In celebration of Mario's 35th anniversary, Nintendo has placed Super Mario All-Stars in the Switch Online service. Of course, this isn't just the same game on a new console, it's been remastered to look its best on the Switch, which you can see in a new video comparing the game on different consoles.
Nintendo is pulling out all the stops when it comes to Mario's anniversary; and while the new Super Mario 3D All-Stars is leaving something to be desired, there is still a lot for fans of the franchise to be excited about. There is a battle royale game, a redesigned theme in the Eshop, and even collectible pins to get your hands on. Obviously, all of this would be incomplete if some of the classic Mario games weren't available for the latest console, which is where All-Stars comes in.
YouTuber ElAnalistaDeBits uploaded a video comparing how the original All-Stars game compared between the SNES, Wii, and the Switch. The differences are pretty striking when they are compared side-by-side like this. Obviously, the overall look has improved over time and over the different consoles, but what's perhaps most impressive, is that the game has retained its feel from all those years ago. We would venture to guess that without this side-by-side comparison, you wouldn't notice that the quality of the visuals has improved as drastically as it has.
Perhaps this is due, in part, to the fact that the game is simply running at a much higher resolution than it previously was. The Original SNES game was running at the hilariously low—although standard for the time—resolution of 256 x 224. Today, on the Switch, it is running at the standard 1920 x 1080. Clearly, when you improve the resolution five-times over, things are going to look better, but we also suspect that there was more than just copying and pasting involved here.
Even though Mario is continuing to age, we think that he's never looked better than he has on the Switch. That being said, if Nintendo really is using Disney's concept of "the vault" to artificially increase interest in old games, then we recommend that you pick up copies of the Mario games that you want right now. Who knows, they might not be there six months from now.
Source: YouTube