Super Mario is 30 years old today!

Last month it was Sonic the Hedgehogs's 20th birthday, and now it's Mario's turn - it's his 30th birthday today.

The first ever game featuring Mario was the first ever "Donkey Kong" arcade machine released this day in 1981. Originally Mario was called "Jumpman" in that game, but that was very quickly changed to the name he has been known by ever since.

Since 1981 there have been more than 200 Mario related video games, introducing other famous characters like Mario's brother Luigi, friends such as Yoshi, Toad and Princess Peach, and enemies such as Bowser, the Goombas and the Koopa Troopas. The Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Happy 30th Birthday Mario!

Have some fun and celebrate this second amazing video gaming milestone in a month by visiting my MarioSonicGames.com site, where there are more than 60 Super Mario Flash online games for you to play for free!

Classic Mario games - Super Mario World

Further to my post yesterday about classic Sonic games, the set of secondhand PS2 games I bought recently also included a disc with a Super Nintendo (SNES) emulator and 500 SNES games on it. I was quite surprised to see such a thing, and I was rather doubtful it would work properly. But when I tried it on my PS2 all but a very few of the games worked perfectly. And to my joy, all the classic Super Mario Bros. games worked fine, including Super Mario All-Stars, both Super Mario Worlds and Super Mario Kart. In particular, the first Super Mario World is still a wonderful game to play - even after all these years it stands up well against the more modern 3D versions of Mario.

You can play a superb free online version of a classic Mario game here: New Super Mario Flash

If you ever see one of these emulator discs for sale anywhere, I thoroughly recommend buying it - also included on the disc I got were all the SNES classics such as Zelda, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Metroid, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Starfox, F-Zero and so on. Wicked!

You can play free online versions of many of the above games here: Super Mario Online Games and here: Nintendo Online Games

Play Nintendo and Sega Flash games online

Following on from my recent posts about new Super Mario Bros. online games and new Sonic the Hedgehog online games, here are some fun online games for you to play based on some other Nintendo and Sega classics:

  Donkey Kong: Banana Barrage Online Game

  Zelda: The Seeds of Darkness Online Game

  Kirby's Dreamland Online Game

  Pokemon: Breakdown Blast Online Game

  Megaman vs. Metroid Online Game

  Duck Hunt Online Game

  Puyo Pop Fever: Flash Mini-Games

  Super Monkey Ball 2: Flash Mini-Games

  Billy Hatcher Online Game

And finally, here is a famous rival to Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic:
  Crash Bandicoot Flash Online Game

Don't forget to check out page 1 and page 2 of the main site for loads more free online Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega games!

Mario and Sonic animated GIFs/sprites, MP3 music, desktop wallpapers and more

Just in case you haven't seen it all yet, my MarioSonicGames.com site includes a huge collection of free Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog (and other related Nintendo and Sega) goodies for your enjoyment, in addition to all the free Flash and Java online games and Flash movies.

There are loads of Mario and Sonic images, animated GIFs/sprites, MP3 and MIDI music samples and WAV sound effect samples, all of which come from the all-time classic 16-bit era of both game franchises. There are also dozens of desktop wallpapers/background pictures, plus lots of other Nintendo and Sega surprises for you to find. Here is a list of links to all the relevant pages...

Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega images, animated GIFs/sprites, music and sound effects (plus Flash and Java games and Flash movies):

Super Mario Bros.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Mario and Sonic Bonuses,  More Mario and Sonic Bonuses

Extra Mario and Sonic Bonuses,  Even More Mario Bonuses

More Games-Related Images and Music,  Even More Games-Related Images


Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega desktop wallpapers/background pictures:

Super Mario Bros.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Super Smash Bros.

Donkey Kong

Pokemon

Megaman

Super Monkey Ball

Puyo Pop Fever