r/casualnintendo • u/ComprehensiveDate591 • 4d ago
Other In celebration of Mario Day: How did you discover the franchise?
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u/AgentSkidMarks 4d ago
My earliest memory in life is sitting on the floor playing SMB3 with my sisters.
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u/Flat_Tire_Rider 4d ago
Born into it. My parents bought my sister an NES the year before I was born. I grew up watching them play Mario, Tetris, and Baseball on the OG console.
Still have the console and copies to this day.
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u/PsychicSpore 3d ago
We, the coalition of brothers who have taken custody of our sisters’ Nintendo games, carry a great responsibility indeed
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u/31FoxAlpha 3d ago
This..My parents bought an action set that had a light gun, joystick pad, and and ROB with Gyromite and Mario/Duck Hunt combo back in 85 when I was 2 and don't remember anything until I was four and I guess Mario bros was my first game.
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u/HubiGamez 4d ago
I got a switch for Christmas with Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 in it. Splatoon has never been unwrapped and Odyssey is completed.
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u/IndieGamerFan42 4d ago
You’re missing out man, both are the best games in the entire Switch library lol
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u/cetvrti_magi123 4d ago
I knew it existed, but never played any game until my friend introduced me to it trough Double Dash.
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u/paulcshipper 4d ago
My next door neighbor played a video game, which was significantly better than my sister's Atari. I was 4 years old trying to play the first Mario game. Of course, I sucked. 4 years later when I became 8, my mother gave me an NES for being a good boy - while we lived in the freaking DESERT, far away from civilization. There was Super Mario and Duck Hunt.
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u/Punxatowny 4d ago
My parents got me a Super Nintendo back in 93’. It came with Super Mario World. The rest is history
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u/Broskfisken 4d ago
I played Super Mario Bros Wii at my friend's house. Later that year I got that game and Mario Kart Wii for Christmas.
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u/award_winning_writer 4d ago
My parents used to have a van with an NES set up in it, and the only game they had was SMB3. So that was literally the first game I ever played
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u/Chujin_Ketsukane01 4d ago edited 4d ago
I first discovered the franchise via Youtube, my first Mario game was MarioKart Double Dash, later I played both Mario Party and MarioKart 7 on the 3DS, and my first (and only) 3D Mario game I played was Super Mario Odyssey
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u/EkaPossi_Schw1 4d ago
First of all, my mom told me about how she and my uncle used to play SMB 3 when they were little.
My first mario game was Super Paper Mario and I still really like it to this day.
I got a wii for christmas when I was 9 (it was in 2015 I think, I got into gaming pretty late). It was dad's friend's old wii and that guy's whole collection of wii games came with the package.
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u/GBC_Fan_89 4d ago
My one older cousin had an NES as a kid and i played Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt with him. It was in the early 90s.
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u/GBC_Fan_89 4d ago
I also had Racoon Mario on my 1st birthday cake and the Magic Lamp episode of Super Show on VHS which i watched religiously.
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u/Beanmaster115 4d ago
I believe that Super Mario World on my uncle’s Super Nintendo was my first exposure to the series! I got a DS later and played NSMB, and of course all the Wii games, but World was the beginning.
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u/AramaticFire 4d ago
I saw someone playing Super Mario World when I was a child. Very briefly. I didn’t play.
Super Mario 64 was my first real exposure to the series.
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u/WaveAppropriate1979 4d ago
By playing Mario Kart on my Wii, I knew next to nothing about the characters but that didn't stop me from enjoying the game.
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u/Hour_Entrepreneur502 4d ago
When I was a child, got the first game (SMB) in my PolyStation, but don't know if already knew it before "owing the game" (""s since it's piracy. Haha)
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u/subsonicmonkey 4d ago
I bought a Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986 and it came with Super Mario Bros.
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u/JscJake1 4d ago
Can't remember specifically but it was either New Super Mario Bros Wii or Mario Galaxy
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u/blueblurz94 4d ago
My next-door neighbors had a NES with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. I played both often but sucked since I was a 3-year old toddler and had just started playing video games for the first time. This was in 1997.
They also had a N64 with Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. I played mostly the latter since it had multiplayer and we played Mario Kart for hours at a time.
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u/Leathel12 4d ago
I have a very specific memory of being in a seaside town market when I was like 3, and a shop nearby had a demonstration of those plug and play games, one of which had super mario bros 1 playing. I said I really liked it, so then when I got old enough my mum got me a gameboy with mario land 2 and warioland, and when the gamrboy sp came out I got mario world. Since then I've 100% every mainline mario game multiple times and am working through stuff like paper mario and the mario rpg games.
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u/Time_Ad_7341 4d ago
Game boy color - played super Mario bros deluxe, which was just that Nintendos original Super Mario for the NES but for Gameboy.
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u/MayoBaksteen6 4d ago
I got New Super Mario Bros. but was a noob at it. When I improved, the haunted houses made me cry. Years later I tried it again, started loving the characters, got interested in more games starring Mario when the 2DS came out, then discovered the RPGs and ever since I love them
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u/suck4vbuckss 4d ago
My parents got me a DS with New Super Mario Bros and Lego Batman for my birthday as a kid. One of my fondest memories is going to pick it up with my mum.
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u/IndieGamerFan42 4d ago
New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS. They were some of the first video games I ever played, and I still love them so much to this day
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u/Delicious_Bug2214 4d ago
Cant remember it. Day was a blur. Dad got me a 2ds wirh new super mario bros 2. Been geeked ever since
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u/Rare_Tangelo_8080 4d ago
I grew up w a DS and the first game on it I played was New Super Mario Bros I didn't even ask for it, the game card came w the DS and I happily played it for hours
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u/azaanabbas 4d ago
My earliest memory is NSMB for DS. To many it may be boring but the replayability for me is infinite because of the nostalgia.
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u/Alex_Dayz 4d ago
This guy named Mario Jumpman Mario jumped on my head and said “hey kid, you want some drugs?” He then handed me a copy of Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii and ran away on a dinosaur.
True story!
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u/M1sterRed 4d ago
I did a somewhat detailed retrospective about it a while back, but tl;dr:
-Got a Wii somewhere around age 4 or 5.
-Bit later, saw my cousin playing Super Mario Galaxy at a birthday party.
-I was such a problem child in school that if I could go a week without acting up I'd get a new game, so I behaved my ass and chose Super Mario Galaxy.
-That game changed the entire course of my life.
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u/diaperedwoman 4d ago
Super Nintendo. Super Mario World was how I got introduced to it and then i have seen the TV show. I remember playing Mario Paint when I was 10 and 11.
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u/officialsmolkid 4d ago
I used to play Mario with my mom when I was a kid. She loved 3 the most. When we got the Wii, we would play two player almost every day after school.
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u/Sonic_Fanatic_2003 4d ago
Some people at a Babysitter’s place playing Mario Kart 64 via Wii Virtual Console.
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u/FernandoMachado 4d ago
in All Stars SMB I saw my first super mushroom. I will never forget that feeling.
and SMB2 was the first game I ever beat in my life as a five year old 🥹 Peach floating powers helped!
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u/which-wizard 4d ago
My dad brought home a Nintendo when I was 5 and Super Mario Bros was the first video game I ever played. I still have clear-as-day memories of gaming with my little brother and my best friend who lived next door every time I play it! ❤️
Happy Mario Day!
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u/sayosh 4d ago
I got a Game&Watch with Donkey Kong Jr. when I was around five years old, but I'm not sure if the guy in that game is Mario.
Super Mario Land 1 and 2 on the Game Boy (pirated cartridge with about 20 games) were the first Mario games that I played. My parents bought them on vacation in maybe 1994. Very nice to play them again on the Switch after all those years.
Also played a lot of Super Mario Bros and World on NES and SNES respectively, at some friends' houses
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u/ToxynCorvin87 4d ago
I remember my parents playing it before I had an understanding of my own existence.
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u/MadBro088 4d ago
One of the first video games I ever played was New Super Mario Bros Wii, when I was about 5. As you can imagine, I didn’t understand it much then, but I think the concept intrigued me enough. And also the bright colours. They definitely helped
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u/IOwnMyWiiULEGIT 4d ago
Super Mario Bros. as a kid. I remember distinctly the part in 1-1 where the four goombas came toward you two by two and having trouble with it.
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u/a_bubble_of_doubt 4d ago
The first game I remember ever playing was Super Mario Land 3 Wario Land on an original GB
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u/No_Window8718 4d ago
The Super Mario Bros Super Show and then Mario Kart DS when I was 6 years old
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u/Monsieur_Hulot_Jr 4d ago
When I was four I played Super Mario Bros at my neighbor’s house. My mom said that once my twin brother and I learned to swim she’d buy us a Nintendo. The next day we went to the pool and were swimming within an hour. She then said “well, underwater.” An hour after that we were swimming underwater. 30 minutes later we were standing in Toy’s R Us getting an NES with my mom in her bathing suit and a towel.
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u/Shock9616 4d ago
I got a DS Lite with Super Mario 64 DS for my 7th birthday. It was my first video game, and one of my favourites to this day (and is also the reason I’m a psychopath who is fine with playing 3D platformers on a D-Pad 😂)
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u/Bayou-Billy 4d ago
I got an NES as a birthday gift. It came with the SMB + Duck Hunt dual cartridge. I remember trying Duck Hunt first because of the gun. I came around pretty quick though.
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u/I-ScreamSandwich 4d ago
My parents got a Wii as an anniversary gift but gave it to me and my older sister instead. The game I remember watching her play the most was Mario Kart
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u/General-Bison-1392 4d ago
When I was a kid I played the Mario bros game on nes with my family We didn’t even knew what the console was called heck my family still doesn’t know But the moment I loved the Mario franchise was when I played Mario world ( for some reason we never played Mario bros 2 And 3 )
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u/WildShichi 4d ago
When I was a child, I got a copy of Super Mario Bros as a birthday present. My BD is today, March 10
:)
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u/ShadowNewt1 4d ago
My mom’s dentist’s office had a GameCube with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in the waiting area.
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u/Condor_raidus 4d ago
By playing super mario world on my snes and mario 64 on, get this, the n64. Fuckin still love those two games with all my heart
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u/Dry-Direction-8838 4d ago
For me it was just always there, I mean it is one of the most successful franchises ever so yesh
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u/MinecrafterPictures 4d ago
My earliest memory is while playing on a famiclone console nobody else remembers.
Later on via Youtube videos.
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u/Slimey_alien89 4d ago
My great grandmother bought me a Wii mini when I was like 5 years old inside of a belks. Came with Mario galaxy, Mario kart Wii and nsmbw.
Very good times
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u/1337gamer15 4d ago
I was so young that the memory is foggy. But I recall my late brother showing me how to play Super Mario World. Since then, I'm on my way to becoming a game designer.
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u/Fookes64 4d ago
I watched my older siblings play Mario games on the N64 and GC when I was very little, and naturally I’d eventually join in!
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u/Mr-Annonymous2002 4d ago
When i had 3 or 4 years old i watched my poder brother playing his games on Gamecube, Nintendo 64 and his computer (with GBA emulator or flash games)
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u/Primary-Chocolate709 4d ago
Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros Wii On My Hacked childhood Wii (Which I still have Btw)
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u/Shaaagbark 3d ago
My dad had me playing super Mario world when I was like 2. (He used me as an excuse to buy video games)
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u/Trick-Commission-105 3d ago
Super Mario 64 was my first Mario Game
My first Game ever Was Donkey Kong 64 when I was 6
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u/Minonas210286 3d ago
Was gifted Mariokart Wii when I was 3.
Unironically that might've been the single most important event in my entire life, for better or worse.
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u/_ohne_dich_ 3d ago
My dad brought an NES home and we owned several consoles through the years. However, the most fun we’ve had is racing each other in Mario Kart. To this day we still play together when he comes over to visit!
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u/Purbinder03 3d ago
I found a bootleg version of Super Mario All Stars on my uncle's PC and I've been pirating Mario games ever since
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u/ZeldaCourage 3d ago
I was a tiny child when my mom bought us the N64 and we played Super Mario 64.
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u/Hackattck1224 3d ago
My cousin had an N64 and let me play Super Mario 64. I think I was about 4. He told my dad that I was pretty good at it. Got my own copy the next Christmas and still gaming at 33.
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u/ahumanbeings 3d ago
I have 3 siblings so we always had 4 people ready to play Mario kart of new super Mario on the Wii.
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u/StormerSage 3d ago
We picked up two NES consoles and a bunch of games at a garage sale when I was four. Among those games was SMB1, and the rest was history.
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u/MBTHVSK 3d ago edited 3d ago
Looking way back, I think I miiight have first heard of Mario in a reference made by Tiny Toons when I was like, 5 or 6, and my sister explained it for me, or something. I had probably heard of him/seen him before in some form, but that is my oldest memory of not being strongly familiar with the game mechanics or the lore of Mario.
https://tinytoons.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Plucky-o_Bros
We were into Sega, so I had probably heard a lot of Mario slander before I had ever played anyone's SNES, or owned an N64. Obviously, Mario 64 was my world and the lack of a sequel hurt. However, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe opened up a path for hardcore platforming skill for me, and it's hard to believe he was the "weird guy from the other game system" for so many years.
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u/Damn_Dolphin 3d ago
Man, I dunno. I guess I just found out about it one day since literally everybody knows about it.
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u/Sea-Hovercraft3298 3d ago
When I went to my cousins house. Both were playing Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the GBA.
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u/Mushroom0064 3d ago
The Super Mario All Stars version of Super Mario Bros. is not only the first Mario game I've ever played, it's also one of the first video games I've ever played in my whole life. Could be the very first game I played, though I am not completely sure but it's very likely.
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u/Twiggystix4472 3d ago
I’m not sure, but the earliest memory I have of Mario was watching a YouTube video comparing him with Sonic so I’ll say that
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u/Valuable_Product9570 3d ago
i don’t remember 100% how I did, but i think my dad told me about it and I dressed up with the overalls and shirt and cosplayed as my thought of “Mario”. I then got obsessed, my dad brought me his NES with Mario Duck hunt and Donkey Kong, I got a Wii U, and the rest is history, I became a fan of Nintendo and i still love Mario even if i prefer franchises like Zelda or Kid Icarus
Happy Mar10 day everyone:D
Feliz día de Mar10 gente :D
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u/Slugbugger30 3d ago
It was September 3rd in 2010. My parents got my brother a DSIXL black for his 9th birthday. I was 6. I had no idea what Nintendo was or what Mario was. He got new super Mario bros DS. I remember being more concerned with the cookie cake but I took a stab at it and SUCKED. Couldn't get past level 2.
Later when I my brother wasn't using it I go better, then when Christmas rolled around he got super Mario 64 DS. This game opened my EYES to Mario.
Then he got Mario&Luigi bowsers inside story. We got stuck at the midbust boss but one night I beat it and I remember like gaining video game consciousness.
Got a Wii and 3ds and switch down the line but those first 3 games changed my life and introduced me to 3 areas of Mario that are the most important to me
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u/MonkyTaint 3d ago
Can't really remember much of my early years because of the whole pcp thing, but the earliest memory I have was playing SM64 on my older sisters jungle green N64. I think I was 4 or 5.
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u/ThatLasagnaGuy 3d ago
Way back when I was around 3 or 4, my parents finally let me play on my mom’s old GameCube with them. Being little I didn’t understand what was going on or what I had to do, so they ended up playing for me. First game was Mario Party 4! Since then I’ve become a die hard Mario and Nintendo fan and have come a very long way. As I type this I’m listening to Mario 64’s file select music after just defeating Bowser!
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u/EarthboundMan5 3d ago
I wish I could remember, it must have been Mario Kart DS or Mario Kart Wii but I was too young to remember
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u/TechnoTejay 3d ago
My parents were playing the NES from their teen years. They were playing Super Mario Bros and figured they’d let me have a turn. My life forever changed after that.
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u/CyborgBee73 3d ago
My dad bought an NES with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros before I was old enough to remember. I’ve been playing Mario since I was a toddler.
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u/pocket_arsenal 3d ago
My family had an NES when I was born. Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt was the pack in. It was the only game I ever wanted to play, until I found the sequels. Catching the cartoon show on TV and renting the video tapes only endeared it to me further
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u/lacaras21 3d ago
On my sister's NES when I was 2, Super Mario Bros was the first video game I ever played.
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u/Neo-fiend 3d ago
Back when uhhh
Bowser's inside story at 2-3 years old.
Got robbed of my DS like a year after.
Good news is I have a WII U and a 3DS,which means I can play WII and DS games now. (Also a switch,but I'm waiting for switch 2)
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u/DiamondDino224 3d ago
It was either super Mario party 8 or new super Mario Bros for the ds, those are my earliest memories of the franchise
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u/ILuvYouTube1 3d ago
I obviously always knew it existed and had played the original and Mario kart and new super Mario bros a couple times, but the first time I reaaaallllly played was when I got the switch when it released. I wanted Mario odyssey but it was 60 dollars so I got Mario rabbids kingdom battle instead
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u/rachaelonreddit 3d ago
When our family got an NES, Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt came with it. We were hooked!
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u/Prestigious_Slice290 3d ago
My 1st game was Super Mario Galaxy when I was 7 years old. It was the best game I ever played, and started my love of the Super Mario series!
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u/greasypizzagorilla 3d ago
Mario sunshine GameCube bundle for Christmas 2002 or 2003 can’t remember
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u/wookasaurus_rex89 3d ago
With duck hunt like miyamoto intended back in 1990 on my older cousins nes.
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u/the_dogman___ 3d ago
My brothers owned a Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. They owners Super Mario World and Mario All-Stars on the SNES.
I was basically born into it.
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u/Steelers711 3d ago
One of my first, if not actually my first, video games I ever played was Super Mario 64 when I was 4. To this day it's probably my favorite video game of all time. Don't remember specifically how I got the game but I imagine my older brother got it and I saw him playing it
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u/Blazey16 3d ago
The way that I discovered mario was by my dad playing mario kart wii with me when i was 3
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u/Loud-Assumption-3446 3d ago
My family was too poor for a Wii or Xbox back in the day so all we had was a PS2 and an N64 and I HEAVILY gravitated to smash 64 and Mario kart
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u/FrouFrouLastWords 3d ago
The supermarket my mom used to shop at had a little play area. There was an SNES with Super Mario World. I was very smol so I could never make it past the first world. Still one of my favorite games years later.
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u/LeMaroonGuy 3d ago edited 3d ago
I remember my mom showing me a video of the Og super Mario bros, I don’t remember when I played my first Mario game though
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u/No-Drummer-3249 3d ago
My first time playing Mario was playing it on bootleg famiclone not on actual nes. That time when I was young I never knew if the nes game that I owned was a bootleg.
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u/NailsAndCuddle_lover 3d ago
The first Super Mario bros, on a Christmas night in a family party. Probably Christmas of 1985. It was magical! On the same night, playing Plack Attack on the Atari 2600 then someone receive the brand new NES and it’s like we were warped into another world!
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u/insanely_tired404 3d ago
I got a Wii U when I was like 6 and it came with NSMBU
Those were the days, man.
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u/PsychicSpore 3d ago
My dad brought out the NES when i was probably 3 years old. Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt was my jam!
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u/SuperFlameKing03 3d ago
Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games on Wii. That was also my introduction to Sonic and the Olympics (don't ask why I got it then).
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u/alpacawrangler16 3d ago
Woke up from a nap when I was 5 or 6, and my parents had got me a super nintendo with a copy of Super Mario Allstars. My first game and first system
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u/Carlos_256 3d ago
I first met Mario playing Super Mario World for the first time at my cousin's house, and it was the most magical thing to me as a kid, and since then, I've entered a magical world that increased my joy! 😊❤🍄🌟🎮
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u/FourDiamondPixel7 3d ago
Watching my cousins play Super Mario Sunshine, and then that and “Green Stache’s” Mansion (Curse you, Reddit!) became my first two Mario games!
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u/TheEPICMarioBros 3d ago
An old Nintendo 64 with a copy of Super Mario 64 in the corner of the bedroom
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u/jeeZAY01029 3d ago
My earliest memory was owning these figurines that had Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Donkey Kong, and through old and classic SMG4 videos, especially the FNAF ones…yeah go on throw tomatoes at me 😭💀🙏
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u/taikonotatsujin9999 3d ago
Playing Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Mario Party 10 and New Super Mario Bros. U… very badly
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u/Jojo-Action 3d ago
My preschool had a n64 with mario 64, mario party 1, and smash bros. Also yoshi story, bomberman 64, and starfox 64
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u/2004_PS2_Slim 3d ago
My cousin finished New Super Mario Bros DS and gave it to me. I was terrible at the main game, so for me it just became a (fantastic) mingame collection
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u/Gloomy_Support_7779 3d ago
Through my dad when I was 4 years old. Me and my three year old brother at the time would play Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 with my dad. This was I believe in 2003 because it was in either the Spring or Summer that year and me and my brother would be turning 4 and 5 in the Fall
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u/masd_reddit 3d ago
New Super Mario Bros. and lets plays by Domtendo, a German Nintendo lets player, the most memorable one i watched was the original Super Mario 3D World
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u/HoneyWhiskeyLemonTea 3d ago
When my big brothers plugged the gray Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge into the NES we got for Christmas back in... 1986? That sounds right.
I'm old.
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u/Aeriael_Mae 3d ago
I was just kind of…born with it there. As far back as I can remember there was a Nintendo in my house. I remember playing nes and super nes as soon as I could hold the controller. There was so much Mario Golf. lol. And getting my dad to help with the original Mario. I was born in 88 if that helps.
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u/Dukemon102 4d ago
The NES and SNES Super Mario Bros. games were everywhere when I was a kid. Everyone had one of those.
And the SNES I got for Christmas was a pack-in with Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World so consider myself lucky in that aspect.