A new Nintendo Minute was released today that showcased gameplay from the upcoming Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, and it gave a glimpse at a rather disappointing game select screen. Super Mario 3D All-Stars includes three of Mario's greatest 3D adventures, but the menu is so lazily thrown together that even novice graphic designers have been able to quickly recreate screenshots of it.
A surprise Super Mario Direct came from Nintendo on the morning of September 3 which announced a number of Super Mario titles making their way to the Switch. The largest announcement was the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection which brings the legendary adventures of Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy to the Nintendo Switch. These titles aren't remastered but are historical ports with updated resolutions and aspect ratios. Nintendo fans around the world were more than happy with Nintendo's announcement making Super Mario 3D All-Stars Amazon's second best selling game of 2020.
With six days until the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang of the official Nintendo Minute video series sat down to give players a closer look at the upcoming title in action. However, the design of the game select menu leaves a lot to be desired, so much so that YouTuber Nathaniel Bandy posted a screenshot on Twitter of the horrendous menu accompanied by his thoughts on its blandness. Another Twitter user, ianmcgoober1, replied with an extremely similar photo that he had recreated in photoshop in roughly 15 minutes. At first glance, it is very hard to tell the menus apart when they're each static, as the design of the real thing is simple and lacking the art direction for which the franchise is so well-known.
The menu may seem like a minuscule part of a collection, but there are plenty of other game collections that have incredible game selection screens. Most notably, the Rare Replay collection from 2015 has one of the best game select screens imaginable and a plethora of additional content to choose that went well beyond Super Mario 3D All-Stars musical offerings, and even the Super Mario All-Stars game compilation for Mario's 25th anniversary had a better game select screen than Super Mario 3D All-Stars. It says a lot when a random person on the internet can create a near-perfect replica of a AAA company's menu screen in a handful of minutes.
What's most important is that the game's function properly on the Nintendo Switch, but the lack of polish up-front is concerning. Nintendo has already made various decisions surrounding the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars that have disappointed fans, including the decision to remove the game from the eShop after come March of next year. It feels as if the collection was rushed and thrown together with little afterthought, and let's hope that isn't reflected in terms of actual gameplay.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars will be available for Nintendo Switch on September 18, 2020.
Sources: Nintendo, Nathaniel Bandy, ianmcgoober1