And Super Mario All-Stars has to be read as an attempt to manage that transition, symbolically marking the end of the old system. When this dropped at the start of August there was essentially only a year to run in terms of NES games (the only exception being Wario’s Woods, which ambled out four months later), and only twenty-eight more releases for the system total the SNES had more than that before Christmas. Put another way, a large part of why Super Mario All-Stars exists is simply that the NES was finally giving up the ghost in 1993. Perhaps more importantly, it needs to be understood in the context of the very upgrade cycle nostalgia cuts against, not least because their relationship is oppositional, not antagonistic. But in 1993 it was genuinely unusual in the console market, and this game has to be read and understood in that context. Indeed, in the age of Super Mario Maker this feels in some ways like the most pointless thing imaginable. This seems positively ordinary these days, when HD remixes, mobile rereleases, and emulator-based compilations of classic games are everywhere. games alongside, depending on your country, either Super Mario USA or Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, all given a 16-bit graphics remaster. But the first time Nintendo itself embraced it came in 1993, when they released Super Mario All-Stars, a compilation of the three NES Super Mario Bros. Nostalgia made its Nintendo debut in 1990 with Mega Man 3, a point I have discussed elsewhere. Our past, reflected back, is a strange sight, especially the first time we glimpse it.
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