Arcade Archives VS Mario Bros.

If you're reading this site, you're probably pretty familiar with the general plot of almost every Mario game in existence. As Mario (and sometimes Luigi), you'll be heading off to rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of the Mushroom Kingdom's biggest baddie, Bowse– WRONG. Nope, apparently we've all been interpreting it wrong all these years.

We kid, of course, but the digital manual included in Arcade Archives VS. Super Mario Bros. on Switch tells a different story. The game, a rerelease of Super Mario Bros.' Nintendo VS.SYSTEM edition that launched back in 1986, was published on Switch by Hamster in 2017, along with the following text.

Check out that first line (with thanks to WayForward's James Montagna for the spot)...

Arcade Archives VS Mario Bros.
Erm... they'll be rescuing who now? — Image: via @JamesPopStar

So, hang on... Has Peach been tricking us all along? Is Bowser actually innocent in all of this?

What makes the whole situation even weirder is the fact that this error has presumably been present for almost four years now; the game launched in December 2017, so has no one spotted the mistake and thought to patch it? Perhaps someone at Hamster knows something we don't and is anonymously trying to get the truth out there.

We're on to you, Peach.

[source twitter.com]