii U game, it “…might need to make even more use of the GamePad.”

Now it’s speculation time… Since Koizumi-san couldn't say whether this new game was for Wii U or 3DS, might it possibly be for both? With Super Smash Bros. 4 being developed for both systems, this isn't completely out of the question. In the recent Nintendo Direct, Sakurai-san confirmed the existence of connection bonuses for Smash Bros., so perhaps we can expect the same here.

This might seem a bit far fetched, sure, but Nintendo has done something similar in the past. In North America, Metroid Prime (Nintendo GameCube) and Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance) were released simultaneously on November 18, 2002. One of the interesting features of Metroid Prime were the extra bits of content you got for linking it with Fusion. By using a Game Boy Advance Link Cable, you could send information between the GBA and GameCube. Doing this would give you allow you to unlock special features.

 

Of course, in this day and age, we've left link cables behind in favor of wireless technology. Games like Sonic Lost World have demonstrated the wireless link capability of the Wii U and 3DS, so perhaps Super Smash Bros. and a multi-platform Mario game could take it one step further.

But, what do you think? Would you enjoy a multi-platform Mario game? And what do think about a Wii U Mario game making more use of the GamePad? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!

For more news on upcoming Wii U and 3DS games, make sure to stay tuned to the Nintendo Alliance!