Happy Birthday, Mario

Mario turns 25 today.
I wasn't even born when Super Mario Bros. for the NES was released 25 years ago, but I still remember my first real experience playing it.
My cousin had an NES, as well a couple of my friends, but I was always too little to play. I liked to watch people play; I liked the action and the music.
But one day, I went over to a friends house, and he had to do some chores or something, so he let me play Super Mario Bros. while he cleaned his room or something. I was terrible at it. I couldn't figure out how to jump (despite there being only 2 buttons), and died about 12 times in a row on the first Goomba that you had to kill.
It started off a bit of an obsession with video games, and Mario games specifically. I loved Super Mario 3, which I played a lot at that same friends house some years later. Super Mario World and Mario Cart on the SNES got a lot of play with my cousins, and eventually Mario Cart 64, which was a great game.
Mario is unarguably a lasting legacy of the origin of video games, and a lot of people in my age-group started gaming with Mario.
Do you remember your first experience with a Mario game? Was it your first gaming experience, or were you already a seasoned veteran, and passed it off as a kiddie game?

Too bad Nintendo's turned him into a whore.

I liked him better on the N64 anyway.

Back when Gameboy's were cool (I had a Color, wasn't around for the older one), my first game was Super Mario Deluxe '93.

I have to say I still really like mario.
I've bought every single game since childhood.
Bash me all you want I <3 mario.

falc76 wrote:I have to say I still really like mario.
I've bought every single game since childhood.
Bash me all you want I <3 mario.

The only cool Mario character was Yoshi.