About this game
All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. (1986) is one of the rarest officially licensed Nintendo games ever produced. Created as a promotional tie-in for Nippon Broadcasting System's long-running radio program All Night Nippon, this Famicom Disk System exclusive replaces the original Super Mario Bros. sprites with caricatures of the show's DJs and celebrities — turning Nintendo's biggest game into a surreal media crossover artifact. Only 3,040 copies were ever made, distributed solely through a postcard lottery aired on the radio in December 1986.
Key Features
The game uses the same level structure as the original Super Mario Bros. (1985), but all enemy and NPC sprites are replaced with caricatures of All Night Nippon radio personalities and celebrities of the era. The Mushroom Kingdom is renamed Biba Ōkoku (Viva Kingdom) — a reference to the show's tagline "Viva Young." The soundtrack by Koji Kondo is carried over unchanged from the original.
The Story Behind
In 1986, All Night Nippon was celebrating its 20th anniversary and commissioned Nintendo to create a custom version of Super Mario Bros. as a listener giveaway. The collaboration is a snapshot of a moment when Nintendo's brand was powerful enough to be enlisted as a premium promotional tool for Japan's biggest radio franchise. Because the game was distributed by postcard lottery — never sold at retail — original copies in any condition are extraordinarily scarce, making this one of the most prized items in Famicom Disk System collecting.
Tricks & Tales
The 3,040 units produced were divided into two batches: 2,000 allocated for the radio lottery and the remaining copies distributed through other promotional channels. Because disk copies could theoretically be duplicated with a Disk Writer kiosk, the authenticity of surviving originals is difficult to verify — a fact that adds complexity to the collector market. Among the celebrity replacements, some of the sprite swaps became pop-culture references in their own right among Japanese gaming enthusiasts of the era.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Japan exclusive. Never released outside Japan, never sold at retail anywhere. The game was produced for and distributed by Nippon Broadcasting System as a promotional item only.
Maintenance Tips
As with all Famicom Disk System software, the magnetic disk is susceptible to data degradation over time. Storage in a cool, dry environment away from magnetic fields is essential. Given the extreme rarity, any known copy should be backed up to a disk image immediately. The plastic shell should be inspected for cracks — the shutter mechanism is a common failure point on aged disks.
Available in our shop
Hand-cleaned and tested units shipped worldwide from Toyohashi, Japan. HP direct purchase exclusive: we include a printed shop owner's note card with every order.
Direct purchase supports this museum directly. eBay Top Rated Seller · 1,750+ reviews · 100% positive feedback.
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