Nintendo Game and Watch Super Mario Bros 2020 for Xmas!

For Xmas this year my wife was kind enough to buy me a Nintendo Game & Watch specially released in 2020 by Nintendo to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Mario!

Back in the 1980's, like many other kids of that era, I had a couple of Nintendo Game & Watch games, specifically Oil Panic and Octopus.

Later on I picked up Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Game & Watch games.

I gave them all away when I got my first Nintendo Gameboy in 1992 and kind of forgot about Game & Watch until the Nintendo DS era, when Nintendo released two Game & Watch DS games for it, under the now closed Japanese and Australian Club Nintendo. You had to buy a lot of DS games to accumulate enough points in Club Nintendo to redeem for these special items.

Being able to play some favourite Game & Watch games again on the Nintendo DS like Octopus, Donkey Kong and Oil Panic was fantastic.

Club Nintendo Australia allowed you to redeem points for some special extras and titles not released outside Club Nintendo. I got these DS storage containers from Club Nintendo Australia before it shut down.

The cream of the crop of these redeemable items though was only available from Club Nintendo in Japan - a 2010 remake of the very first Game & Watch game, called Ball, originally released in 1980. 

Luckily for me, my wife and I had bought a number of DS games in Japan during my many years working there on various IT projects, and this allowed me to get this very special Game & Watch:

Here is the special edition Game & Watch game called Ball.

The unit itself was quite small compared to the later Game & Watch games like Octopus and the even larger dual screen games.

Here is Ball up and running on this special Game & Watch!

I still have this Game & Watch!

In recent times I was interested in getting Donkey Kong, Octopus and Oil Panic Game & Watch games back again, but the prices on Ebay have just got stupid in 2020. Maybe one day.

Nintendo seriously got my attention in 2020 with the announcement of the new limited release Super Mario Bros Game & Watch. Predictably the pre-orders for Australia sold out within hours and sadly I missed out.

I was very disappointed, but my wife tracked down a Japanese version of the Game & Watch Super Marios Bros released in Japan in 2020 and got it shipped to Australia in time for Xmas!

I was really happy to get this!

This Game & Watch is a little bit special. It has a full colour screen, and runs the NES versions of Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 2. Like all Game & Watch games, it also has a Clock time functionality. It also has a special Mario themed version of the original Game & Watch game Ball (the original shown in the 2010 remake above)

Here is the case:

It has a clear cover with various Mario themed images, which can be removed from the gold coloured cardboard case:

When opening, it was a nice touch to see the "Special thanks to you" on the flap:

Here is the Game & Watch Super Mario Bros:

It is a beautiful system, and looks very similar to the original Game & Watch games of the Octopus era. It is a little bit wider on the right hand side to accommodate the A and B buttons to be located side by side rather than on top of each other as they were on most Game & Watches. This has been done presumably so it matches up to the NES controller button locations. Kinda makes sense since it is the NES version of Super Mario Bros.

Here is the rear of the system - disappointedly there is no built in stand so that the Game & Watch can sit up by itself when in Time mode (a common feature of the original single screen Game & Watches) - I will need something else to allow me to do that:

There is a power button and USB-C port on the side of the unit for power on/off and for USB-C charging. No pencil battery and battery cover to lose. Glad about that!

On first power on you get a nice Mario image - amazing to see a colour Game & Watch screen:

The Game & Watch switches to Time display mode, which has a great Game & Watch second tick sound, and nice Mario another enemies move around the screen and adjust the time as it changes. The screen backdrop changes from night to day depending on the time, which is another nice touch.

When you select Game option, you can choose Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, and the Mario themed Ball to play.

I couldn't wait to play Super Mario Bros, and jumped right in. It plays identically to the NES version, but it does remember where you are in the game if you decide to power off or switch to time mode later on. This is great!

My wife reckons the screen is a bit small, but Game & Watch screens were always small!

I recorded a quick video showing the Game & Watch Super Mario Bros in action:

You can access the video directly on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/FM9MBg-oYXo

If you get the chance to get one of these Game & Watches while they are still available, and especially if you love Game & Watch games, I highly recommend grabbing one.