The Nintendo 64 isn’t celebrating a milestone anniversary this year, but that hasn’t stopped Nintendo Life from asking their readers to pick the misunderstood console’s best games. While we wait for the results, I dug through Version 4.0 of the Video Game Canon to find out which Nintendo 64 games have been singled out over the years.
It’s not a particularly long list, but there’s no shortage of interesting titles…
Just last month, Heritage Auctions sold a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for $114,000, which set a new record for the sale price of a single game. But what we didn’t know was that another sealed copy of the game had already been sold for $140,000 in a private sale a month before that.
According to Ars Technica, that particular copy of Super Mario Bros. was purchased by Rally, a company that calls itself a “stock market of collectibles,” and what they plan to do with their new acquisition sounds wild.
Beginning next Friday, August 21, Rally will sell 3,000 “shares” in their copy of Super Mario Bros. for $50 apiece (which will raise the valuation of the game to $150,000). Like a publicly-traded stock, users can buy and sell those shares on the site’s marketplace, or cash out when an advisory board decides to sell the game to a collector.
In addition to the factory seal, this copy of Super Mario Bros. is nearly pristine, and has received a 9.8 A+ from Wata Games:
Still, Wata Games says this is one of only 14 factory-sealed copies of Super Mario Bros. it has seen among the so-called “hangtab” editions, which feature a hanger slot on the back that was removed from production lines around September 1987. Among that rarefied group, Wata says this is the “single highest graded sealed copy” it has seen, earning a 9.8/10 for box quality and a near-perfect A+ for the shrinkwrap seal on Wata’s scale.
“This is the first time that such an early print with a grade of 9.8 A+ has ever been offered for sale,” Wata Games President Deniz Kahn said in a statement. “This is the 1-of-1 highest graded copy of Super Mario Bros. in existence, considered by many collectors to be the ‘Holy Grail’ of the hobby. It’s the Action Comics #1 of video games.”
This is Rally’s first foray into purchasing collectible video games, but they’re excited for the chance to branch out from their previous focus on acquiring rare trading cards, watches, cars, and comic books.
“Over the last year or so we’ve heard from our members and have observed the industry grow, and it’s clear that there is a community that believes in both the financial and emotional value of these games and wants access to invest in them,” [Rally VP of Operations Fitz] Tepper told Ars Technica. “We’ve seen this demand from asset classes already on the platform, like sports memorabilia, trading cards, or collector cars and are now thrilled to add video games to that list.”
Tepper went on to say that this is just the first video game purchase Rally plans to make, and that the company is currently looking to obtain copies of The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, Stadium Events, GoldenEye 007, and Halo: Combat Evolved as well.
Heritage Auctions announced that a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. was sold last week for $114,000, setting a new record for the sale price of a single game. The previous recordholder was a different mint condition copy of Mario’s first NES adventure, which sold for $100,150 in a private sale in early 2019.
So what makes this copy of Super Mario Bros. so valuable? According to the auction house, it comes down to the packaging’s 9.4 A+ grade from Wata Games and an equally rare “cardboard hangtab” (similar to those found on action figures) that was perforated onto the box by Nintendo:
What’s the deal with cardboard hangtabs? one may, understandably, wonder. Cardboard hangtabs were originally used on the US test market copies of black box games, back before plastic was used to seal each game. As Nintendo began to further establish their company in the US, their packaging was updated almost continuously. Strangely, the addition of the plastic wrap came before the box cutting die was altered to remove the cardboard hangtab. This rendered the functionality of the cardboard hangtab completely useless, since it was under the plastic seal. There are four sub-variants of the plastic sealed cardboard hangtab box (this particular copy of Super Mario Bros. being the “3 Code” variant) that were produced within the span of one year. Each sub-variant of the cardboard hangtab black box, produced within that timeframe, had a production period of just a few months; a drop in the bucket compared to the title’s overall production run.
In short, a cardboard hangtab copy of any early Nintendo Entertainment System game brings a certain air of “vintage” unrivaled by its successors.
Valarie McLeckie, the Video Game Specialist at Heritage Auctions, later told Ars Technica that this particular variant of Super Mario Bros. is believed to exist “in the single digits” today.
While this rare copy of Super Mario Bros. is sought-after by collectors for its uniqueness, fans interested in playing the game have several cheaper options. In addition to the millions of open copies of the NES original that exist in the wild, Super Mario Bros. has been re-released on the Super NES (as part of Super Mario All-Stars), Game Boy Color (as Super Mario Bros. Deluxe), Game Boy Advance, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and the NES Classic. Super Mario Bros. is also part of the Nintendo Entertainment System compilation on the Nintendo Switch, which is a free download for all subscribers to the Nintendo Switch Online service.
KosmicD12 has completed his last “Any Percentage” speedrun of Super Mario Bros..
The Mario maestro has set multiple world records over the years (including a blistering time of 4:55.96 in 2018), but his most recent feat of crackerjack platforming might just be unbeatable. Using a combination of Warp Zones, glitches, and his own tip-top thumbs, KosmicD12 shaved a little less than half a second off his previous record, and finished the game in an astonishing four minutes and 55.646 seconds.
He then promptly delivered a short retirement speech and walked away from any future “Any Percentage” attempts:
“This is everything I have ever wanted to accomplish in this speedrun, and even a little bit more. It is still improvable but I am not interested in the ridiculous things required to beat this, so that’s history for someone else to write!”
KosmicD12 still plans to keep playing Super Mario Bros., but he’s looking for a new challenge today. He said he’d like to tackle some of the game’s other speedrunning categories, which he’ll continue to chronicle on his Twitch channel.
The speedrunners competing to complete a perfect run in Super Mario Bros. got a little closer this week when KosmicD12 set a new world record of four minutes and 55.96 seconds on Monday.
Thanks to pixel-perfect platforming and a series of glitches (including running through the wall to find the Warp Zone in World 1-2), this “Any Percentage” run is nearly identical to the “Tool Assisted Run” of four minutes and 54.03 seconds.
In a “Tool Assisted Run,” a computer calculates the optimal path through the game using all known glitches, so to see an actual human person nearly match it is rather astounding.
KosmicD12 was rather tongue-tied after his record-setting feat, but he did manage to croak out, “I don’t know what to say.”
A nearly perfect run definitely speaks for itself, so I’m not sure anything else needs to be said. Though I guess congratulations are definitely in order.
Do you know everything there is to know about Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom? Would you like to?
If you answered “Yes” to the latter question (or even if you said “Yes” to the former), then today is your lucky day. Dark Horse has announced that they’ll be publishing a Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia this October.
Weighing in at 256 pages, this reference work will cover the first 30 years of “Super” Mario’s career, beginning with 1985’s Super Mario Bros.:
The Super Mario Encyclopedia is jam-packed with content from 17 Super Mario games and spans more than 30 years of the franchise’s history—from the original Super Mario Bros. to Super Mario 3D World. Track the evolution of the Goomba, witness the introduction of Yoshi, and relive your favorite levels.
This tome also contains an interview with producer Takashi Tezuka, tips to help you find every Coin, Star, Sun, and Mushroom… even explanations of glitches! With information on enemies, items, obstacles, and worlds from over 30 years of Mario, Super Mario Encyclopedia is the definitive resource for everything Super Mario!
Dark Horse’s Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia will be released on October 23.
The latest VGC Essay explores all the ways Nintendo tried to teach the world about 3D games with Super Mario 64. Here’s a teaser…
For Mario’s first foray into “The Third Dimension,” Nintendo wanted to ensure that everything was perfect. In fact, the Nintendo 64, its unique three-pronged controller, and the controller’s analog stick designed to better simulate 3D movement were all created with the needs of Super Mario 64 in mind.
Nintendo had good reason to be worried about getting all of the details just right, as most video gamers had never even seen a 3D platformer before Super Mario 64. Aside from a few experimental titles from the late 80s and early 90s, 3D movement was only found in a handful of titles on the market at the time, the most famous of which was probably EA’s Fade To Black. Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot, which included pseudo-3D movement, beat Super Mario 64 to store shelves by about five weeks, but a majority of the game took place on a 2D plane.
So Nintendo used Super Mario 64 as an opportunity to introduce players to what was, in their mind, an entirely new genre. Shigeru Miyamoto’s exacting attention to detail helped mold every part of the game. The first interaction players had with the game was the appearance of an actual cameraman (Lakitu the Cloud), and instructions on how to control the camera’s angle with the diamond-shaped set of C-Buttons on the right side of the Nintendo 64 controller. Actually, let me back up… the very first thing most players experienced after booting up Super Mario 64 was the interactive Mario face on the Title Screen. Miyamoto saw fit to even offer players a primer on polygons as the squares, rectangles, and rhombi that made up Mario’s face could be grabbed and manipulated in dozens of different ways. In a way, “It’s-a me, Mario! Hello!” was a coded message that encouraged players to jump right into this new 3D world.
The latest VGC Essay looks at the unique advertising Nintendo employed for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. Here’s a teaser…
I’m just guessing here, but I’d imagine that many Mario fans have no idea a sequel to Super Mario World even exists. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island was released for the Super NES in 1995 and starred the titular dinosaur in his first solo adventure. Most fans refer to the game as just “Yoshi’s Island,” because it’s such a departure from the rest of the franchise to that point, and because the “Super Mario World 2” print on the game’s box is almost invisible.
Serving as a prequel to the entire Super Mario franchise, Yoshi’s Island introduced Baby Mario to the world and tasked Yoshi with protecting the infant from Baby Bowser. While it’s Fall 1995 release was overshadowed by the launch of the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation, a dedicated cult following has built up around the game over the years.
Though they might not have known exactly which game it was promoting, I guarantee that everyone remembers the commercial Nintendo used to sell Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island in America.
The latest VGC Essay looks at Mario’s actorly ambitions in Super Mario Bros. 3. Here’s a teaser…
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
– As You Like It, Act II Scene VII
Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom cohorts have held a surprising number of occupations over the years. In addition to his plumbing business and the hero-for-hire game, Mario has been employed as a multi-sport athlete, a race car driver, a referee, a dancer, an artist, a virologist, and a typing tutor. He’s practically done it all, and I think only political office has eluded him. I guess that’s the trouble with monarchies.
Bouncing from genre to genre like that is usually considered a liability for other game characters. As sublimely silly as the idea seems, no one wants to see Kratos squeezed into a go-kart. And yet, fans readily accept Mario’s multitasking, and many of his spinoff adventures are now more popular than some of the franchise’s traditional platformers. There’s a strong possibility this all stems from the fact that Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, designed the character this way from the beginning.
