Last year marked the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. and Nintendo went all out celebrating it. Not only did they bring all of Mario’s past-gen 3-D adventures to the Switch with Super Mario 3-D All Stars, but they turned the original Super Mario Bros. into an addicting and competitive battle royale experience with Super Mario Bros. 35.
Sure, there was the gimmickier celebrations like fans being able to bring Mario Kart into their homes with the augmented reality experience Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and the more recently announced Mario themed version of the Switch, but they were still pretty cool. In February, Nintendo will end their celebration of Mario with the beloved Super Mario 3-D World finally arriving on Switch with a new mode titled Bowser’s Fury.
In celebrating a major milestone for their iconic mascot, Nintendo set a new bar for delivering strong celebrations that fans can enjoy that they can hopefully equally live up to this year. 2021 marks major milestones for not one, but two of Nintendo’s most iconic and historical franchises – Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda.
Gaming’s most iconic tie-wearing gorilla celebrates his 40th anniversary since his first barrel throwing stint back in 1981 while Link celebrates the 35th anniversary of his first dungeon crawling adventure. Both of these games are not only an impactful part of Nintendo’s history, but gaming history as a whole, so should there be something big in store for these franchises hitting major milestones? Well, I don’t see why not, so it’s worth looking into how Nintendo could pull out all the stops in celebrating two of its biggest franchises.
Of the two, the easiest for Nintendo to create some strong celebratory games for is definitely The Legend of Zelda with how they’ve expanded the franchise in recent years. With the newest addition of Hyrule Warriors, titled Age of Calamity, releasing last year, there’s no reason not to expect some DLC for the game – possibly hinting more at what we might see with Breath of the Wild 2. There’s also been rumors for a while that an HD port of Skyward Sword is in the works, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be bundled together with other beloved modern adventures as well. In the same vein as Super Mario 3-D All Stars, we could see an HD bundle of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess that would finally bring these iconic Zelda games to the Switch. Now, these things would be the most basic ways of celebrating the series, but I think Nintendo’s got something big up their sleeves.
Bringing other iconic Zelda games like Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time to Switch through ports or some kind of collection would be nice and all, but what about something more ambitious – like a full-fledged remake. Any Zelda fan that’s seen one of those YouTube videos of what old Zelda games look like in Unreal Engine 4 or other modern engines knows that sense of excitement that instills in you and drives hope that it could one day become a reality. In an era of excellent remakes, HD remasters just don’t cut it anymore and with Nintendo seeing a lot of success and praise for their 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening, there’s no reason they couldn’t deliver another amazing remake of a Zelda classic.
The question is though, which game do you pick? While Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time are more than fitting picks given their legacy and adoration by the fanbase, it would be great to see Nintendo get even more ambitious with a remake of the original Legend of Zelda. Sure, it’s a long shot and maybe more of a 50th anniversary celebration, but damn would it just break the internet. Now, with these remakes it would likely just be the announcement of it being in the works, but it would be cool to see Nintendo drop a little cherry on top of its mind-blowing announcement with a tentative release date/window.
Speaking of release dates, there’s nothing more pertinent for Nintendo to include in this hypothetical, but very likely celebration than delivering the release date of the highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild. This really would be the easiest layup they could deliver and one that fans would be more than thrilled about to finally hear. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Nintendo dropped the bombshell that Breath of the Wild 2 was dropping towards the end of the year and what better way to announce that than with an incredible trailer at the end of a Zelda anniversary livestream.
As for Donkey Kong, things aren’t as simple. Donkey Kong games don’t really come out as frequently since he’s mostly tagging along with Mario and the last mainline Donkey Kong game was back in 2015 with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It’s been quite sometime since Nintendo put one of its most iconic characters in the spotlight making Donkey’s Kong 40th anniversary the perfect time give him more attention than ever.
First and foremost, with the Donkey Kong Country series making a return back on the Wii and having an amazingly received sequel on the Wii U, it’s time the Switch got an entry of its own to create a modern trilogy. It’s time for a new entry to be announced since there’s been quite an absence of the series for quite some time and, frankly, Nintendo could use some big titles in their future since it’s looking a little sparse currently. Even better would be to see the return of a Diddy Kong Racing game since the last time we saw that game was when the original N64 version was re-released on Nintendo DS.
Diddy Kong Racing was that one Mario Kart spin-off that worked and with no new Mario Kart game in sight, it’s the perfect time for Diddy Kong Racing to return. Not to mention, with how the Donkey Kong world has expanded with recent iterations and more characters have been introduced, there’s no reason we can’t possibly even have a Donkey Kong Racing game of its own – which, at one time, was the plan. Before game studio Rare, the developers behind Banjo-Kazooie and Battletoads, was acquired by Microsoft in 2002, they were actually developing a Donkey Kong Racing game before it was eventually cancelled. So what better way to celebrate Donkey Kong’s big milestone than to right a wrong of history and give Donkey Kong his own racing game.
Donkey Kong’s anniversary could also follow suit with Mario’s with Nintendo delivering another unique battle royale experience. Whether it’s using the Mario 35 concept on the classic Donkey Kong arcade game that started it all or the original Donkey Kong Country, there’s a strong possibility that Nintendo next battle royale experience could involve Donkey Kong. Sure, it would be a little more involved and complex than Mario 35, but it is the 40th anniversary after all, something most other Nintendo characters haven’t achieved, so why not be a little ambitious. On a less ambitious note, a more obvious way for Nintendo to celebrate Donkey Kong would be to have him crossover into series.
Frankly, it’s mind-blowing how Nintendo has dropped the ball in bringing more content to Super Mario Party and having some Donkey Kong themed things brought in to celebrate the 40th anniversary would help a fanbase that’s been craving for more content for too long. Even getting some other games involved, like Among Us and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in the celebration would be awesome. Obviously, Zelda could join that party as well, but it just further reiterates the point that Nintendo needs to bring it with these anniversaries.
Sure, there’s definitely going to be more gimmicky celebrations that could be cool. I have no doubt in my mind that some anniversary themed switches, accessories, and amibos are in our future and maybe even some kind of dungeon crawling, landscape navigating AR game in the vein of Pokémon Go for Zelda but are these really as awesome as dormant series making a big return, the tantalizing possibility of amazing remakes, or incredibly fun crossovers – I don’t think so. At a time when Sony continues to dominate with amazing exclusives and Microsoft purchasing Bethesda to reclaim their legacy, Nintendo needs to begin to come out swinging and the anniversaries of The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong present endless possibilities for them to do so.
This is all true. Another way to look at it, however, is that Nintendo celebrated Mario’s anniversary because he is their numero uno. It may be that they stop there. I think we all should prepare for this possibility.