Patents can be evergreened with minor changes[0]. Pure speculation: It's possible Super Mario Sunshine(2002), Super Mario Galaxy(2007) and other Mario-like 3D

Patents can be evergreened with minor changes[0]. Pure speculation: It's possible Super Mario Sunshine(2002), Super Mario Galaxy(2007) and other Mario-like 3D could have "refreshed" any patents from Super Mario 64. That is, if any patents from Mario 64 exist. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreening