Starting December 11th, Nintendo is returning to the cereal aisle, with a little help from Kellogg's.
Many years ago, Nintendo had its very own space on the shelf next to the likes of Tony The Tiger and Toucan Sam. The "Nintendo Cereal System," as it was called, consisted of two different cereals: "Super Mario Brothers" and "The Legend Of Zelda." These two cereals came in separate bags, letting you "save breakfast" with whichever game you were hungry for.
[Via: YouTube/Retro Games TV Commercial HD]
The cereal was made by Ralston, which was a good choice for Nintendo at that time. Ralston was no stranger to taking licensed characters and turning them into food. Besides Nintendo characters, they also released cereals based on 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'Gremlins,' just to name a few.
'Nintendo Cereal System' gets a game over
Unfortunately, this wasn't the massive success that Nintendo and Ralston had hoped for. Despite a long existence in stores for 3 years, from 1986 to 1989, the product wasn't without problems. Having two skinny bags inside of the box rather than just one made it difficult to pour.
Because of this, some chose to take both bags out of the box and use them individually. Without the "system" box, the purpose of the packaging was gone.
A meal fit for a plumber
Since then, Nintendo has had other spots at the breakfast table: 'Donkey Kong' cereal in 1981 and 'Donkey Kong Junior' cereal in 1983. Years after those are gone, Mario is coming back with 'Super Mario Cereal.'
Coming in hot on the heels of the massively popular "Super Mario Odyssey" game for Nintendo Switch, it features a smiling Mario and Cappy on the box. It advertises a berry-flavored cereal with "Power-Up marshmallows" in the shape of a Question Block, Super Mushrooms, and 1-Up Mushrooms.
Power up with amiibo
Despite Mario and his new morning snack taking the center stage, that's not all: the box boasts that it can act as an amiibo.
For those unaware, amiibo are small figures and cards of various Nintendo characters. These can be used to unlock content in Nintendo video games, or help the player by giving power-ups and abilities.
How is a cardboard box meant to do this? The back of the box has an area for the player to scan with their Nintendo Switch. Nintendo says the box will give players gold coins or a heart power-up in "Super Mario Odyssey", which is sure to help players in their quest.
The cereal will be available for a limited time only.