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Hello Everyone, today is such a momentous occasion. Our dear plumbing friend, Mr. Mario Mario, has his 30th Super birthday celebration today!

Today Mario is probably beginning to notice he isn't 20 anymore, and has to start thinking about really settling down with Peach, maybe investing in a house, stopping her from getting kidnapped so they can start a family, and maybe making sure his brother Luigi doesn't rub how old he is in his face.

Today is a day to celebrate all of the amazing memories and laughs we have shared with our good friend. Today, I want us all to share our first and latest memory with Mario. So we can reflect on the span of time Mario has impacted our lives, from the first jump, to hopefully the BILLIONTH jump.

The first Mario game I had ever touched was actually Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on the Gameboy Color. I was too young to recognize how iconic the game was, but was always begging my dad to take my Gameboy out of his pocket so I could play the game where the red guy bounces.

I spent what felt like my whole childhood attempting to clear what I thought, was the hardest game on Gameboy. Imagine my joy when five-year-old me made it to the final stretch, the final castle, figured out the maze, jumped every fireball, avoided every hammer, and beat that mean Dragon once and for all! Only to find out I was doing the whole thing for a GIRL and immediately lost a little respect for my red bouncing friend.

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From that point on, I began to grow up and understand what an amazing influence, what a titan of gaming, what a recognizable persona Mario was. He was everywhere and my childish brain just figured Disney had made him or something. Later in my life, Mario was my idol. He was the greatest game series of all time!

Fast forward to the year 2015. I've been alive almost 21 years, and this red plumber has just turned 30. His most recent title, Super Mario Maker has been my entire gaming palette since I began playing it for review earlier this week. I have been enjoying the history of Mario all in one sitting. I've gotten to feel the excitement yet again of playing more fantastic Mario levels. I've witnessed the breadth and scope of the culmination of numerous fanatics like me creating worlds in a world we've been familiar with since we could remember.

And I've gotten to experience the incredible feeling of creating a world for the most iconic character in gaming. For 30 Years, since the day of his existence, the world has been impacted by Super Mario in some way. From playing to creating, Mario is the face of gaming. He is probably the biggest reason so many of us play games in the first place.

So here is to you Mr. Plumber. 30 years gone, let's shoot for so many more my friend.

 

[migles]

asking the true questions: will nintendo offer anything for free like a VC game or something for celebrate?

 

[mashers]

Happy 30th Anniversay Mario! Mario games mean a great deal to me, both in terms of sentimental nostalgia and fun. I'm celebrating by playing SMB through FCEUMM on my N3DS

 

[Ericzander]

I don't remember my first Mario game, because I was blessed with them all on SNES at once. I was in kindergarten I believe and my uncle got us a SNES because he was more of an atari guy I guess. It came with Super Mario All Stars and Super Mario World. Now... Super Mario All Stars if I remember correctly had Super Mario 1-2-3 and the Lost Levels. Super Mario World was the first one with Yoshi and was essentially Super Mario 4. I don't remember which one I started with but I ended up playing them all with my little brother (Luigi pleb). Unlike today where I need to beat a game before moving onto the next, I was able to play a level of Super Mario World and then jump into Super Mario 2 a few minutes later.

The newer Mario games don't have the exact same charm to me as they did back then, but that's simply because I've grown up. I like my little 2D games. Super Mario Galaxy was great in its own right, but I couldn't finish it. In fact... I don't believe I've finished any modern Mario game. But I do love me some Mario Kart 8 (and so does my fiance, so that's a plus!)

Happy birthday Mario!

 

[mightymuffy]

Happy 30th Mario, he's without a doubt THE reason I'm a gamer!
I remember finally getting an NES back in 1989 - was into the C64/Amiga, but after watching a UK gameshow based on Mario 1 I knew I had to pool all my birthday money together for the console and game... left school in 1991 which was around the time Mario 3 came out in the UK and spent the summer between that and college glass collecting... first thing I bought with the money? Yep, Mario 3. Never looked back: sure a couple of the New SMBs haven't been that great, but I never miss a Mario adventure, buying them all on day one!

Fave Mario: Super Mario World. Completed Mario 3 on a daily basis back in the day, and perhaps have fonder memories (still a hardcore question picking between them though!), but no, SMW is the greatest 2D platformer ever made!

Been celebrating today with a bit of Mario Maker - why not!!

 

[Deleted member 361703]

Op your story is touching I actually started on the same Mario game as well and I am just about to turn 22 myself in Nov....wow so many memories my latest will luckly be Mario maker but that won't be until the firmware spoofer works out. All hail jump man!

 

[joepassive]

Mario is the reason im playing. my mom got me an SNES and a famiclone. the SNES came with Super Mario world, which I enjoyed dearly, and the Famiclone came with Super Mario bros. i played them all to death. I am not very into gaming outside nintendo, and my favorite games are always mario related. this is a big deal, because unlike sonic, even the latest mario game has been good. cant wait for mario maker to arrive. happy birthday mario!

 

[Guinea]

I love mario games! They are really fun and original

 

[tbb043]

It's not 30 years of Mario, it's 30 years of Super Mario Bros.

Mario's been around since 1981. And even if you want to be all "but he was called Jumpman at the time" he'd already been renamed Mario well before 1985, even the Donkey Kong segments of the Saturday Supercade cartoon in 83 called him Mario, not to mention the not-super arcade game Mario Bros (also in 83), which got ported to nearly every pre-crash (and many post crash) consoles under the sun.

Also, his name isn't Mario Mario. Miyamoto himself has stated Mario has no last name. That's just some crap the makers of the live action movie came up with. Do you really think anything from that trash is canon? Hell no.


But I'm all up for celebrating 30 yrs of SMB, one of the most influential games ever.

 

[HaloEffect17]

I don't think I played as many hours in a Mario game than Super Mario Sunshine. Seriously, if you look at my GCN disc, it full of scratches from the hundreds of hours I played and replayed that game.

 

[NES_player4life]

So many fond memory's over the years.
Happy 30th!

 

[Harsky]

My very first experience with Mario was Super Mario World. Unfortunately I wasn't too savvy about video games so I never bought other SNES games or asked for more SNES games for birthdays so I just kept play World over and over again. What's crazy is that I can actually find myself reaching Bowser and beating the game in less than an hour.

It's a shame that Nintendo isn't doing a limited edition 30th anniversary New 3DS design like they did for the Gameboy Micro but I still think the 25th anniversary DSi XL design is probably the most phoned in "limited edition" they could've done. Surprised they're not going to do a red Wii U design like they did with the Wii.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

asking the true questions: will nintendo offer anything for free like a VC game or something for celebrate?

No, but a 5-10% sale on Mario Bros NES for Wii U will happen ;OOO;

 

[Prans]

My first Mario memory was that as an observer, since I was too young, I guess I wasn't allowed to play games... But yeah, I would always watch my siblings and cousins play Super Mario Bros. on a bootleg NES called 'family game' at that time. The music, characters and the whole game were so iconic that it felt only natural for me to think of Mario whenever video games were mentionned. I believe it's one of the most recognizable game anyway. Thank you Mr (Dr?) Mario for all the memories and guiding us through the marvellous world of video games

 

[YugamiSekai]

My very first Mario experience was either Super Smash Bros. Brawl or New Super Mario Bros. Mario has come a long way and hopefully there's a lot more to come.

 

[VinsCool]

remembering playing super mario bros when my parents didn't know (because restricted, fuck them)

good times doing forbidden stuff!

 

[Jwiz33]

My first mario game was Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario World. I remember asking my dad to help me in Forest of Illusion. My most recent Mario memory is playing Super Mario Land 2 on GameYob

 

[mechagouki]

My first exposure was Vs. Super Mario Bros. in an arcade in the town where I lived. Now some people believe Vs.SMB was a port from the Famicom game, whilst others claim Vs. slightly predates the home versions, whatever the truth, I hadn't even heard of the NES when I first set eyes on the arcade machine.

After 30 years of sequels, clones and blatant knock offs (Giana Sisters, I'm looking at you) it can be hard to take one's mind back to a time when SMB was something radically new and different, but that's how it first appeared to me. The look of the game, the different worlds, the world/stage structure, all these things captured my imagination like no game I'd played before.

I remember the first time I saw another player run across a series of one-block gaps without falling and was amazed! When another player jumped out the top of the play area and went to the 1-2 warp room my mind was completely blown! This game was something else, it seemed like something I'd been waiting for as long as I'd played video games.

I got a NES the Christmas after UK launch, I must have campaigned extraordinarily well as it was a far more expensive gift than I ever usually received (I suspect on some level my parents thought it would keep me away from the arcades). It came with SMB and my parents bought me Ice Climber too (meh). I can remember sitting up until 2.00 AM on Boxing Day playing this amazing game, a little nervous that I might never stop.

I bought both the NES sequels at launch, for what seemed extraordinary prices, and loved them both though definitely not to the same degree as SMB. It wasn't until Super Mario World came along that the original game slipped from number one in my affections. I suspect SMW will likely be the single best game I will ever play, it's so close to perfection, and I suspect that no one will ever quite pin down the formula that makes it so. Yoshi's Island is very, very good, but under the cute crayon (and admittedly exceptional) graphics it's not quite such a solid game, far less replay value.

My nine-year-old son and I spent a few hours yesterday playing SMB 1, 2 and 3. Today we got about 1/2 way through "96-ing" SMW. I don't really want to talk about Lemmy's castle (3), the last Star Road level keyhole exit (that takes you to Special levels) or getting to the secret 2nd finish gate on Cheese Bridge, apparently I'm not as patient as I was, but still just incredible games, which above all others deserve to be re-played and celebrated as long as there are people to play video games.

 

[hippy dave]

I remember playing SMB a bit on a friend's NES, before that I might have encountered him on a Game&Watch or something. First one I owned was Super Mario Land on the original Gameboy, was very proud of myself when I managed to finish that one.
Most recent Mario experiences are Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario Bros virtual console, and various stuff from Ultimate NES Remix, all on 3DS.

 

[TheSockNaster]

Yay!