Late last night, Nintendo and EB Games held yet another successful Melbourne launch event for the release of New Super Mario Bros Wii.

The night kicked off at about 9pm with a line forming both inside and outside the store. While in line we were played a very special audio message from Charles Martinet, the actor who voices Mario and who recently visited Australia. Charles welcomed us to the launch event and hoped that we would love NSMBWii every bit as much as he does.

Matt from Nintendo welcomed the crowd and informed us of the NSMBWii tournament, costume competition and prize giveaways that would be happening throughout the night.

 

We were ushered upstairs for our first chance to play NSMBWii. This would have been less stressful if we weren’t each competing with three others for the most points! Everybody had a blast though, and the top four players eventually played off in the final for a chance to win the limited edition 3D glass Mario statuette. It was a very close game but unfortunately there could only be one winner. If you’re reading this, congratulations (and I’m very jealous)!

 

There was also a Nintendo quiz during the evening which gave all the Mario fans a chance to win some cool prizes. Posters and hats were the rewards for easy questions but the real coveted prizes were saved for the hard questions - 20th Anniversary NSMBWii shirts.

A few of these shirts were also given out to the best of seven group or solo "performers" on the night.
Some people did impersonations (Yoshi, Goomba), some sang popular Mario tunes... I wrote a quick Mario rap and performed it, netting myself my very own XXL shirt. I’m swimming in it, sure, but I’m happy while I’m doing it.

The last competition was for the best dressed Nintendo character. One couple dressed as Mario and Princess Peach and they looked amazing. There was also a little boy dressed as Mario who had the most insane (in a good way) Mario hat I’ve ever seen. Lastly there were three regulars in the Nintendo costume competition scene (at least in Melbourne) who came dressed as Lakitu, Racoon Mario in a Kuribo Shoe and a Piranha Plant. Brilliant costumes all around. The winners were judged by the crowd to be little Mario, Racoon Mario and Piranha Plant.

 

At precisely 11pm everyone had their chance to pick up a copy of NSMBWii and we were all blessed with a Mario cap and either a Mario or Yoshi bag full of goodies such as lanyards and mini Nintendo game keyrings. Wow!

You would think that was enough awesomeness for one night but at the bottom of the stairs were the EB employees, each holding a box of mini Mario cupcakes for us to devour. I think I downed about four of them in the end. Don’t judge, the sugar kept me awake enough to write this!

Thanks again Nintendo and EB Games. We’re all so glad that New Super Mario Bros. Wii is finally here.
You might say that we’ve only been waiting for it since it was announced at E3 in June this year;
I prefer to say that I’ve been waiting 19 years. It is, after all, the first side-scrolling console platformer starring Mario since Super Mario World on the SNES!

Now excuse me, I’m about to go play NSMBWii for a few hours... at least.