Celebrating MAR10 aka Super Mario Day!

Today is March the 10^th! Why is that so special? Well put MAR and 10 together and you might understand… It’s become pretty popular over the years but today is Mario Day! Not just any Mario though, we’re on about the most famous Mario of them all, the Red Plumber Super Mario!

Who would've thought a red and blue clad plumber from Brooklyn, who was only famous for saving his girlfriend from the big ape Donkey Kong at the time, would go on to be an international Video Game icon? Known as Jumpman at the time Mario is the brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto who created our plumber hero for his upcoming Arcade Game Donkey Kong, which was to convert the currently released and poorly selling Radar Scope arcade units in North America.  Donkey Kong, releasing in arcades on July 9^th, 1981 in Japan and later on July 31^st in North America, went on to be a massive hit. Here’s a fun fact, Mario was NOT a plumber in this game! Yes according to the old fliers given out by Nintendo of America for the arcade game Mario started off as a Carpenter! What a career change eh? Speaking of Nintendo of America it was an employee who gave Nintendo the idea of naming Mario, Mario after said employee compared Jumpman to Nintendo of America’s landlord, Mario Segale thus the name Mario came into fruition.

Mario would then go onto star in Nintendo’s next Arcade hit Mario Bros and he brought his green clad brother Luigi along for the ride. Of course we can’t forget Luigi when talking about Mario he’s played just as big of a role as his brother. In Mario Brothers (Releasing July 24^th 1983) you (And a 2^nd player if you wish) have to clean up the pipe ways of New York (Like I said, they’re from Brooklyn) from mysteriously appearing critters such as Crabs and Turtles (Turtles… Hmmm…. Foreshadowing?) throughout the multiple phases. This game would go on to be released packaged as a minigame in many future releases such as the Super Mario Advance games, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, and games such as Super Mario 3D World, though Luigi would take charge as the main star in that version.

With the Nintendo Entertainment System making it’s way to America and the Famicom, the machine the NES is based on, already doing great in Japan it was time for Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto and an awesome team of developers will take Mario & Luigi into the world we all know and love today, the Mushroom Kingdom.

I’m of course talking about Super Mario Brothers. Releasing in October of 1985 you controlled Mario (Luigi if you’re Player Two.) through a side scrolling platforming world of the Mushroom Kingdom, jumping over pits, stomping on Goomba and Koopa enemies and saving the Princess Toadstool (Later known as Princess Peach.) from the Evil King Koopa by jumping over the beast and hitting the axe down onto the bridge. There were 8 worlds total with 4 levels in each world and it was a massive success and paved the roads for all future Mario games to date. All future Mario games would take after this game, improving on the mechanics, adding new ones and even taking Mario into the 3^rd dimension. Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom friends would go on to receive tons of main series games and also spinoff games such as Mario Golf, the Mario Kart series and more. There are so many Mario games in existence that it’s almost impossible to talk about every single one in just one blog so excuse me while I jump ahead a little here…

1996, this was the year Super Mario 64 released for the brand new Nintendo 64 (Which I talked about in a much earlier blog from lastyear.) and also marked the first game to jump its way into my life. Super Mario 64 was my first Mario game and actually my first video game. My parents had actually to my understanding bought it for themselves to play (They’re Mario experts, no lie.) and of course as I grew up I started playing it more and more. I wasn’t aware of Mario’s origins as a kid, all I knew was I was running around as this short plumber guy, jumping through paintings to different worlds, grabbing stars and swinging Bowser (King Koopa.) around by his tail. I absolutely loved this game. The visuals, music and level structure is just so mesmerizing and has left a very vivid memory that I will cherish forever. Of course I still have my original copy of Mario 64 and it still works!

This was also the game that introduced to the world Mario’s voice, voiced by none other then Charles Martinet who would be Mario’s voice to this very day. Mario’s voice has become almost as iconic as Mario himself and has integrated itself with Mario’s fame. I can’t think of Mario without thinking of the awesome voice provided by Charles Martinet, Lets-a-Go!

Super Mario 64 pretty much skyrocketed me into Video Games and has made me a long time Mario fan. Since then I’ve gotten just about every Mario game to release and I would go on to play games such as Super Mario Sunshine, which I talked about in a blog from a month ago. I have so many Mario games, main series and spinoff to the point Mario is basically half of my Video Game collection… The rest of my collection is Pokemon games, ha.

My Mario Nintendo 64 Collection

My Mario Gameboy Advance collection. The game without a label is Yoshi's Island.

My Mario Nintendo Gamecube Collection.

My Mario Nintendo Wii Collection,

My Mario Nintendo DS/3DS Collection.

Finally My Mario Nintendo Wii U Collection.

Yup that’s my entire collection… Hardware wise. Oh yes we have even more Mario games as download on the Wii U and 3DS such as the original Super Mario Brother games, Paper Mario, and Super Mario RPG. (Which just turned 21 by the way.) My family and I do seem to be pretty big Mario fans, eh?

Video Games aren’t the only place I have Mario in collection… Mario became such a hit that he had merchandise such as figures, backpacks (Never had one of those.), T-Shirts, a Movie (…Actually let’s not go there.) and even a Cartoon series back in the late 80s called the Super Mario Brothers Super Show which featured Mario with a voice for the first time, though not Charles Martinet but instead the late Lou Albano with his brother Luigi being voiced by Danny Wells.

Mario has also made his way to another community over the year, the Knitting Community. As you probably already know, or guessed I started knitting last September and to my surprise a lot of you knitters and those who crochet out there love yourselves some Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom neighbors. As a kid, actually it wasn’t really that long ago, I bugged my Mum who was getting into knitting herself to make me a knitted Mario plushie/stuffie. I had seen Mario stuffies all around and of course younger more annoying me just had to have one. Mum has told me that she really couldn’t find any proper knitting pattern for Mario so looking at some Crochet versions Mum pulled this Mario straight from her head of knitting knowledge.

I’ve absolutely loved this Mario since and yeah I have an official Mario plushie but this knitted Mario means so much more to me. I actually want to try making my own one day, maybe for my little brother. Hey I should make Luigi, how’s that sound? (I could probably do a whole blog on Luigi like this.)

Still on the knitting subject it’s actually time for a free knitting pattern feature! We’re getting a little Mariofied! I’m actually going to be featuring a whole collection of Mario knitted items all from one designer named Carolyn Lisle!

Photo courtesy of HippiePenguin on Ravelry.

These patterns are all awesome cloth patterns to be used in washcloths, dishcloths or any  kind of square cloths. Based on the various characters of the Mushroom Kingdom are these awesome knitted washcloths and you know I love my washcloths. Mum had actually knitted me the Mario washcloth of this collection a couple of years back and I still got it right here to show you all.

Pretty awesome right? I absolutely love how she used a combination of knits and purls to form Mario’s face (Which is based on Paper Mario’s art style.). I’m surprised how many different character cloths she hasup on Ravelry. I always thought it was just the Mario cloth but she has character cloths of Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Boo, Bowser, Bob-Omb, Goomba, Piranha Plant and even Wario. Oh boy I didn’t know she had this many, I actually want to knit all of these too. Mum do we have enough yarn?

All of these squares are designed to be size (25 x 25 cm/10 x 10 inches) so it’s possible to actually link all these up to make a giant blanket if you wish. The yarn Mum used for this Mario washcloth is the same Knit Picks Comfy Sport Yarn used for the Waffle Cable Owl Cloth I made her for Christmas last year.  I absolutely recommend you check these patterns out and give them a go if you’re a big Mario fan and if you’re a knitter! They seem pretty easy to do with only having knits and purls. So go check all of Carolyn Lisle’s Mario patterns in this bundle on her ravelry!

Mario really has touched the lives of many, not just my family and mine. With tons of fan art, animations and even a live action/comedy Youtube series called Stupid Mario Brothers created by Richalvarez (Go check them out, I’ve been a huge fan of them since they started, Richie is like the real life Mario.) Nintendo and Mario have created a huge ever growing community that I’m glad I’m apart of. So I thank you Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto and anyone who’s ever worked on a Mario game for giving us this world of lovable characters and some awesome memories. Mario and friends will be returning in Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch and I’m pretty excited to see what is to come of that game so I’ll be talking more about that as we get closer to the release.

With the amount of times I talk about Mario on this blog we might as well rename it Super Mario Entertainment, haha. Jokes aside Happy MAR10 aka Mario Day everyone!

End note go check out my Sister's awesome new photography blog post! It's a lot better then listening to me ramble about Mario. http://ladyannavintage.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-butterfly-of-wild.html

That’s a wrap folks!

Continue Playing?