Mainly back in 2020, I should specify. Two major Nintendo franchises both celebrated their anniversaries that year, those being Mario and Fire Emblem. And here’s how they commemorated the occasions, in their own unique “Nintendo” way:
Rumors were everywhere that Nintendo was planning several 3D Mario remasters for the Switch to celebrate. This was further exacerbated by the unofficial PC port of Mario 64 that same year, which was a triumph for fans but Nintendo unsurprisingly nuked it. And those rumors ended up being true! Super Mario 3D All Stars was revealed in a dedicated Mario 35th anniversary direct and released that same month. However that collection would be a limited time offer, both physically and digitally, until the end of March 2021. Nintendo would not only stop producing physical copies, but they would also delist it from the eShop.
In that same Mario direct, Nintendo also announced a Mario-themed 35 player online battle royale, dubbed Super Mario Bros. 35. This was also surprising, as this announcement wasn’t in any of the rumors, and that there was already a free Mario online battle royale on the internet for folks to try out. You can probably guess what Nintendo’s response was to that fan project. Anyways Mario 35 was a real thing, but it was only playable until the end of March. Nintendo would be turning off the servers after that date, even if you already had the game installed on your system since it launched.
Finally there’s Fire Emblem. The series was turning 30 years old that year, but it seemed like Nintendo wasn’t doing anything to celebrate up until the 11th hour. Then in October they announced an official localized release of the first Fire Emblem game, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, as a digital only release for $6 USD, with a physical collector’s edition (with a download code) also available containing a bunch of cute knickknacks and other items. However, the game itself would only be available for purchase until the end of March 2021. And since there was no actual physical release, you had no other option to acquire the game.
Obviously I hate all of this “Disney Vault” junk. It’s blatant artificial scarcity and FOMO at its most obvious. I think it might be even worse than their dripfeed of classic retro titles for the Switch Online service. And this practice particularly screws over late adopters of the Switch as well. Let’s say you enjoyed playing Fire Emblem Engage as your first Fire Emblem game, or you’re a parent watching the Mario Movie with your kids. You probably want more of that, right? Well too bad. You didn’t pick up these games in the short window they were available a few years ago, and now you’re pretty much SOL if you want to play them officially without jumping through a few extra hoops. I think my feelings are best expressed in [this little skit](https://youtu.be/t-keY1wvpLg?feature=shared) right here.