According to the latest rumors, a new 2D Super Mario game that's supposedly in development for the Nintendo Switch will have four playable characters. Nintendo has not released a completely new main series Super Mario game since 2017's Super Mario Odyssey, and the last time a main series 2D Super Mario game released was New Super Mario Bros. U in 2012 (discounting Super Mario Maker 2 and the mobile game Super Mario Run).

Brand-new Super Mario experiences have been hard to come by in recent years, with the closest fans have gotten being the Bowser's Fury expansion that was tacked on to the Super Mario 3D World re-release. While fans of the franchise have the new Super Mario Bros. movie to look forward to, others are hungry for a new video game project. Such a project has not yet been announced by Nintendo, but a frequent Nintendo leaker has claimed to reveal fresh details on it.

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Zippo is a leaker who specializes in leaking Nintendo-related news. Their latest blog post claims that the 2D Super Mario game should be nearing the end of its development cycle and that it will star Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad as the playable characters. Zippo pointed out that this would be the first time Peach has been playable in a 2D Super Mario game since Super Mario Bros. 2 on the NES.

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According to Zippo, this new 2D Super Mario game will be released in 2023 or 2024. If that's true, then it's reasonable to assume that a reveal could happen in the relatively near future, but Nintendo has not announced any kind of Direct or presentation at this time. Needless to say, fans should take this information with a massive grain of salt and certainly keep their expectations in check until an official reveal comes from Nintendo.

If this new 2D Super Mario Bros. game actually exists, it wouldn't be surprising for Nintendo to wait until after the Super Mario Bros. movie premieres in theaters to announce it. Nintendo has invested a lot of effort into promoting the Super Mario Bros. movie, to the point where it has hosted Nintendo Direct presentations dedicated to it, and so the Big N may not want to distract from it by announcing a new game.

In any case, this is not the first time that Zippo has made claims about this supposed new 2D Super Mario game that's said to be in development. They previously said that the game would abandon the "New" Super Mario naming convention and would see the return of Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew. Whether there's any truth to these claims remains to be seen, but if a new 2D Super Mario game is announced, it will be interesting to see how closely it matches Zippo's leaks.

A new Super Mario Bros. game is rumored to be in development for the Nintendo Switch.

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Source: Zippo