I saw a commercial on TV today that said Mario, the main character in the Nintendo “Super Mario Bros.” video games, turned 25 today.
So I guess “Mario” turned five years old when I first came to Japan twenty years ago. That really makes it seem like I’ve been living in Japan for a long time!
I’ve never been very interested in video games. When I was a kid, I occasionally played “Pac-Man”, “Astroids”, “Centipede” and other games like that which were new at that time.
I have a sister who is ten years younger than me and I remember when she got a Nintendo television-game system with a “Mario” game (I’m not sure which one) when she was in elementary school.
And my children have Nintendo DS game machines and a number of game cassettes…including a few different “Mario” game titles.
I’ve tried playing them but I’m not so good at them though.
Even though I don’t play video games often at all, I know that Mario is the “King” of video games. He’s more popular than Pac-Man ever was.
There was even a Hollywood “Super Mario Bros.” movie. I haven’t watched it. Just like all other “video game” themed movies…it looks like a really dumb movie.
Anyways, to celebrate Mario turning twenty-five years old today (2010 September 13), Nintendo Japan is giving away:
red “Mario” or green “Luigi” tote-bags to 2,000 people,
“Happy 25th anniversary, Mario” T-shirts to 3,000 people
and decks of “Mario 25th anniversary” playing cards to 5,000 people.
You can enter into the drawing for these items via the Nintendo Japan website.
The entry deadline is 2011 January 10.
Are you a “Mario fan”?
Tokyo Five 
>Boo is the ghost in the mario games.
I still don’t know who it is. As I said above, I don’t play video games often.
>Just saw that his name is テレサ in Japanese games…
“Teresa”? I guess it’s “her name” (not “his name”) then.
LikeLike
Well, you are right about that, teresa sounds a lot like a female… But some characters in the videogames refer to the ghost as “He”… It’s a ghost, so maybe it’s just genderless anyway 😉
LikeLike
I wonder why they chose that name for the character.
LikeLike
they say the names origin is 「照れる」(tereru). Well, a shy ghost sounds like something nintendo would create 😉
LikeLike
>they say the names origin is 「照れる」(tereru). Well, a shy ghost sounds like something nintendo would create
Can you understand Japanese?
I would say though that 「照れる」 means “awkward” in English, not “shy”.
LikeLike
>>Can you understand Japanese?
that was just a translation I found… But the ghost definitely looks awkward, so you may be right 😉
I’m trying to force all the kana into my head lately, so no, I don’t understand japanese. Hopefully I’ll be able to visit a Japanese class at my university starting next month, but I don’t know if that will work out yet.
LikeLike
If you study Japanese at your university, feel free to comment in Japanese on my blog. 😉
LikeLike
yeah… I’ll try 😉
LikeLike
Who cares about Mario! When is Luigi going to get the recognition he deserves?
LikeLike
Is Luigi better than Mario?
I like the “Wario” character best.
LikeLike
Luigi wears green. You can’t go wrong with green!
LikeLike
don’t forget waluigi 😀
ah, i guess my favourite character of all mario games would be boo… so simple designed but the look on his face is just priceless 😀
LikeLike
>don’t forget waluigi
Do you know that Wario and Waruigi are a kind of Japanese play-on-words?
They’re both based on the Japanese word 「悪い」 (“Warui”)—which means “bad” or “improper”.
>my favourite character of all mario games would be boo
I don’t know many of the Mario characters. I have no idea who “Boo” is.
LikeLike
>>Do you know that Wario and Waruigi are a kind of Japanese play-on-words?
They’re both based on the Japanese word 「悪い」 (“Warui”)—which means “bad” or “improper”.
no, I didn’t know that, thanks for explaining 😉
Boo is the ghost in the mario games. Just saw that his name is テレサ in Japanese games… 😉
LikeLike
Well, I used to be a Mario fan. I got the very first Gameboy with Mario Games when I was 6 or so. After that a Super Nintendo and a Gamecube (no N64, though). But it’s not so much the original Mario jump and run that I liked, but the many other stuff they did with the Mario franchise like Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, Mario Party and so on… But somehow I grew out of it I guess. I occasionally play Mario Kart with my friends but that’s it, I don’t even own a wii. And when I see that they are releasing Mario Party 8 (!) now, I think they stretched it maybe a tiny little bit too far… 😉
LikeLike
Ahhh… But that card deck is lovely… Good old times, They used the graphics of the NES Game 🙂 I would love to get my hands on one of these 😛
LikeLike
>I would love to get my hands on one of these (Mario playing cards)
I think they’re the best of the three prizes too…and, ironically, they’re considered the “consolation prize”.
LikeLike
I have tried four “Mario” games before: “Donkey Kong”, “Mario Bros.”, “Super Mario Bros” and “Mario Kart”. Not enough times to actually become good at any of them though.
LikeLike
Mario, well congrats on still being popular (and even more than before), I am nto a big Mario fan, but I certainly do enjoy his games. I have a Nintendo DS and I play Pokemon games on it, are your kids into Pokemon? Will they be getting the new ones this weekend in Japan?
LikeLike
>are your kids into Pokemon? Will they be getting the new ones this weekend in Japan?
My kids liked Pokemon a lot when they were very young. I’ve heard that Pokemon and Sailor Moon are popular with teenagers and young adults in America. Is that true?
If so, it’s surprising because in Japan those two series are considered cartoons for small kids.
LikeLike
I remember girls liking sailor moon when I was really little but not anymore, Pokemon seems to hang in there though, some people forget about it, some people play it, and some people like to reference it, I think Pokemon is fun, but not as fun anymore, it gets repetetive after playing for 8 years.
LikeLike
Never been a -major- Mario fan, but as a fan of ANY type of modern day gaming, you have to give respect to Mario as being one of (if not the) first blockbuster titles. As far as platforming games, I was a big fan of Mega Man X and Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, and Metal Gear for the MSX is platformish in a sense.
Btw, thanks for getting me addicted to Seikima-ii. Awesome band. It kind of sucks to see people talk badly about KISS so much on the comments of their videos on YouTube though. I do see a lot of inspiration from KISS, not just the makeup. Fire-breathing, Ace’s name, Luke and Raiden covered “Shout it out Loud”. Yet people still go as far as saying they’re not influenced at all. Not only that, it’s kind of shameful that so many people haven’t heard the greater majority of KISS music (which you know is vast in variety) yet still claim to dislike them based off a few songs. Oh well, KISS has never been a band to get the respect they deserve anyways. Doesn’t matter though, they’re the eptiome of rock stars.
LikeLike
>thanks for getting me addicted to Seikima-ii. Awesome band.
Glad you like them. I do too.
You’re refering, btw, to this post that I wrote about them.
>sucks to see people talk badly about KISS
Personally I don’t care. I like what I like regardless of it’s popularity.
LikeLike