Last week, while in Tokyo, I was watching the little monitors on the train that constantly loop commercials. One from Nintendo was really great. It was a Japanese living room, bathed in afternoon sunlight. A boy switches on an old TV and sets it to channel 3. He blows off a Famicom cart and plugs it in. It’s Super Mario Bros. The whole thing was lovely and kind of stirred my gamer soul. The commercial ended with the 25th Anniversary logo for Mario, which made me think (in this order):
- Wow, that’s amazing. 25 years…
- Holy sh*t, I’m old!
There’s now a 25th Anniversary site for Mario at Nintendo Japan, and it has been updated with a lot of cool stuff. First off, there’s a really cool Super Mario History section that profiles all the Mario games to date, complete with clips. Poking around the CM section will let you see the commercial I was talking about. Finally, there’s a new wallpaper section with some really great selections. My favorite is the one pictured above. More are coming soon, so check back.
Happy Birthday, Mario. Here’s to 25 more years!
