Super Mario 3D All-Stars will leave stores forever at the end of today, and it's not the only title that won't be available come April 1.
Nintendo announced a number of ways in which it planned to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary in 2020. Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a special edition Mario-themed Game and Watch, and Super Mario Bros. 35, a battle royale take on the OG game. The only caveat with all three of those games is that they had a shelf life. Not a random one like everything else. A self-imposed one put in place by Nintendo.
Nintendo announced that come March 31, 2021, the three ways in which it decided to celebrate Mario turning 35 will come to an end in three different ways. In case you don't have a calendar handy, today is March 31, 2021. As has been discussed at length, Super Mari 3D All-Stars will disappear from the Nintendo eShop at midnight tonight. Physical copies of the game will also be pulled from store shelves.
Super Mario Bros. 35 is a free game that is entirely online. Not only will it be unavailable to download come April 1, 2021, but the servers will also go offline. That will render it unplayable, even if you have already downloaded it. The Mario Game and Watch will cease production starting tomorrow. It's unclear whether any unsold systems left over will continue to be sold.
2020 and 2021 have been busy years for big video game anniversaries. Nintendo also celebrated the 30 years of Fire Emblem by releasing the original game in the west for the very first time on Switch. However, just like the Mario celebrations, the original Fire Emblem will only be available until the end of the day. Download it from the eShop now before it is presumably gone forever.
The logic behind these decisions is to force anyone on the fence about buying any of the above to get it now before it's gone. While that makes sense for some things, the decision to pull 3D All-Stars from sale is one Nintendo might regret. Mario games on Switch tend to remain best-sellers for years. There were five games based in the Mushroom Kingdom in the UK's top ten last week, two of which have been on the market for more than three years.