It’s March 10th! Which makes it Mario day!

What makes it Mario day? Well if you happen to write March 10th in a VERY specific manner it kinda, sort of, looks like you’ve written Mario. So MAR10. That’s it.

The internet is wild.

This Mar10 there is a bit more fanfare surrounding it as the full-length animated feature film is set to come out in the coming months and the Nintendo Switch continues its dominance as one of the best-selling consoles of all time.

That pudgy little plumber is having a moment so let’s go over some fun facts that will entertain your children and bore your spouse. (Borrowed from several sources on the internet)

• Mario made his debut in the 1981 Nintendo arcade game Donkey Kong. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
  
• His original name was actually Jumpman, but Miyamoto eventually decided to name him Mario after the landlord of Nintendo’s American warehouse.
  • The most interesting fact is the origin of the character’s name and how Nintendo of America came up with it. One day, the landlord of Nintendo’s US office walked in while the workers were brainstorming the character’s name. The man was of Italian descent, and his name was Mario Segale. It was then that the name “Mario” was adopted for the character that would later take over the gaming world for years to come.Mario has appeared in over 200 titles since the 1980s on various gaming systems.

• The look of Mario is all about the graphical limitations of the hardware at the time. He has a hat because realistic hair was difficult to portray, a mustache to accentuate his nose, and dungarees to make his arm movements more noticeable.
  
• Bowser was originally sketched as an ox by Miyamoto, but his drawings were misinterpreted by animator Yoichi Kotabe as a turtle. The duo worked together on the latter idea and the Bowser we know today was born. He’s definitely a turtle, though, and not a dragon as some assume.
  
• He was initially a carpenter.
  • Donkey Kong is set on a construction site, where Mario’s character was initially conceptualized as a carpenter for players and fans to identify with him as an ordinary hardworking civilian. Later, when he began appearing on Mario Bros., the setting was shifted to New York sewers. This underground backdrop demanded that the character be a plumber rather than a carpenter.
• The evil version of Mario – Wario – first appeared as a nemesis in the Game Boy title, Super Mario Land 2. He was designed by Hiroji Kiyotake, who also created Samus Aran, the heroine of the Metroid series. Wario’s name blends Mario with the Japanese adjective ‘warui’ meaning evil.
  
• The new Chain Chomp enemies in Super Mario Bros 3 look like steel black balls with razor sharp teeth. They were inspired by an incident in Miyamoto’s childhood when a neighbor’s dog chased the terrified genius before it was yanked back by its chain.
  
•  The Super Mario bros series is in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful gaming franchise of all time. It now boasts global sales of over 240 million units.

So throw on your best overalls, order a pizza, and have some fun with your kids. It’s what this holiday is all about.