This Super Mario Bros. 3 Announcement Is Coming To Blu-Ray

Once upon a time, there was no such thing as a Nintendo Direct. Game magazines reigned supreme, but those magazines had a flaw: they couldn't actually show you the title in action. When it came time to promote Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo found a fairly clever way around this, ginning up tons of hype for Mario's next adventure. Now you'll soon be able to watch the Super Mario Bros. 3 announcement on Blu-ray.

You just have to skip through most of a pretty bad movie.

The Wizard is a 1989 film about a somewhat troubled kid who discovers he's really, really good at video games. Like, Ninja-level good. You won't find a lot of love for this particular flick from critics, though it's managed to amass a strange cult following over the decades since its release. Why? We can't really say. But it might have to do with the fact that it confirmed Super Mario Bros. 3 as a release in the West.

(The game had already come out in Japan by the time the movie hit theaters, in case you're wondering.)

To our knowledge, we've not really seen a video game company try this since. Dom wasn't playing Forza Motorsport 8 in the latest Fast and the Furious movie, for instance. Ryan Reynolds probably won't be roaming the world of Grand Theft Auto 6 in Free Guy (though the film seems very much inspired by GTA's open world sandbox). Allowing Super Mario Bros. 3 to appear in The Wizard showed very early on that Nintendo was willing to think outside the box in terms of marketing its products. The vehicle itself — the movie — might not have been great. But people were sure ready to snatch up Super Mario Bros. 3 once they saw it.

It's possible you can draw a straight line from The Wizard to the Nintendo Directs we see today. The movie took footage of Super Mario Bros. 3 directly to players. Nintendo's streams serve the same function. In a way, that makes The Wizard an important part of Nintendo's history. If you don't agree, you can at least admit the film is a reminder the Power Glove existed.

The Wizard comes to Blu-ray on March 24, 2020. You can pre-order it now.