One Week Left Before Nintendo Removes Super Mario Bros 35, Fire Emblem & Super Mario 3D All-Stars

31^st March is the day that Mario dies. That is according to the internet. To be fair, it might be a slight exaggeration, but Nintendo is scheduling to remove Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Bros. 35 and Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light from the Switch eShop for reasons we’ve dubbed a “Nintendism”.

For reasons we can’t quite fathom, the three titles will be pulled from the digital eShop and taken offline on 31^st March. If you own copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars & Fire Emblem you’ll have access to redownload the games but Super Mario Bros. 35 will be taken offline permanently.

Retail copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars will continue to be sold until current stocks run dry, so if you can, make sure you snag a copy. We have a feeling it’ll quickly become expensive to buy.

This does raise the question of longevity of digital games. We would love to support less packaging and less space being taken up in our homes. The environmental impact and convenience of having access to games instantly is incredible. However, with digital games there is a risk that having a finite lifespan as games come and go, makes us feel that we’re not able to fully support a digital only future just yet.

Last year Nintendo tried to do this with their their free to play game Jump Rope Challenge. After seemingly giving that game an expiry date, it was made available indefinitely. As such we’re hoping that in the next week Nintendo will U-turn on this bonkers decision to pull 3 brilliant games.

However we are realists and in the meantime, we’re going to spend our last week in a quiet denial with Super Mario Bros. 35, which has been the freshest take on the Mario formula we’ve seen in recent years. We suggest you do the same.