At the end of June, we shared a few tidbits about the origins of Super Mario Bros. courtesy of a report from German website Nintendo-Online, with some sources stating that it was originally an arcade game. The site has now done further digging and uncovered the following details:
– Nintendo of America launched the NES and Super Mario Bros. in New York at the end of 1985 and in Los Angeles in early 1986. But the nationwide launch wasn’t until late 1986.
– To promote the NES and its flagship title SMB to people not living in NY or LA, Nintendo launched an exact arcade port of SMB in early 1986.
– This port is NOT identical to the Vs. Super Mario Bros. arcade port.
– It seems that the direct SMB arcade port was also distributed in Europe.
– Most of this info comes from William Audureau: “The History of Mario”, p. 261 ff.
In related news, Nintendo Online shares the following tidbits regarding the European release date of Super Mario Bros.
– It was unknown when exactly Super Mario Bros. was released in Europe. The best date we were originally able to confirm was 1987, but we couldn’t get any closer.
– Nintendo of Europe wasn’t founded until the early 1990’s. Prior to that, most European countries had own companies that distributed the Nintendo products.
– According to William Audureau: “The History of Mario”, p. 267, in some European countries SMB was released on June 1986.
– But in most of the countries the game didn’t release until September 1987. According to Audureau that was the case in the United Kingdom as well as in France. We concluded from our sources that this was also SMB’s release month in Germany.
Pikmin 3 is one of those games that has managed to hold its value since launch. Thinking about it, there haven’t been any major deals since its original release!
You can at least save a bit on Pikmin 3 at Best Buy today. It’s normally priced at $59.99, but the game has been discounted by $12 as part of the retailer’s “Deal of the Day”.
If interested, you can check out the official product page here.
This month’s issue of GamesTM has a small interview with Square Enix producer Ichiro Hazama.
Hazama, who worked on Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, shared a few words about the 3DS game. Most interestingly, he mentioned that Curtain Call is intended to be “the definitive version of Final Fantasy Theatrhythm”.
Here’s his comments in full:
The songs themselves have great quality and stand up on their own, no question. Also, because they are used in games, I think that when people hear these songs they remember a particular scene or moment in the game.
What I’ve tried to do here is make the definitive version of Final Fantasy Theatrhythm; I don’t intend to make any others.
