It was a rather cryptic tweet from Nintendo that was responsible for sending the online world into a tizzy with not much validation-Who even knows?? The post displayed the two iconic gaming mascots, Mario and Astro-Bot from PlayStation, looking side by side, with the inscription: “Repping two of our fave pals.” Zero context, zero reason, just vibes. This, of course, is when the gamers went nuts in deciphering the photograph’s meaning.
Now, with that picture, bulking it up with Mario standing in company with that cute little Astro Bot really carries much weight. Being called “fave pals” by the official Nintendo account just does not sit well with the usual.
Quite predictably, the Internet was split into two camps: hopeful dreamers dreaming of some crossover and the skeptics saying, “Leave it alone-it’s just a cute post.”
The thing is, Nintendo does not just post anything randomly. They are real hype masters working to tease the fanbase ever so gently toward their announcement flows for whatever news they have in the pipeline. Remember when Metroid Dread was shadow-dropped? Or when a new Zelda afficionado was shown completely unannounced, without a hint?
You catch the drift-they are not playing. So this tweet either stands as the biggest trolling venture ever or possibly a huge teaser for something that renders all conceptions of huge obsolete.
But that tweet felt weird for no one commenting on it. Every single one of Nintendo’s posts usually has comment sections flooded with remarks from the get-go; this particular one, weirdly, remained silent.
Maybe the fans are too dumbstruck to speak? Maybe they are too busy theorizing in their DMs and Discord servers? Whichever way it is- silence avalanche.
That leaves the question, could there be some kind of collab? A Mario x Astro Bot game? An appearance in Smash Bros.? Or maybe it’s just Nintendo saluting another great platformer mascot?
Considering Astro Bot’s latest game Astro’s Playroom was a love letter to PlayStation’s history, maybe Nintendo is tipping its hat as a form of respect. But the truth is, if these two were ever to work on a game together, the internet would just lose it.
So here we wait and see whether there are any other clues from Nintendo. Or whether Sony replies. Or whether, ultimately, nothing occurs. That is however half the fun-considering, overanalyzing, and allowing hype to take charge. Because if there is one thing that gamers like to do more than play games, it’s to deeply suffer over some ambiguous tweets.
So keep your eyes on this; should this actually be the start of a Nintendo x PlayStation collab, you heard it here first. If not, well, at least we got that cute picture.
