Nintendo has been unapologetic about branching out with its brands lately, and its latest announcement is certainly not bucking the trend.
In collaboration with the Mojang, Super Mario Mash-Up Pack for Minecraft – Wii U Edition has seen the light of day, and the game seems to be a lot more than just a skin over the existing Minecraft interface.
In addition to re-skinning some favourite content from Minecraft (our favourite change is the POW block that functions as TNT), there is also some music from Super Mario 64 as well as assets from across the Mario universe, right back to the early NES days.
The update launches for free for existing Minecraft – Wii U Edition owners on May 17th, while a disc with the full version of the game as well as the new Mario content launches for $30 on June 17th, just a month later. For those who have yet to purchase Minecraft on Wii U, picking up the disc will still net a free download of the new content when it launches next Tuesday.
It seems like Nintendo is pretty upbeat about getting its brands and characters in as many properties as it makes sense to, and even though this is technically a partnership with Microsoft, Minecraft being one of the most successful games of all time certainly couldn’t hurt Nintendo’s sales of the Wii U.