In the period between Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, a bold contender steps in to give us a holiday truly worth celebrating. For the past few years, Nintendo has been declaring March 10th (or MAR10) Mario Day, honoring the beloved protagonist of Donkey Kong and innumerable games since. We all know the basic story: originally dubbed Mr. Video, the adventuresome little Italian was renamed after Nintendo’s taciturn American warehouse manager, Mario Segale. He’d go on to appear in over two hundred games and become one of the most popular characters of all time.
Nintendo is celebrating with a number of events. Over at My Nintendo, you can cash in Platinum Points to enter a sweepstakes to win a trip for four to Universal Orlando Resort, home of Super Nintendo World. JetBlue has a plane decked out in Mario livery called the “Cloudtop Cruiser” flying routes around the world. And until March 17, a Mario Kart 8 community challenge is spurring racers to complete a million total laps in the game in exchange for 310 Platinum Points.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a holiday without deals, and we’ve got three big ones:
The Mario action games have been split into two distinct lines — the free-roaming, full 3D games like Super Mario Odyssey, and the more traditional, action-oriented platformers, of which the most recent being Super Mario Bros Wonder. Hearkening back to the NES original, this game sees Mario, Luigi, and ten other characters run, jump and dodge through the Flower Kingdom, picking up power-ups and hopping on foes. The new Wonder Flower causes wacky effects that keep you guessing. We gave it an Editors’ Choice award in our review, with lead analyst Will Greenwald saying the game “injects much-needed personality into the series.” Get it for $10 less this Mario Day.
Don’t have a Switch yet? Mario Day gives you a great opportunity to pick up the console hit of the last generation in an attractively-priced bundle. In our review of the OLED-equipped Switch refresh, we said that it improved on the original hardware in every way, with expanded storage, a vastly improved kickstand and, most importantly, a bigger, brighter and more colorful display. This still plays every game in the original Switch library, and comes bundled with Super Mario Bros Wonder, which we talked about above, as well as a three-month trial subscription to Nintendo Switch Online.
If you’re thinking off waiting for the next gen console, we’ve got everything you need to know about the Switch 2.
Recommended by Our Editors
Mario games are fun 1 Players, but it gets even more chaotic and charming when you bring friends along. Most of the modern 2D games like Wonder let you play them in up to four-player co-op, and to do that you’ll need some spare controllers. While we cherish the Switch’s native Joy-Cons, using a single one to play a game is kind of humiliating. For Mario Day, here’s a great deal on a comfortable and responsive controller from PowerA that features an internal lithium-ion rechargeable 900mAh battery with up to 30 hours of charge, programmable rear buttons, motion controls and more for $15 off.
Need to save even more? Bonk on over to our deals page for the best bargains in the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond.
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About K. Thor Jensen
Contributing Writer
