Super Mario Bros. 35

The player traverses two-dimensional levels as Mario. Left and right of the player's viewpoint are those of the 34 opponents.

Super Mario Bros. 35 combines run-and-jump platforming with battle royale elements. Thirty-five players each control the protagonist Mario, with Luigi being unlockable as a playable character through an Easter egg,[1] and simultaneously traverse a looped set of thirty-two two-dimensional levels.[2][3] These courses contain items, such as coins and power-ups, and enemies that are to be defeated.[4] A player wins once all other players are beaten.[5]

Different enemies appear in certain levels, with different ways of defeating them. Goombas are the most common enemies; most enemies can be defeated by jumping onto them.[6] Other enemies drop a projectile when stomped on, such as the Koopa Troopa, which drops a shell that can be kicked left or right and will ricochet when it comes in contact with an object. Bowser appears as a boss in the fourth stage of each world.[7] Enemies defeated by the player are sent to other opponents in real-time, appearing in their levels as an additional hindrance.[8] Players can either manually target their opponents or choose from four types of opponents to attack: players with the most coins collected, players with the least amount of time remaining, players who attack the player themselves, or random players.[9] Each player is assigned a timer that starts at 35 seconds. They are awarded additional seconds by eliminating enemies, and doing so in rapid succession yields higher rewards. Letting the timer run out causes the player to lose.[5]

Players can earn a bounty of coins if they knock out any opponents during a match. If a player collects 20 coins, they have the option to spend them to spin the "item roulette".[10] This provides the player with one of four items: Super Mushrooms, a mushroom that gives Mario an additional hitpoint and the ability to break blocks;[11] Fire Flowers, which give Mario the ability to shoot bouncing fireballs at enemies; Super Stars, which allow Mario to become invincible to enemies for a brief period of time;[12] and POW Blocks, which clear all enemies on the screen.[13]

In the limited-time "Special Battle" events, players compete in a fixed list of courses and conditions that has a different theme every week. These conditions can include starting with coins, a power-up, or more time on the in-game timer.[14]

Super Mario Bros. 35 was developed by Arika, starting before the release of the company's previous game, Tetris 99, in February 2019.[15] Super Mario Bros. 35 was announced on September 3, 2020, as part of the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary.[16] Following the game's announcement, comparisons were drawn between Super Mario Bros. 35 and Super Mario Royale, a fan project by InfernoPlus that Nintendo had ordered to be removed one year prior due to copyright infringement.[17] Arika denied cloning the project, stating that the game had been in development before Super Mario Royale was released.[15] Super Mario Bros. 35 was released on October 1 for free for Nintendo Switch Online members, and is set to be discontinued on March 31, 2021.[18] One week after the release, the game received an update fixing minor bugs and connection stability.[19][20] To celebrate Halloween, the Special Battle mode only had courses that were underground and night themed from October 20 to November 2, 2020.[21]

Players have been accused of hacking to obtain 99,999 coins in a single round to gain an easy supply of power-ups, allowing them to top the leaderboards. Nintendo has started to take action by removing videos published online showing gameplay that is suspected of demonstrating hacking.[22][23]

Super Mario Bros. 35 received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. The website calculated a normalized rating of 75/100 based on 28 reviews.[24]

Critics praised the game for its innovation and gameplay, while criticizing its repetition and simplicity. Chris Button from GameSpot noted how the game introduced a new competitive twist to the classic version.[26] Chris Scullion from Nintendo Life stated that it took the classic game and "dials it to 11".[5] Kirstin Swalley from Hardcore Gamer believed the concept was creative and "silly in the best kind of way".[27] Kotaku's Ethan Gach appreciated the concept, calling the late-game a "true gauntlet of death",[31] but felt that the "novelty doesn't last long".[32] Seth Macy of IGN reiterated the latter sentiment, noting that "the repetition of the early levels in Super Mario Bros. 35 definitely makes it feel less super".[28]

Major complaints from critics focused on the repetition of early levels. Players start with only one level available to play and unlock more throughout gameplay, causing many players to be forced to play through the beginning levels because beginners have yet to have more levels unlocked. Zachary Cuevas from iMore stated that the method to unlock new levels was unclear, and Chris Carter from Destructoid wrote that not enough players were choosing different levels before a match, which he believes is due to the lack of an in-game tutorial.[25][33] Button observed that the repetition creates a lack of pacing and little intensity, but that Special Battle was a good competitive alternative.[26]

Other minor complaints come from the final moments of rounds, where gameplay regularly results in two players going through levels under a test of endurance of the standard platforming. Shacknews's Ozzie Mejia stated that the final two players would "find themselves in a deadlock after playing the same levels over and over", but appreciated how the in-game timer would speed up to fit the moment.[30] Gach thought the ending competition revolved only around the standard platforming but could be challenging for skilled players.[31][32] Scullion stated the game went back and forth with the final players until someone won.[5] Aubin Gregoire from Jeuxvideo.com commented that the face-to-face battles could last up to five minutes, and the gameplay started to loop.[29]

While critics believed the game had a complex strategy, reviewers found cases where the overwhelming difficulty could be cleared by simply using a fire flower or an invincibility star. Nadia Oxford from USgamer called the game unpredictable, and liked how randomly occurring enemies gave her a new experience from her original experience with the game.[2] Ars Technica's Kyle Orland believed the fire flower was overpowered, and made getting through large groups of enemies too easy. He claimed that certain enemies, such as Bloopers and Buzzy Beetles would be more of a nuisance, but were uncommon sights.[34]

• Official website