Mario Day Is Here and We Are Celebrating Our Favorite Plumber

At a hotel in Los Angeles ahead of the release of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, CNET Managing Editor David Lumb chatted with Shigeru Miyamoto (right) and Koji Kondo (left).

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Ahead of the release of the smash-hit Super Mario Bros. Movie back in 2023, I sat down to chat with Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, and the composer of classic tunes for Mario and Legend of Zelda games, Koji Kondo (including Dire Dire Docks, perhaps the greatest piece of video game music). 

Among the interview's highlights are explanations for why Miyamoto wanted the films to explore more of the backstories of Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Peach ("I wanted to relay through their role in the drama, it really brought out the more human side of these characters," he said at the time) and how big a deal it was to make the Mario movie funny ("I myself at one point wanted to be a manga artist, so humor is very important," he said). 

And since the movie hadn't come out yet, I was asked to be vague about a certain point in the interview, when Kondo referred to the one piece of audio in the movie he didn't at least consult on (Brian Tyler scored the film based on Kondo's notes): the love song performed by Bowser's voice actor, Jack Black. All these years later, I can now print the quote in its original form: 

"I wasn't involved at all with the creation of the music for the project, but I do think [Jack Black's] got a great singing style and a great voice," Kondo said. "Every time he was singing Peaches, it made me laugh."

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My son is 6, and I'm delighted that he's getting into Mario in a big way. The gateway drug was Mario Kart, which he can beat me on. An even bigger deal in our house was Mario Odyssey, the most recent mainline Mario game for Switch. Odyssey sees our hero teaming up with a sentient hat called Cappy, who can possess creatures and give Mario control of them, creating all kinds of wonderful situations where you have to solve classic puzzles with these new powers. Or just smash stuff as a T. rex with a red hat and comically small moustache. 

You can control Mario and Cappy separately, which made for a lovely father-son experience, the two of us trading controllers to do different things. I was so proud when he found his first star all by himself!

Odyssey is on sale at Amazon for Mar10 Day at 33% off. It's been as low as $30 before, but $40 is still an excellent price for this all-time great -- as Russell said below, games with "Mario" in the name don't often go on sale at all.

I love that Nintendo just gets how much we love Mario. They recreated the famous Mario Kart meme for the new Luigi Mach 8 Lego I mentioned earlier, and it is just goofy and fun. Good for them.

Mario is one of the cornerstones of Nintendo's empire, and nothing showcases that more than an entire theme park centered around it. Jesse Orrall -- one of our awesome videographers -- got to go play at Universal's new land, and he loved it.

Nintendo/CNET

First-party Nintendo Switch games, especially ones featuring the big guy's name in the title, rarely go on sale. So when I saw Super Mario Party Jamboree for the Switch was on sale, it was a run-don't-walk situation for me. This deal includes the Jamboree TV expansion, which is only for Switch 2 owners, but if you own the OG Switch and might upgrade at some point in the future, this is well worth the investment. The Switch version doesn't include Jamboree TV, but is just $42.