While many of Nintendo's IPs like Mario have explored a variety of different genres, from platformers, to sports games, to puzzle games, The Legend of Zelda tends to stay true to its action-adventure roots. So, it came to the surprise of many when it was announced that the Zelda series would receive its own musou spinoff in the form of Hyrule Warriors, a collaboration between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, on the Wii U back in 2014.

Many fans were surprised to see Nintendo allow such drastic experimentation with one of its most-beloved IPs, but the Breath of the Wild musou prequel Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity changed that late last year, legitimizing the game genre in the eyes of many fans. And while The Legend of Zelda has officially received the 1 vs. 100 treatment, it seems that the president of Koei Tecmo would like to create a Super Mario musou game, as well.

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In a recent interview with video game website TheGamer, Samurai Warriors 5 producer and president of Koei Tecmo Games Hisashi Koinuma was asked which musou crossover game he would be most interested in working on. While he clarified that he and Koei Tecmo have unfortunately not had the chance to collaborate with the IP yet, Koinuma responded with interest in a Mario musou game.

In a similar interview with German video game website JP Gamer, Koinuma mentioned that while he would love to see a Super Mario Warriors-styled game, he is unsure as to how the idea would become a reality. In a separate interview late last year, Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi explained that Koei Tecmo was surprised when it was approached by Nintendo to create another Hyrule Warriors game, but also hopes to create more interesting games like Age of Calamity in the future. With the ways that the Super Mario franchise has been expanding lately, through an animated Mario film, Universal's Super Nintendo World theme park, and more, the idea may not seem so far-fetched.

It's also worth mentioning that the Super Mario series is certainly no stranger to spinoffs with third-party studios, such as the Square Enix-developed-Mario Hoops 3-on-3, and the Ubisoft-developed Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Many fans were shocked to see the Mario series enter the turn-based tactics genre with an XCOM-style game, so while Nintendo is protective of its IPs, it seems just as open to experimenting.

Fans are excited to learn what Nintendo has been up to at this year's all-virtual E3 experience coming up just next month. So far, the only upcoming Mario game that Nintendo has shared with fans is Mario Golf: Super Rush, developed by Camelot Software Planning and set to launch on the Nintendo Switch just next month. It will certainly be interesting to see if any more Mario spinoffs come to fruition.

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Source: TheGamer/JP Games