Mario marathons seem all the rage as of late, and a new challenger has appeared: "NES Bros. Off 2012."  Four players will tackle the NES port of the arcade classic Mario Bros.  The marathon begins May 5th at 12 noon EST.

Link: GamingWorldWide - NES Bros. Off 2012

Thanks to the efforts of The Super Mario Bros.: The Movie Archive, theatrical print screenings of Super Mario Bros.: The Movie are coming to select cities in the near future.  It's been 19 years since the film first appeared, and this is only the second time it's been made available in theaters.  Members of the production crew will be attending screenings and speaking about their contributions to the film, and a collection of film and production memorabilia will be on display.

The first screenings will be on April 27th and 28th at the Sunshine Cinema in New York City.  Both screenings are being held at midnight and will feature guest speaker Michael Criscuolo (a.k.a. "Goomba Man").  The tickets cost $10 and are currently available for purchase online.  Screenings are also coming to Los Angeles, CA, Seattle, WA and Wilmington, NC.

Link: Facebook Event Page for the Screenings
Ticket Orders: NYC 4/27 , 4/28
Link Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive

Mariothon Colorado will be playing games and raising money to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Two teams will battle their way through the Mario universe while you watch -- and lend a hand!  Join in by answering trivia questions and giving extra points to your team of choice.

Red versus green.  Three days.  Sixteen games.  Millions of coins, thousands of lives, and hundreds of Yoshis plummeting to their doom.

The battle begins on April 19th.

Link: Mariothon, CO

Nintendo's Mario website has been updated, featuring links to all current Mario titles as well as a Mario trivia game and a Mario-themed memory game.  Most TMK readers should be able to easily get a perfect score on the trivia game.

Link: Nintendo's Official Home for Mario.

Unlike last year, WTMK will not be stooping to cheap gimmicks and silly jokes just because today is April 1st.  A new playlist is now running, containing nothing but Mario music!  Tune in now.  Trust us.

Link: WTMK: Mario Radio

The mystery of SMB's North American launch continues to puzzle the gaming world.  Luckily, our Super Mario's Release Date Is Missing! article now has company in the form of Frank Cifaldi's excellent article "Sad But True: We Can't Prove When Super Mario Bros. Came Out."  Cifaldi covers much of the same ground as our piece, but brings new interviews and a special system registration card from the 1985 NYC NES launch!  Make sure to take a look at this excellent piece of gaming journalism, and feel free to reread TMK's piece as well.

Link:  GamaSutra.com - "Sad But True: We Can't Prove When Super Mario Bros. Came Out"

A few days ago Target started selling the Super Mario 3D Land / Flame Red 3DS bundle for $179.99 -- now they've dropped the price on the stand-alone 3DS to $145.00 and are running a "buy 2 get 1 free" promotion on the games.  With Luigi's Mansion 2 and Paper Mario both coming to the 3DS this year, it might be worth taking advantage of this special sale price.  Grab a system and pick up Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 to go with it!  (Kid Icarus: Uprising makes for a fine third title, if you want to take advantage of the sale -- and there's even a Dr. Mario reference in the game's tutorial!)

Link: Target.com - Flame Red 3DS w/ Super Mario 3D Land ($179.99)
Target.com - Aqua Blue 3DS ($145)
Target.com - Cosmo Black 3DS ($145)
Target.com - Flame Red 3DS ($145)
Target.com - Pearl Pink 3DS

Gamestop.com has started selling download codes for two 3DS eShop titles: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Pushmo.  While 3DS and Wii titles have been available for redemption from Club Nintendo for a few months now, and a select number of WiiWare and Wii Virtual Console titles have been available on Nintendo's online store and Amazon, this would be the first time 3DS eShop titles have been available for sale.  Gamestop appears to only be carrying two titles at the moment, but perhaps more will follow.

Link: Gamestop product page - Super Mario Land 2
Link: Gamestop product page - Pushmo
Source: Nintendo Life

It appears that Target is running a sale on the 3DS & Super Mario 3D Land bundle.  The bundle is listed for $179.99 on Target's web site.  While the price is listed as being an "online" price, you can check local stores to see if they have the bundle in stock.  If you've been waiting to get a 3DS, this represents a $20 discount on the system and game.

Link: Target.com: Nintendo 3DS - Flame Red - with Super Mario 3D Land

This Monday Charles Martinet will be racing against random gamers from Australia and New Zealand.  For a chance to test your skills against the voice of Mario, just enter the Australian / New Zealand community code (39-7327-4613-9024) into Mario Kart 7, then play in the community between 6:30pm(AEST) and 7:30pm(AEST) on Monday, March 19.  If you get matched up with Martinet, his Mii will appear in your Mii Plaza -- assuming you've enabled the Invite Mii option in the Mii Plaza settings.

For anyone interested who lives outside the Australia and New Zealand portion of the world, it may be worth noting that community codes don't appear to region locked.

Links:
Nintendo of Australia Mario Kart 7 Community site
Nintendo World Report's article

Cowboom is currently selling new, sealed copies of Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! for $9.99 plus $5 shipping.  This is Cowboom's "Deal of the Day" and the sale will end at midnight tonight.  If you're interested, you should probably hurry on over to their site!

Link: Cowboom.com Deal of the Day

TMK's Twitter and Facebook pages have been rolling along!  Aside from the relatively rare glitch or double post (double post), all is going according to plan. Over 350 folks are now following our regular Mario-related updates, and we look forward to making new friends.