Nintendo has removed scans of the 26-year-old Super Mario 64 strategy guide. Because of course, it has. Nice one Nintendo!
About a week ago, the elusive Super Mario 64 Complete Clear Guide Book made its way onto the internet. Albeit it wasn’t the actual book of course, but rather scans of the original guide. This made a lot of Super Mario fans happy because it’s exceedingly difficult to obtain a copy of this guide.
What makes this guide so special?
For starters, this guide was only ever released in Japan, and not anywhere else in the world. Additionally, it also featured amazing diorama artwork, which functioned as 3D maps on its pages. Furthermore, the guide was released over a quarter of a decade ago, so getting hold of a copy in decent condition is like gold dust.
The only way you can obtain a physical copy of this book nowadays is via auction websites. However, you will have to pay at least £200 to £300 to acquire it. Also, because the book is only available via third parties, today, Nintendo makes no money whatsoever from sales. Which makes its recent decision all the more disappointing.
Why Nintendo? WHY?!
Unfortunately, as reported by Kotaku, Nintendo has now removed the scanned pages from the internet. To repeat, Nintendo no longer makes any money from the original guide, there are no official means to buy the guide (physical or digital), and absolutely no one else was making any money from the scans.
Sure, Nintendo has every right to remove the scans, but it doesn’t make it any less disappointing. In fact, it feels quite selfish. Almost like a toddler that doesn’t want to share toys at nursery. To give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they might one day release an official digital version of this guide. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Statement released
Nintendo issued a takedown notice to the Internet Archive, where the guide was being hosted and then passed to the scan’s uploader, Comfort Food Video Games. “Sadly archive.org sent me their usual takedown notice email telling me Nintendo of America challenged the copyright of the scan and it was removed,” CFVG told Kotaku.
“Frankly, I’d love to challenge the legitimacy of that and how Nintendo of America would have anything to do with a Nintendo of Japan licensed Gem Books guide from 1995 but I can’t really fight the Nintendo legal team here. It’s incredibly disappointing.”
“While I fully understand protecting one’s IP and copyrights, I didn’t think I was hurting anyone by scanning and uploading a 27-year-old guide that is extremely out of print. Truthfully, I think it helps Nintendo while only hurting the people selling this guide for literal hundreds of dollars. All I wanted to do was spread my love of this incredible guide and to a larger extent my love for the company.”
The statement continued: “I’m a rookie to the video game preservation scene but I can’t think of anything more depressing than how it’s a bunch of hard-working people spending their free time and money painstakingly archiving and preserving history while major corporations like Nintendo are doing nothing to help. In fact, they’re actively hindering the cause.”
What are your thoughts on Nintendo taking down scans of this obsolete Super Mario 64 guide? Let us know across our social media channels.
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Featured Image Credit: Nintendo