March 31 Is The Last Day To Get Super Mario 3D All-Stars Or Play Mario 35

Today is March 31, and no this is not an April Fools joke, fans of Mario that have any interest in Mario 3D All-Stars better make their purchase today, because as of April 1 it is going to be delisted from stores. It’s safe to assume that physical versions of the game will still be floating around retailers for a few months after, but eventually, it’s going to be impossible to find a brand new copy of 3D All-Stars.

Not only that but the 35 player battle royale, Mario 35, will no longer be available to play as of April 1 as well. Yes, not just delisted from the store, but they plan to shut down the servers for it as well making the game unplayable. It’s free with a Nintendo online subscription so anyone that wants to have one last night of fun with Mario 35 can do so tonight.

This is a huge bummer! Nintendo has never followed the traditional rules of most video game companies, and it usually works out for them monetarily, but that doesn’t mean this is good for gaming as a whole. Nobody wants to see video games disappear and Nintendo choosing to throw three of them behind a vault, and make one unavailable completely, is a quixotic decision no matter how it’s swung.

If there’s any hope, the common belief is that Nintendo plans to eventually split up the Mario 3D All-Stars pack into individual re-releases that can later be bought at full price. This isn’t great news, but it’s better than three of Mario’s greatest adventures being thrown behind the vault never to be seen again. Of course, you can always go back and play them on their original hardware as well, but that can be said about any port or remaster.

We’ll just have to see how Nintendo approaches this in the future, but for now, this collection pack and battle royale is going to disappear on April 1 and that’s disappointing.