So, What Exactly Is the Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 Switch 2 Bundle?
Okay, so. Nintendo did the thing it always does, which is take two games that already sold like crazy on a system from nearly two decades ago and repackage them as the reason you should finally buy new hardware. The Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 Switch 2 bundle ties the Wii era classics Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 to Switch 2 hardware hype, and honestly? It's a genuinely smart move, even if it's not exactly subtle.
The promotion kicked off on April 12, with pricing showing up on the Nintendo eShop and at select retailers carrying both digital and physical copies. If you've been sitting on the fence about picking up a Switch 2 and you never got around to playing either Galaxy game (or you did, back on your parents' Wii, and you want to relive it), this is the on-ramp Nintendo built for you.
The Actual Deal: Numbers, Catches, and the UK Confusion
Here's the thing, the discount isn't just "buy both Galaxy games and save." According to Nintendo's own announcement, you get $20 off when you buy a Nintendo Switch 2 console together with both Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, physical or digital, in a single transaction, at participating retailers. So the $20 comes off the console-plus-games purchase as a whole, not off the two games sitting there by themselves. Small distinction, but it matters if you're doing math before you check out.
Now, you'll see this floating around as a "$20/£20" deal, and I want to be straight with you here because I genuinely could not pin down a solid source confirming a £20 UK equivalent. Not CNET, not anywhere reliable. As far as I can tell, this reads as a US-only promotion, and if a UK version exists, it's unconfirmed. I'd treat the £20 figure as a rumor floating around the internet rather than an actual Nintendo of Europe deal until something official says otherwise.
Two Games That Basically Reinvented 3D Platforming
I will die on this hill: Super Mario Galaxy, which launched on the Wii back in 2007, is one of the best 3D platformers ever made, full stop. The gravity gimmick, running around tiny spherical planets while the camera and physics just casually reorient themselves, sounds like it shouldn't work and then it just... does. Completely. It's the kind of design that still gets studied because nobody else has quite nailed that feeling since.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 followed in 2010 and, look, sequels that refine rather than reinvent usually get treated like the lesser sibling, but not this one. It took everything from the first game, tightened it, added Yoshi, threw in some genuinely unhinged level ideas, and somehow came out the other side arguably better paced than the original. If you've only played one of these, you are missing half the conversation.
Why Nintendo Keeps Pairing New Hardware With Old Gold
Mario is, by a wide margin, Nintendo's most valuable IP. We're talking hundreds of millions of units sold across the franchise, with entries like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe still moving copies years after launch like it's brand new. So when Nintendo needs to make a new console feel worth the money, they don't reach for some untested new IP, they reach for the plumber. It's not cynical exactly, it's just... the math works. German-language coverage of this bundle has framed it as part of a recurring Nintendo strategy: pair strong, familiar software with new hardware to lower the barrier to entry and make the console shelf pop, especially when autumn competition from other platforms gets loud. And yeah, that tracks with basically every hardware cycle Nintendo has run since forever.
Where to Actually Buy It
The bundle promotion runs through the Nintendo eShop for the digital route, and through select retailers if you'd rather have a box on your shelf. Because the discount is tied to buying the console and both games together in one transaction, you'll want to make sure your cart actually reflects that combo before you check out, physical or digital, doesn't matter, just has to be one purchase. If you already own a Switch 2 and just want the games on their own, they're still available individually, you just won't be eligible for this particular $20 knock-off.
A Small Japanese Detour, Because We're That Kind of Site
Since this is jpnerd and I can't help myself: the word for galaxy in Japanese is 銀河 (ginga, galaxy), and if you ever poke around Japanese Mario fan spaces, you'll see the games referred to with that word baked right into casual conversation. Power Stars get called 星 (hoshi, star) (star) constantly, and gravity, the whole mechanical soul of these games, is 重力 (juuryoku, gravity). None of that is required knowledge to enjoy the bundle, obviously, but if you're using Mario as a gateway into learning Japanese (which, weirdly, works better than you'd think, the vocabulary is simple and the context is everywhere), those three words are a decent place to start.
