Hype for Mario as a franchise likely hasn’t been higher than it has reached today.

With the upcoming movie coming in a couple months and the opening of the theme park based on the Mushroom Kingdom, more eyes are on the portly plumber than ever before. Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a new mainline Mario game with all the hype surrounding him.

The last new big 3D title was Super Mario Odyssey way back in 2017. While Mario 3D World with the Bowser’s Fury add-on came as a new adventure in 2021, it was just an upgraded port.

Meanwhile, other notable IPs for Nintendo have seen sequels/follow-ups such as the recently released Fire Emblem Engage and the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, both of which are coming in this year alone.

So it would make more sense for Nintendo to be focusing on what is their flagship franchise at this time.

Shigeru Miyamoto was asked (via IGN) when another mainline Mario game is coming. The legendary creator was reserved in giving out any concrete information, but did hint of something coming up for the famous plumber.

“We’re always working on Mario, so when we get to a time where we can share information, we’ll certainly do so,” Miyamoto said. Of course this statement is vague and can be taken in many different ways.

For example, Nintendo really does always work on Mario as his multiple spinoffs launch yearly, such as Mario Strikers: Battle League last year and the work on the DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Though this was the response to why there hasn’t been a game to go along with the theme park and movie. This means there could be something in the works that Nintendo is holding off on announcing until they know it’s ready.