Happy Birthday,Super Mario Bros.!

In five days time,an icon of gaming will be celebrating its 25th birthday.Launched on the 13th of September 1985,the Super Mario Bros. game has sold a total of more than 40 million copies worldwide.A record it proudly held for two decades before Wii Sport knocked it off its throne.

To commemorate the occasion,Nintendo has issued a special logo that will most likely be used on reissues of the game or any merchandise planned for this year.The logo is similar to the one created to celebrate the 20th anniversary.One can only hazard a guess that the awkward empty space between Mario and the word 'anniversary' is for the convenience of Nintendo to update the number for every year the game ages.Expect to see the number 25 sooner or later,and the recycling of this logo in years to come.

This is of special importance to not just the gaming industry,but to me personally.Super Mario Bros. was the first ever console game I played.I became hooked to gaming when I was 6 years old,mildly addicted to Snake on my uncle's black and white Nokia phone.When my other uncle grew out of his Gameboy,he handed it to me and my sister,and the rest as they said was history.

A childhood joy would be to watch yet another uncle(Chinese families were huge back in the day)play the game.I was bad at it and could not make it past the stage after the Egyptian themed one.He,on the other hand,was a pro and could have finished the game if not for his quick disdain for repetition that made him switch to Battle City.

The game is available on most if not all emulator websites.Maybe I should give another shot at progressing further in the game.I owe it that much.

Happy birthday,Super Mario Bros.