Nintendo respects its own strange past with new Super Mario Odyssey outfits

Nintendo recently announced that Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch will get two new outfits added to the in-game shop and, while one is pretty basic, the other requires a bit of an explanation.

The Baseball Uniform and Batting Helmet are the sort of general clothing options that already fill the game, although the color is likely a reference to Nintendo’s past majority ownership of the Seattle Mariners, but what the heck is the Satellaview Suit and Helmet?

The Satellaview was an add-on for the Super Nintendo that would allow players to download and play games and other content through a satellite connection. It was launched in Japan in 1995, and was never brought to any other markets. The service that delivered the content to players’ homes was only available for certain hours of the day, and sales of the hardware and subscriptions never took off.

It’s a strange piece of Nintendo’s history, even if aspects of the Satellaview hardware and service feel a bit ahead of their time. The outfit that Mario wears in this new content is meant to look like the space suit he wore in commercials for the Satellaview’s launch.

You can take a look at the hardware in the video below; it’s a fascinating piece of Nintendo’s history that’s rarely discussed away from communities of diehard collectors. Then again, many fans outside of Seattle probably don’t remember that Nintendo owned such a big chunk of a baseball team in the U.S. These outfits are a fun way to reference both pieces of Nintendo past.