Amid everything announced at the Nintendo Direct for March 2025, the publisher revealed – and launched – an app called Nintendo Today, promising news on Switch 2 and much more. Nintendo immediately proved how serious it was about putting real announcements here by revealing the release date for the Zelda movie through the app, but I'm most of all stunned to see tips on how to beat 40-year-old video games like the original Super Mario Bros. for NES.
Nintendo Today lets you select game series that you're interested in, and if you picked Mario as one of your favorites, you might now see a post labeled under "guide to the world of Super Mario" all about the first world of the original NES game. "The first world of the Mushroom Kingdom," Nintendo explains. "Goombas and Koopa Troopas stand in your way in challenging courses above and below ground."
A few screenshots of World 1 – the mid-air platforms of 1-3 and the Bowser fight in 1-4 – follow, then there's a tip section. "Climb above the last ceiling using the lift in World 1-2 to find pipes leading to World 2, 3, and 4," the tip explains.
And... that's it. As somebody in his mid-30s who started gaming on a pre-owned NES, it's tough to imagine the idea of not just knowing, in some primordial part of your gamer brain, how to reach the World 1 warp zone, but there's surely no shortage of Mario-obsessed kids here in 2025 playing the original through the Nintendo Switch Online library for the first time.
Among the series you can select to be shown in the app, there's also an option for "Classics" which, itself, is labeled with an 8-bit image of Mario. Nothing out of this category has crossed my feed just yet, but now I'm deeply curious what's going to appear there. Personally, I've got my fingers crossed for some hot Clu Clu Land tips.
This is our definitive ranking of the best Mario games ever made.
