Super Mario 64 Switch 2 Remake May Not Arrive Until 2030

More and more fans are convinced a Super Mario 64 remake is on the way for the Nintendo Switch 2. If that sounds sudden, or even a little far-fetched, the reasoning behind it holds up better than you might expect. Looking at what Nintendo has been doing lately, the idea fits a pattern, and it also raises fair questions about when it would land and what would change.

The biggest reason for the buzz is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake. It is easily the most ambitious remake Nintendo has ever done. The game has been rebuilt to look like it was made from scratch for the Switch 2, and it adds voice acting, a fully orchestrated soundtrack, mechanics borrowed from modern Zelda games, and a handful of gameplay changes.

Nintendo has never gone this far with a remake before.

It is not a one-off, either. Star Fox got a similar treatment, with visuals that look current and a lot of work put into multiplayer and online features. Two projects like that suggest Nintendo is more open to big remakes than it used to be, and that opens the door for other important games getting the same attention.

Mario 64 is the obvious candidate. It and Ocarina of Time are probably the two most important games from the Nintendo 64 era, since they shaped how 3D games moved forward. If Nintendo is willing to treat Ocarina of Time with this much care, it is easy to picture the same thing happening with Mario when the time comes. A Super Mario 64 remake just makes sense on paper.

Nintendo also has a habit of bringing both games back. Ocarina of Time returned on the GameCube with Master Quest included, then on the Nintendo 3DS as Ocarina of Time 3D, and now it is getting a big remake on Switch 2. Mario's history is similar.

After the original launched in 1996, Super Mario 64 DS arrived as a launch title for the Nintendo DS. It was a fairly ambitious take for its time, with 30 extra Power Stars, multiplayer, minigames, and touch-screen controls. The game was revisited again for Mario's 35th anniversary through Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which bundled Mario Galaxy, Mario Sunshine and Mario 64.

That one was a much simpler job. It was clearly still an N64 game, just with cleaned-up text and a slightly upscaled HUD, so not much work went into it. Since Nintendo has gone back to Mario 64 several times, just as it has with Ocarina of Time, another return seems likely.

Given those ambitious remakes, a rebuilt Mario 64 seems almost inevitable.

In an era when the company is happier to give its most important games the full remake treatment, as Star Fox and Ocarina of Time show, a Super Mario 64 remake feels almost inevitable. It may not happen in this console generation, but at some point Nintendo will go back and rebuild it. There is a practical side to this too. A remake does not need the main team.

The blueprint for a good game already exists, so another group can handle the work while a few key people oversee it. That helps Nintendo's development pipeline and gives fans something big to play while the main team finishes its next original project. The Zelda team is most likely working on the next open-world entry now, a follow-up to Tears of the Kingdom, and the Ocarina of Time remake works as a holdover until it is ready.

Other companies do the same. Square Enix has the Final Fantasy VII remake series, and Capcom keeps releasing Resident Evil remakes, yet both still put out brand-new games in their main franchises. Nintendo looks to be heading down a similar road. With Star Fox and Ocarina of Time both getting ambitious remakes this year, this probably is not the end of it.

Some people think the Super Mario 64 remake will be next. That is not the expectation here, and you probably should not count on seeing it soon. The Ocarina of Time Remake made sense early in the new console's life cycle because Nintendo needed an ambitious 3D Zelda release, and Tears of the Kingdom only came out in 2023. Games like that take years, so a new open-world Zelda is at least a couple of years away, maybe more.

A remake fills that gap neatly.

Mario is in a different spot. No new 3D Mario has come out since 2017, aside from the smaller Bowser's Fury expansion for 3D World in 2021. If you count only full games, Super Mario Odyssey goes back even further. Fans need something new soon, and Nintendo does not want to flood the schedule with remakes.

Getting only big remakes for both Zelda and Mario at the start of this generation, with nothing new for either, would not go over well, especially after the Mario Galaxy remasters from last year. So the order matters. A Super Mario 64 remake before the next original entry in the series does not add up. Still, the wait for that game has been long, which could justify a holdover.

The more realistic plan is a Super Mario 64 remake arriving in the second half of the console's life, a few years after the new 3D Mario lands. That game has not been announced, but news could come in 2027. If the next 3D Mario arrives in 2027, a release around 2029 or 2030 looks plausible, and 2030 stands out.

It would line up with Mario's 45th anniversary, and Nintendo usually likes to mark milestones like that with a rerelease of some kind. It already put out an ambitious Ocarina of Time remake for Zelda's 40th anniversary, so the same approach for Mario's 45th anniversary is believable. The call here is a Super Mario 64 remake in 2030, about four years from now.

As for what Nintendo would change, its work on Ocarina of Time offers a good guide.

Modern visuals and camera controls are a safe bet. Mario in Super Mario Odyssey moves in a very free-flowing way, and the developers would likely want to bring some of that feel to the older game with subtle changes. It would not be surprising if ideas from the next 3D Mario showed up too, since that game will become the new standard for the character.

Where things get more interesting is whether Nintendo would bring back what Super Mario 64 DS introduced, namely 30 new stars, playable Yoshi, Luigi and Wario, plus multiplayer and minigames. The minigames are unlikely, since they were built around the DS hardware. The multiplayer and the extra characters could return in some form, and the additional 30 stars would make the game bigger.

Multiplayer in a mainline 3D platformer has been done before with Super Mario 3D World, so a version for a Super Mario 64 remake wouldn't be shocking. A modernized local mode with online play added would be a nice touch. You could argue the mode has not aged well and that the focus should be on improving the main campaign, and there may be something to that.

Most Mario platformers now have some kind of co-op, so Nintendo could rethink it, perhaps limiting the playable roster to Mario and Luigi. With a playable Luigi, the world might need a co-op rework, with both local and online options. This is speculation, but polishing those extra 30 stars would make the game feel refined and complete, and fans would likely be happy.

Online features could go further.

Mario Odyssey's Luigi's Balloon World update let you challenge other players' times, and something similar would fit well here. Exploring the worlds of Mario 64, completing challenges, and comparing your times against others would be a meaningful addition to a Super Mario 64 remake. That covers what to expect from what looks like an inevitable Super Mario 64 remake, one of Nintendo's most important games.

It could be a few years, and a brand-new entry in the series has to come first, but the recent remakes and Mario's 45th anniversary in 2030 all seem to point to the same answer. Nintendo might bring back content from Super Mario 64 DS, or it might do something entirely different. Nobody outside the company knows yet.