The legendary game-makers at Nintendo have teamed up with the Google Maps division to celebrate March 10 – otherwise known as MAR10 (Mario) Day. What that means for Maps users is that they’ll have the opportunity to swap out the usual navigation U.I. in the mobile app in favor of something Mario Kart flavored. In fact, it swaps out the usual position indicator for Mario in a classic red kart from the popular game series Mario Kart. The iconic character flows along the route, pumping his fist to urge users forward along the journey to their destination. Best of all, this feature will be rolling out globally, starting today, and will be in place for about a week. To help spread the word, the company is urging users to share their own images of the specialty U.I. on social media, with the hashtag #MarioMaps.
Meanwhile, enabling the feature is easy enough. Users simply need to make sure they update to the latest version from their respective app store – this will be available for both Android and iOS. After updating and opening the app, all it takes is a tap on the newly added question-mark brick icon at the bottom of the screen. A card will pop up, asking users if they want to enable Mario Time. It’s worth mentioning that users should be careful not to become too distracted by the enterprising plumber while driving.
Of course, this is hardly the first time Nintendo and the search giant have teamed up. However, it stands to reason that this new promotion has a lot to do with the fact that a new Mario Kart game is actually slated to make its way to the company’s mobile OS in the future. True enough, this is just the latest in a long line of titles that the gaming giant has continued to push to mobile platforms over the past year or so. However, this particular game just seems to fit Google’s navigation platform too perfectly for this opportunity to have been missed. In any case, it’s always great to see two companies known for thinking outside of the box collaborating on projects.
