Nintendo Direct highlights: N64 Online in October, Super Mario 2022 film cast

Get ready for the Super Mario film, hitting theaters in a little over one year.

Nintendo

Get ready for the Super Mario film, hitting theaters in a little over one year. Nintendo

International release dates have not yet been confirmed, but Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand to clarify the North American launch date.

Nintendo

International release dates have not yet been confirmed, but Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand to clarify the North American launch date. Nintendo

Instead of footage, we get the cast. Will Pratt use his normal speaking voice? Imitate the classic video game version perfected by Charles Martinet? Imitate Bob Hoskins? All this and more will be answered in about a year.

Nintendo

Instead of footage, we get the cast. Will Pratt use his normal speaking voice? Imitate the classic video game version perfected by Charles Martinet? Imitate Bob Hoskins? All this and more will be answered in about a year. Nintendo

International release dates have not yet been confirmed, but Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand to clarify the North American launch date. Nintendo

Instead of footage, we get the cast. Will Pratt use his normal speaking voice? Imitate the classic video game version perfected by Charles Martinet? Imitate Bob Hoskins? All this and more will be answered in about a year. Nintendo

Will Princess Peach get a British accent in the film and thus establish new canon? Or will Taylor-Joy adopt an American accent?

Nintendo

My expectations about this film skyrocketed as soon as I saw this casting choice. Oh, they’re going for it.

Nintendo

Black’s voice work in Double Fine games like Psychonauts 2 is a reminder of how much fire he puts into his roles. I love this choice.

Nintendo

Fingers crossed that Key’s version of Toad gets silly with it.

Nintendo

Hopefully by December 2022, Rogen’s cannabis company can launch a tie-in smoking device like the Donkey Bong.

Nintendo

These are actors.

Nintendo

Nintendo’s “winter 2021” direct-video presentation exploded on Thursday with reveals of serious fan service coming to not only Switch consoles but also movie theaters by the end of next year.

The event’s biggest pop-culture announcement was the upcoming Super Mario CGI animation movie, now confirmed to launch in the United States on December 21, 2022. This film, helmed by CG animation house Illumination (Despicable Me), still doesn’t have a title or any preview footage. But it does have an English-language cast:

• Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) as Mario
• Anna Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) as Peach
• Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Luigi
• Jack Black (Jumanji) as Bowser
• Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele) as Toad
• Kevin-Michael Richardson (Teen Titans) as Kamek
• Fred Armisen (SNL) as Cranky Kong
• Sebastian Maniscalco (The Irishman) as Foreman Spike (from the Wrecking Crew series)

None of Nintendo’s other YouTube channels, particularly the Japanese feed, confirmed any voice cast members for the film’s likely additional languages. Nintendo did confirm that Charles Martinet (who has voiced Super Mario in games since 1996) will participate in the film, though in exactly what capacity remains to be seen (er, heard). My money’s on Waluigi.

Pay an additional fee on top of the $20/year Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, and you can access a library of classic N64 and Sega Genesis games. Which ones? Keep clicking.

Nintendo

Pay an additional fee on top of the $20/year Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, and you can access a library of classic N64 and Sega Genesis games. Which ones? Keep clicking. Nintendo

You get nine games from the N64, including Sin & Punishment, which never got a US release on the N64 (and is thus untranslated but still perfectly playable in its native Japanese language).

Nintendo

You get nine games from the N64, including Sin & Punishment, which never got a US release on the N64 (and is thus untranslated but still perfectly playable in its native Japanese language). Nintendo

Fourteen games from the Sega Genesis. All of these are their Western releases.

Nintendo

Fourteen games from the Sega Genesis. All of these are their Western releases. Nintendo

You get nine games from the N64, including Sin & Punishment, which never got a US release on the N64 (and is thus untranslated but still perfectly playable in its native Japanese language). Nintendo

Fourteen games from the Sega Genesis. All of these are their Western releases. Nintendo

Notice that this version of Super Mario 64 closely resembles its original N64 version. That differs from the slightly upscaled version we got in last year’s Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection.

Nintendo

Four-player modes that work both offline and online? Now we’re talking.

Nintendo

Ecco on your Switch? In October, it will be a reality.

Nintendo

Get ready for blue shell madness.

Nintendo

There’s something about hearing that original theme music that always gets me.

Nintendo

But wait—there’s more! New controllers for both these classic consoles are coming that will connect directly with your Nintendo Switch in wireless mode.

Nintendo

Exactly when and how we can buy these remains unclear as of press time. This, by the way, is the offer for American customers…

Nintendo

… while Japanese NSO members will be able to buy this six-button pad. The same three-button, six-button divide between the Pacific hit the Sega Genesis Mini a few years ago, and I still don’t quite get Sega’s problem here.

Nintendo

Get yen and a Japanese NSO membership, and you can eventually buy the six-button option.

Nintendo

Japan’s initial slate of N64 games does not include Dr. Mario 64, since that one never launched overseas. Unlike in the US, Japanese NSO members will also get access to two games in the Custom Robo series in the future.

Nintendo

The Japanese selection of Sega games, all branded under its native “Mega Drive” name. They’re nearly identical, with the biggest exception being that Puyo Puyo is here instead of its Americanized version, Dr. Robotnik.

Nintendo

In more directly game-related fan service, Nintendo finally confirmed plans to bring N64 games to Nintendo Switch Online’s classic console lineup. This will require paying an additional charge on top of NSO’s $20/year subscription fee, though Nintendo was not ready to announce the exact price during the Thursday event. Whatever that cost is, it will include nine N64 games at launch and 14 games from the Sega Genesis. Check the first two images in the above gallery for those lists, along with a peek at Nintendo of Japan’s nearly identical selection of N64 and Genesis games coming to its version of the service. (If existing NSO subscribers don’t pay the extra fee, they can continue accessing the service’s libraries of NES and SNES games.)

In fantastic news, any of the games in the collection with four-player modes, particularly Mario Kart 64 and Star Fox 64, will support four-player online connectivity. NSO has previously maxed out with two-player online modes, and we’re already curious how the service will scale with two more connected players in each session’s mix. Should you wish to play the N64 collection more authentically, paying NSO subscribers will soon be able to buy a Switch-compatible N64 gamepad for $50. Nintendo has not yet confirmed exactly when and how that controller will go on sale. Three-button Genesis controllers for Switch will also go on sale soon, at the same price.

Nintendo took the additional step of confirming seven N64 games that will roll out after the service’s October launch, though their release dates aren’t yet confirmed:

• Zelda: Majora’s Mask
• Paper Mario
• F-Zero X
• Mario Golf
• Pokemon Snap
• Kirby 64
• Banjo-Kazooie

The last one, we should note, is wholly owned by Microsoft, thanks to its acquisition of game studio Rare during the GameCube era. Hence, that business agreement might be a hint of a certain fraught Nintendo-Microsoft license kerfuffle to come to NSO’s N64 slate. Though I’m not Golden… er, I mean, holdin’ my breath.

Sequels and surprises

Most of the event’s other highlights involved either previously announced sequels or brand-new entries in beloved IPs.

I’m totally down for monster-a-monster combat in Bayonetta 3, coming to Nintendo Switch sometime in 2022.

Nintendo

I’m totally down for monster-a-monster combat in Bayonetta 3, coming to Nintendo Switch sometime in 2022. Nintendo

Previously announced, it’s now finally looking like a video game.

Nintendo

Previously announced, it’s now finally looking like a video game. Nintendo

She’s back.

Nintendo

She’s back. Nintendo

Previously announced, it’s now finally looking like a video game. Nintendo

She’s back. Nintendo

And she’s even more colorful.

Nintendo

Blurry hand-to-hand combat.

Nintendo

Slightly clearer footage of Bayonetta taking control of a massive monster and fighting other massive monsters.

Nintendo

After getting a bare-minimum teaser reveal in 2017, the flashy, stylized brawler sequel Bayonetta 3 finally emerged looking like a video game. This sequel, helmed once again by Platinum Games, appears to continue the series’ streak of flashy, over-the-top third-person combat, with a mix of up-close melee and long-distance guns. The biggest apparent series addition in this week’s trailer comes in the form of wacky supersized monster combat, which sees the game’s titular hero transform into a massive, city-stomping beast who fights other classically designed kaiju. For a series like Bayonetta, that ramping-up of intensity seems appropriate.