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My Nintendo is back with another round of goodies for you to spend your Platinum Points on, and this latest batch of items is geared towards dear-old Dad for Father’s Day…or at least that’s what Nintendo says. I’m not a Dad, but I sure as hell want some of this swag!

Please your game-loving pops with a pack of retro postcards featuring Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo 64 games! And remember, you can play a selection classic NES, Super NES, and Game Boy games with any Nintendo Switch Online membership. And with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, you get additional access to a library of Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and SEGA Genesis™ titles. You can redeem 450 My Nintendo Platinum Points to get these postcards.

Need a cool card for Dad? You can bring a smile to Dad’s face with these retro Father’s Day cards. These can be picked up on My Nintendo for 30 Platinum Points.

Give dad the gift of some of his favorite things wrapped into one fun coupon book! Redeem your 30 Platinum Points and add this to your gift. If that’s not your thing, you can add some style to your scrapbook with colorful cut-outs inspired by the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. These cut-outs are priced at 30 Platinum Points as well.

For links to all of these items, you can visit this My Nintendo Father’s Day page.

The most fundamental part of any Mario game is jumping. It’s the main method of action for the mustachioed wonder, letting him take down enemies, climb up obstacles, leap across chasms and more. With Mario’s jump being directly at the core of all his adventures, of course some players set out to work their way through a Mario game without jumping a single time.

For years now, players have been trying to find a way to complete Super Mario 64 without pressing the A button a single time. The Super Mario 64 A Button Challenge started in the early 2000s and dedicated speedrunners and fans alike have been doing their best to get Mario to the end without jumping. There have been massive strides made, but no one managed to pull off an A-less run until just this week.

The honor of the first Super Mario 64 run without the A button goes to Twitch streamer Marbler, and it only took them 86 hours to get the job done. Apparently this trick is only possible by playing the Wii Virtual Console release of the game, and Marbler had achieved a two-press A button run in that version of the game just 8 months back. At the time, Marbler said that the impossible was most likely possible, but it would require “some really absurd movement.”

Thanks to the discoveries of Super Mario 64 experts like Mr_Robert_Z, Bottles704, Thiago Trujillo, Mp16z, and bobmario511, Marbler now forever has his name in the Super Mario 64 record books. If you’d like to watch Marbler’s entire run or skim through for the exciting parts, you can find it here.

Mojang is currently celebrating 15 years of Minecraft with all kinds of sales, free DLC, events, and more. Nintendo is jumping in on the fun by taking a moment to remind people that a very special Mario experience is available for Minecraft, and you can only find it on Switch.

The Super Mario Mash-Up Pack includes 40 new Super Mario-themed skins, which transform the game’s characters into familiar heroes like Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach, and even troublemakers like Bowser, Wario and all seven of Bowser’s minions. All the world and item textures in the game are also redone, providing you with the opportunity to create your own Super Mario-themed locations within the world of Minecraft.

While building, you can even enjoy listening to the smooth sounds of 15 pieces of music from Super Mario 64. Builders of all ages will love crafting massive new worlds using building blocks inspired by a series as accessible and recognizable as Super Mario.

Nintendo gave us Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2, two games that let us build our own 2D platforming Mario stages and share them with the world. Now one modder out there has taken that idea and shifted it into 3D with Mario Builder 64, a mod of Super Mario 64 that Nintendo will no doubt be unhappy to see.

Just like the Super Mario Maker series, Mario Builder 64 gives you tools to create your own 3D stages in Super Mario 64. You can even share these builds with other players, allowing you to showcase just how good or bad your stage-building skills are compared to what Nintendo has cooked up over the years.

Obviously, this kind of project seems like the exact thing Nintendo would move on to shut down. That likely means it’s just a matter of time until most evidence of this impressive mod is scrubbed from the internet. Until then, we’ll get to see what budding devs, Mario superfans and platforming enthusiasts can cook up in the retro 3D space of Super Mario 64.

For more details on Mario Builder 64, you can check out the YouTube description for the video above.

All of the content Nintendo created for Super Mario 64 was enjoyed literally decades ago by players. As far as what Nintendo crafted for players to see, interact with and explore, that has been done and dusted for a very long time. Since then, players have been coming up with their own challenges to keep the fun going, and yet another has been completed 27 years later.

Super Mario 64’s Cool, Cool Mountain has a door that Mario comes out of, but he can never turn around and go back in. That door is only ever meant for Mario to exit out of, but that never sat right with players. For nearly 30 years now, some very dedicated fans have been doing all they can to try and send Mario back into that door.

Hackers have long since sent Mario back through that door by using various glitches, clipping tools and more, but the real diehard fans out there wanted a way to get back through that door without using programs and software that exists outside of the game. Now, all these years later, that goal has finally been achieved.

The video above shows how the feat was pulled off, and it uses a ton of in-depth knowledge of how the game works. It may not be the most exciting method or the most fun to employ, but the end result is a victory fans have been looking for for a very long time now. I guess these dedicated players will have to find a new oddity to fixate on now!

As the years march on it’s always impressive to see how much technology improves and changes. We have computers thousands of times more powerful than the ones used on the moon landing in our pockets, journeys across the country that used to take weeks now just take a few hours, and the most important 3D platformers of all time is being remade for the Game Boy Advance.

A fan by the name of Joshua Barretto has posted a video of a work in progress remake of the acclaimed N64 title running on the Game Boy Advance. As you can see in the above video, while the game is in a rough state, it is still undoubtedly recognizable as the N64 legend. Honestly, the fact that the 3D camera is working at all is imprressive.

In the description for the YouTube upload Joshua gave some insight into the development of the project, you can read it down below.

While there was an attempt at a port of Mario 64 to GBA a few years back that project fell by the wayside due to technical limitations so hopefully this project will bare more fruit.

Super Mario 64 is no stranger to fan made projects but it’s always fascinating to see the lengths fans will go to reshape this classic title. It’s works like these that showcase the impact of Mario 64 and we wish Joshua all the luck in remaking the game.

If you’re a Switch Online member, you can play classic Mario games and many more from Game Boy, Super NES and NES. If you go all-out on the Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, you can access Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Advance Mario games as well! Check out the trailer above to see all the retro Mario goodness that awaits.

Of course, there’s plenty of other content and goodies that come with being a Switch Online member. Joining up will let you play online with friends, family, and other players around the world, which is worth the price of admission alone. Of course, you can also access all kinds of non-Mario retro titles with Switch Online as well, giving you a window into literally decades and decades worth of gaming goodness.

Going for the Expansion Pack option will net you bonus benefits like the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass, Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion, Animal Crossing: New Horizons Happy Home Paradise and plenty more!

As time progresses, things evolve in numerous ways. That obviously includes the world of videogames, which have expanded greatly in terms of technology and graphical presentations. Even more impressive, gaming has made visual leaps and bounds in an incredibly short amount of time, making it that much more impressive when you look back to see how far we’ve come.

In this episode of Digital Foundry, the gang looks at the evolution of water rendering across the generations, singling out particularly special games and the various techniques used. There have been countless titles over the years that use water as their playground, and some have done so with incredibly achievements in liquid simulations and presentations with notably limited tech.

Nintendo has been near the forefront of water tech in games for decades now, pushing their various platforms to the limit to showcase fluids in motion. Games like Wave Race 64 and Super Mario Sunshine put other big-name games to shame with their representations of water and water movement, with developers still looking back on those titles for inspiration now. Without Nintendo’s works with water, the industry wouldn’t be where it is now!

The latest Japanese sales data has come in via Famitsu, giving us a look at what the best-selling games for the last week were, alongside the usual hardware sales. First up, let’s take a look at the top software for March 18th to 24th, 2024.

1. [NSW] Princess Peach: Showtime! (Nintendo, 03/22/24) – 77,562 (NEW)
2. [PS5] Dragon’s Dogma II (Capcom, 03/22/24) – 68,592 (NEW)
3. [PS5] Rise of the Ronin (SIE, 03/22/24) – 64,646 (NEW)
4. [NSW] Dragon Quest X Online: The Door to the Future and the Sleeping Girl (Square Enix, 03/21/24) – 17,919 (NEW)
5. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 9,276 (5,758,176)
6. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo, 10/20/23) – 8,118 (1,795,584)
7. [PS4] Dragon Quest X Online: The Door to the Future and the Sleeping Girl (Square Enix, 03/21/24) – 7,333 (NEW)
8. [PS5] Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix, 02/29/24) – 7,121 (305,756)
9. [NSW] Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 02/16/24) – 6,987 (131,428)
10. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 6,563 (3,476,939)

Next, let’s check out how hardware sales went for the week.

1. Switch OLED Model – 46,851 (6,915,823)
2. PlayStation 5 – 24,183 (4,694,730)
3. Switch Lite – 7,826 (5,785,403)
4. Switch – 6,151 (19,749,638)
5. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 3,605 (743,987)
6. Xbox Series X – 958 (261,736)
7. Xbox Series S – 402 (306,008)
8. PlayStation 4 – 250 (7,924,660)
9. New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 9 (1,192,900)

Super Mario 64 is arguably the most influential 3D video game of all time, but has it also been affecting our perceptions of 3D space in real life? According to a study from 2014, the answer is yes! Specifically, the study found that players of the Nintendo DS version of Super Mario 64 perceived objects in the space around them differently from others.

The study in question was published in the Molecular Psychiatry journal and recently highlighted by Supper Mario Broth on Twitter. Participants were asked to play Super Mario 64 DS for at least 30 minutes a day for two months. Then, they took a series of tests. Ultimately, these tests showed that their perception of space changed from egocentric to allocentric. In other words they saw understood the objects around them in relation to each other, rather than in relation to themselves - almost like a 3rd person video game!

Could playing 3D platformers like Super Mario 64 really make you better at understanding and navigating 3D space? It seems so! Now you can play 3D Mario games and feel satisfied that you’re improving your spatial abilities.

Click here to read through the full results of the study for yourself.

The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass has come and gone, and now speculation about what’s next for the Mario Kart series is at an all time high. This, combined with the white-hot speculation of when the Switch successor will be revealed, has Nintendo fans chain-chomping at the bit for the next Mario Kart title.

While I could go into some ideas for what a sequel could bring, I instead want to focus on one of the most oft-wondered aspects of the supposed sequel – how the series beloved retro cups will be handled.

Since Mario Kart DS (technically Super Circuit, but it just had SNES tracks) the series has had a tradition of creating 4 cups consisting of courses from past titles to stand alongside the 4 brand new cups and tracks. Given the fact that we just had an entire DLC dedicated to bringing back old courses, many fans have wondered if the next game will even have retro tracks. After doing admittedly WAY too much research into this topic, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not only possible but Nintendo would have plenty of options.

The thing about the retro courses is that they weren’t really interesting until Mario Kart 7. They were a neat bonus to have in the games, but they were often held back by the system they were on or were too faithful to their source material. MK7 and especially 8 introduced the concept of reimagining these courses to be expansions of their original concepts while still retaining their charm.

When it comes to painstakingly chronicling world records in videogames, no one does it better than Summoning Salt. The gaming world record aficionado puts an absolute mountain of work and effort into breaking down the history of those records, and this time he’s turned his focus to Super Mario 64.

As usual, there’s more than just one world record for Super Mario 64. Depending on the methodology and approach, players can virtually run to be the best in the world. Of course, this is a situation where milliseconds might as well be hours, and some records take years to achieve, only to be barely beaten just a few weeks later.

In today’s video, we get a look at a very particular set of speedrunning attempts for Super Mario 64. As if it weren’t hard enough to run through the game as quickly as possible, some have decided to take on the task while blindfolded. While all of the Super Mario 64 speedrun categories are enthralling, there might be none more impressive and seemingly superhuman than that of the blindfolded category. You can see how this unique challenge started and where things are now in the video above!

I am not someone who follows traditional sports. I don’t have anything against them by any means, I just haven’t been personally interested. Maybe it’s related to all the bad memories from grade school gym class…but that’s another topic! While I don’t pay attention to sports, plenty of you lovely people do, and that’s how I find out about things like this!

Reader Khufu is an avid sports fan, and he caught a pretty fantastic Nintendo reference during the latest “Shaqtin’ a Fool” segment during Inside the NBA. Shaqtin’ a Fool aims to lampoon moments from NBA games in the last week that don’t exactly show teams or players in their best light.

In the segment above, you can see the latest round-up of goofs and gaffes from NBA games, and at the 2:03 section we get some Nintendo-themed references to highlight a moment. In particular, we get to see a Bob-omb hit the court alongside a blue shell, all accompanied by music from Super Mario 64.

If they keep throwing in all these gaming references for NBA games, I might have to start tuning in!

Mario and Donkey Kong doesn’t head to the Switch until February 16th, 2024, but Nintendo released a demo for the title earlier this week. That’s all dataminers and modders needed to whet their appetite, and now just a couple of days later a mod has already been released.

While not a major mod by any means, it’s certainly an interesting one, especially if you’re a fan of classic Mario. As the gameplay footage above shows, this fan-made mod takes Mario’s model from Mario Vs. Donkey Kong and replaces it with Mario’s Super Mario 64 model. It’s a very straightforward mod, but one that certainly gives the game’s visuals a fun twist.

You can bet Nintendo is keeping a very watchful eye on this mod, as well as any other mods and hacks that pop up. Of course, the question is whether or not Nintendo will act on this mod by going after the creator. We’ll keep tabs on the situation to see what happens from here on out.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced today that Koji Kondo, the acclaimed Nintendo composer and sound director will be honored at the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas. The award ceremony will be livestreamed by IGN on Thursday, February 15th at 8:00 PM PT.

“I am deeply thankful for being selected by D.I.C.E. for this important award. It is a true honor to be recognized in this way, and I am extremely humbled,” said Koji Kondo. “Thanks to the help from the many people surrounding me and the support from our customers and fans, I was fortunate enough to be involved in game music development for decades. I am grateful for everyone who helped and supported me. I will continue my efforts in the music and sound aspects of development to hopefully make everyone’s game experience even more enjoyable in the years to come.”

Koji Kondo was born on August 13, 1961 in Nagoya-City, Aichi-prefecture, Japan. After graduating from the Osaka University of Arts, he began working for Nintendo Co., Ltd in April 1984. Kondo would quickly go on to create iconic work, and was responsible for sound programming, music, and sound effects in Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with memorable tunes and delightful audio cues that many people around the world now instantly recognize.

Kondo has since worked on many other memorable titles including the music for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64), Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo Gamecube), New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo DS), Super Mario Galaxy (Wii), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii), Super Mario 3D World (Wii U), and Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo Switch). He now serves as the Senior Officer of the Entertainment Planning & Development Division.

The AIAS Hall of Fame honor is bestowed on game creators who have been instrumental in the development of highly influential games and moving a particular genre forward. These individuals demonstrate the highest level of creativity and innovation, resulting in significant product influence on a scale that expands the scope of the industry. Past AIAS Hall of Fame recipients include Tim Schafer (2022), Ed Boon (2021), Connie Booth (2020), Bonnie Ross (2019), Todd Howard (2017), Hideo Kojima (2016), Leslie Benzies (2014), Dan and Sam Houser (2014), and Tim Sweeney (2012).