Unofficial Super Mario Bros. Remastered is Coming to PC – No Objections From Nintendo
Nintendo is known for coming down heavy on emulated versions of its games, but there’s a new PC port coming from noted modder and YouTuber JoeMama that’s looking to sidestep any legal gray areas. Super Mario Bros. Remastered requires an original ROM for the NES version of Super Mario Bros. to run, in an effort to avoid Nintendo taking issue with the project. It’s set for release on PC on Sept. 13, 2025.
JoeMama is a YouTuber who’s most active in the modding scene, with Super Mario World Remastered being his previous project. Similar to this new Mario project, it reworked the original game in Godot to include quality of life tweaks and features like modern physics and customization options.
“SMB1R (Super Mario Bros. Remastered) is a from the ground up remake of the classic Super Mario Bros. games and its various versions, and re-releases, it is built from the ground up, and features new content and quality of life improvements. It’s also fully open source,” JoeMama posted in his official Discord.
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Mama Mia!
Super Mario Bros. was first released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, and has since spawned 24 titles as mainline entries into the franchise, with roughly 200 related games overall. Super Mario Bros. Remastered will let players customize the look and sound of the game by incorporating resource packs based on (not explicitly taken from) other Mario titles.
Resource packs are themselves a legal gray area, as it does depend on where the assets come from. However, if a gamer were to faithfully recreate a texture or sound from an existing game, then it’s technically fanmade and should be suitable for fair use.
JoeMama has highlighted extra content from Super Mario Bros. DX and All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. as examples of what can be achieved, as well as showcased a built-in level editor that also allows players to use textures from a variety of other Mario titles.
Nintendo or Nintendon’t, There is no Try
Gamers have shown plenty of concern about Super Mario Bros. Remastered being revealed too soon, thereby giving Nintendo a chance to issue a DMCA against it before it gets a proper release. However, there have been precedents set by previous games, and even emulators, to try and stop Nintendo from stomping a project to death like a goomba.
Super Mario 64 Coop Deluxe is still going strong, whereas Super Mario Flashback development is on hiatus, but a demo is still available. There’s also Mari0, which combines the original Super Mario Bros. with Portal. Notably, Nintendo tends to take a dim view of games that are trying to make money from its IP, and these are all free, if not also open source.
Emulator-wise, Nintendo shut down Ryujinx, Yuzu and Citra, but hasn’t touched others such as Dolphin and Azahar; the latter is based on Citra, only runs ROMs obtained through official Nintendo channels, and is, like Super Mario Bros. Remastered, open source.
