Super Mario Bros
Something about this plumber defies retirement. Sure most of gaming's eighties heavyweights are settled into their golden years now. Fondly looked back on but never replayed. Mario did something different. He never stopped. Surviving new hardware launches, grabbing new fans along the way but never losing the ones he had. That is why purchasing a Mario gift isn't like picking up some retro merchandise. You aren't gifting someone a memory. You are tapping into a franchise that is still going stronger than ever.
Because this is the hard part. The merchandising machine that is Mario is vast and lot of it is just outright crap. The product shelf is overflowing with cheap keyrings, low grade t-shirts with logo iron-ons and ugly ass stuffed toys that barely resemble their character. We don't want that shit either. We wanted to find stuff that loves this franchise as much as you do. Gifts that feel like they have been put thought into, not just thrown together.
That is why we've picked everything on this page with one kind of person in mind. The hardcore fan. Not someone who tapped buttons during Mario Party once at a school friend's house party. We mean the person who can whistle the Koji Kondo score without even thinking about it. The gamer who can confidently debate which Mario Kart track is actually the best track on each game. The player who if you gave them a game right now wouldn't hesitate for a second to recall what button does what.
That gamer deserves better than a travel mug from the motorway services shop. If they love it half as much as we do then that gamer deserves merchandise that reflects how long this franchise has been in their life and how much it still means to them. Whether that be an awesome collectible that was clearly made with lots of love, a piece of wall art that isn't instantly regretted or kitchenware that they can actually use every day; that is the level we have set for every recommendation here.
There are no filler items here. If we felt like Nintendo were letting fans down by peddling something for a quick profit we cut it. Every product recommendation on this page is something we would browse and buy from ourselves.