As part of a surprise (or overdue, depending on who you ask) Nintendo Direct 35th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. Edition, we got the official reveal of a new Super Mario compilation in the form of Super Mario 3D All-Stars -- that will contain optimised versions of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy in a single package for the Nintendo Switch.

With the key word being optimised, these versions of three classic 3D Super Mario games spanning decades (and the Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, and Nintendo Wii) will run in higher resolutions than their original releases and run at a much smoother and more consistent frame-rate -- but without any HD enhancements.

Of course it would have been nice to see this as a proper HD collection with touched up textures and other things, but we’ll take just about anything in order to play Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy again.

Here’s the announcement trailer.



In terms of special features Super Mario 3D All-Stars will arrive with an in-game music player so you can relive all of those classic Nintendo tunes. And with the ability to do just that with the screen off, the 3D All-Stars release will mark the day and date the Nintendo Switch will also be able to double as a Walkman. Or iPod. Or, err, Spotigram Streamer.

Yeah, I was there when Super Mario 64 launched in Australia in March of 1997.

Which brings us to the release date and price -- September 18 and $79.95 AUD. Super Mario 3D All-Stars is available right now to pre-order via the Nintendo eShop.

And speaking of right now the very first Super Mario All-Stars from the SNES, which packaged the first three games and updated them with 16-bit graphics back in the early 90s is also available today as part of Nintendo Switch Online.