Surprise announcements

After beginning the year with a lot of blank spaces in the schedule, Nintendo produced some big announcements throughout 2020, often in quick succession and those games launched a matter or weeks (or days) later, too.

Paper Mario: The Origami King was announced in May, for example, and arrived a couple of months later in July. Pikmin 3 Deluxe dropped after a similarly speedy two-month gap and Super Mario 3D All-Stars arrived just two weeks after its September reveal, with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity announced just days after that and releasing in November.

This relatively short space between reveal and release might mean the line up looks bleak in January, but it keeps you on your toes. You never know what you might be playing in just a couple of months, even if you might be able to predict the odd incoming game.

And then there's the total novelties that no-one could reasonably predict: Jump Rope Challenge (above) was a free and throwaway little lockdown treat; the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. mini console took us back to the '80s; Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit gave us a brand-new shot (however fleeting) of the old Nintendo magic — two-thirds childlike wonder to one-third 'WTF', with a hefty sprinkling of nostalgia — that makes the company so exciting to follow, and so different to other platform holders.

The Super Nintendo turns 30

The 30th anniversary of the Super Famicom's launch arrived in November and had us revisiting a classic 16-bit system and its impressive library. It gave us reason to crack out not only the original console, but also the SNES Classic Mini (above). What can we say — it gets along better with our OLED.

Fortunately, Nintendo has also been adding titles to its Nintendo Switch Online offering of SNES games at a steady rate, so even if unpacking the big SNES or the little SNES was too much effort, you could always grab a quick five minutes with Super Mario World or Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts or a wide variety of other classics which begin with the word 'Super'. Not a bad system at all!

And no, the 30th anniversary of the SNES didn't make us feel old — it made us feel vintage.

The Super Mario 35th Anniversary Direct

Rumours had been doing the rounds for months, but the moment they were finally confirmed on 3rd September was sweet. The list of Mario-related announcements was impressive and arguably the closest we came to a full-fat honest-to-goodness Nintendo Direct all year.

Highlights? Well, the 3D All-Stars package and the Switch release of Super Mario 3D World were all-but-expected (although revisiting the classics in the former was just the restorative experience we needed in the tail end of 2020), but we were quite partial to the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. device, and Super Mario Bros. 35's cross between the classic platforming of Super Mario Bros. and Tetris 99 was utterly tantalising. And as we mentioned above, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit also caught our attention for its sheer inventiveness.

It might have taken a while, but the Super Mario 35th Anniversary Direct was very a satisfying reveal when it finally happened. Only the absence of Galaxy 2 and the odd time-limited aspects gave us any reason to feel glum. Maybe next year, eh?

So, those are a selection of our favourite Nintendo moments from 2020, but what about yours? Feel free to share your favourite recollections from the past twelve months and how your backlog's holding up in the comments below.