The Criminally Underrated New Super Mario Bros U is Headed to Switch

In a surprise announcement during today's Nintendo Direct, New Super Mario Bros U is being ported over to the Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Direct today announced that as part of the Switch's ongoing campaign to bring overlooked Wii U games to the system, New Super Mario Bros U will be coming to the Switch.

Released in 2012, New Super Mario Bros U was a launch game for the Wii U, and remains the Wii U's second best-selling game behind Mario Kart 8. The game is a continuation of the New Super Mario Bros line of games which aimed to modernize the classic 2D Mario experience for newer generations.

New Super Mario Bros U iterated on previous New Super Mario titles by adding a fifth player into multiplayer who can interact with the environment via the Wii U gamepad. Miis were also introduced as playable avatars for players who played multiplayer. A spinoff focusing on Luigi titled New Super Luigi U was released a year later.

Along with recurring characters like Peach, Toad, and Yoshis with various powers, new suits and power-ups were also introduced such as the flying squirrel outfit. Baby Yoshis were also introduced in New Super Mario Bros U and could be used to hover mid-air, or blow bubbles as an attack.

While well-received upon launch, the overall lackluster performance of the Wii U meant that not as many players played New Super Mario Bros U as previous New Super Mario installments on the Wii and 3DS. This is a shame, since New Super Mario Bros U was arguably the most polished and refined iteration of the series up until this point.

No word yet on a proper release date for New Super Mario Bros U, but we will update you when that information becomes available. In the meantime check out our full coverage of today's Nintendo Direct here.