I have been covering these retro improvement releases for a bit now here on Hive. From Legend of Zelda and Metroid Remastered to decompile projects such as Mario Kart 64 for the Sega Dreamcast. These projects are fun, give new life to old games, and do things the publishers would probably never do. Now we can add Super Mario Bros released on the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the list of games with improved fan releases.
I am pretty sure most reading this know about Super Mario Bros, if not, I am not going to waste everyone’s time going over it here. Hit up YouTube and see it in action for yourself. That was cutting edge back in the day.
What Super Mario Bros Remastered aims to do is open the game up, something like what id Software did with Doom and Quake.
There are graphics packs that allow changing the graphics/sounds to different iterations from the Mario franchise. Fans can even make use of a level editor to place obstacles and platforms wherever they want – either making a very Nintendo-esque level or a diabolical one. Your choice.
Unlike the Mario Kart 64 port to Sega Dreamcast, and other platforms, Super Mario Bros Remastered is not a code decompile, it is an original engine from what I understand based on the Techeblog.com article.
As far as I know, as of this writing, there are no plans to port this to say the Sega Dreamcast or other console. This will be a PC only release (probably Windows only at that).
No assets or code owned by Nintendo was apparently used to make Super Mario Bros Remastered. The team feels this will help them keep the project up and limit Nintendo’s legal options. Unfortunately, being legal and available can be a result of how deep ones pockets are as proven by Sony vs Bleem.
One thing Nintendo could force is a name change as the current title obviously infringes on Nintendo’s right to market Super Mario Bros without confusion in the market.
Current release date for Super Mario Bros Remastered is September 13th, 2025. Will you be grabbing this one?
