The Nintendo Switch’s SNES library has received a previously Japanese-only Mario game, plus the first Bubsy game… for some reason.
One of the big positives of Nintendo’s online catalogue of retro games for the Nintendo Switch, is that the company isn’t averse to including games that were once only released in Japan.
Admittedly, Nintendo doesn’t go to the trouble of fully localising them, but at least you now have an official way of playing these previously inaccessible games.
Today, another example has been added to the library and it’s a lesser known but well regarded Super Mario puzzle game called Mario & Wario.
Initially released in 1993 for the SNES (or Super Famicom as Japan called it), this was one of the first games to be developed by Game Freak before it struck gold with the Pokémon franchise.
Despite the title, you don’t actually play as Mario or Wario, but instead a fairy called Wanda who must guide Mario through a series of levels, helping him avoid traps and such, like building a bridge over a pit – a bit like Amiga classic Lemmings.
This is because Wario keeps dropping objects on Mario’s head, like buckets and barrels, that obscure his vision. You can make up your own explanation for why Mario doesn’t just take the objects off, but that’s the game.
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You can also unlock Princess Peach and Yoshi as playable characters, who move slower and faster, respectively, and thus can make certain levels easier or harder.
Like Mario Paint, this was one of a handful of games that required the SNES’s mouse accessory to work. Switch 2 owners can simply use the Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls but Switch 1 owners will need to plug in a USB mouse.
Fortunately, you don’t need to understand Japanese in order to play it, since not only is it extremely light on dialogue, but the game has English text anyway. So it was probably only the mouse requirement that stopped it being released in the West the first time round.
The game is also notable for being the first time that Wario starred in a home console game. In fact, it’s only the second game of any kind to feature him, even if he’s not playable.
Mario & Wario isn’t the only new addition to the SNES library on Switch, as it’s joined by two other games. The first is fighting game Fatal Fury Special, an updated re-release of Fatal Fury 2 that added extra characters.
The second is Bubsy In: Claws Encounters Of The Furred Kind, the very first entry in the Bubsy series of platforming games.
You can already play this through The Purrfect Collection, a compilation of retro Bubsy games that launched last month, but at least with Switch Online you don’t have to pay extra for that very dubious pleasure.
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