Less than 3 months ago, Nintendo revealed that they were planning to produce a new 2D Mario game for the fledgling 3DS system. Today, it was discovered that Nintendo registered the domain supermario4.com, which is currently redirecting to Nintendo of America's home page. It's currently unknown if the two are linked in any way or if Super Mario 4 is an actual property Nintendo plans on developing.
Based on the domain name there's very little that can be inferred, but given that Nintendo doesn't own any of the other variations of the "supermario" domain, aside from supermario.com, it's likely that Nintendo registered this domain with some particular intent.
While the 3DS 2D title seems the most likely given the domain name, it's entirely possible this domain is in no way correlated to that 3DS endeavor or any other game in particular. We'll be reaching out to Nintendo for a comment, but it's likely they'll have little to say for the time being. Eager gamers will likely have to wait until the upcoming E3 2012 show for light to be shed on the purpose of the domain purchase.
I would imagine Nintendo probably just registered the domain to maintain control over it. Super Mario World had a subtitle of "Super Mario Bros. 4" in Japan, and I doubt Nintendo really wants to create a divergeance in the numbering of the Mario games in the East and the West.
Or, maybe they'll retcon Super Mario World's Japanese subtitle. Could be interesting if that's the case.
I doubt anything will come of this, but I thought it would be fun to brainstorm/dream in the comment section here.
That's exactly what I was saying. I can't figure out if the game would take a heavy page from Super Mario Bros. 3 or not. I could certainly see a revival of the traditional costumes, or the 2D translation of the boomerang suit as a possibility. I actually doubt Yoshi would be in the game, unless he were a post-game bonus.
I'm not so quick to write this off. Nintendo doesn't make a habbit of picking up domains without something in mind of them.
Even if it's 20 years later.
Something all-new is long overdue. New levels, music, powerups, and enemies. Is that too much to ask?
I'd love to see Nintendo do something totally break out with a "Super Mario Bros. 4" game. New Super Mario Bros. has been a great series, but it's very much in the same vein of the original.
Just like you said Matt, all new stuff like levels, music, power-ups, and enemies is exactly what I'd like to see Nintendo do. Maybe it would be something that Good-Feel could do. The work they did with Kirby and Wario Land was pretty phenomenal, I think they could do good things with Mario.
It's gonna be a first person shooter based off of the Movie.