Google Maps celebrates Mario Day today, turns navigation arrow to Mario

As Mario Day is being observed today, March 10, Google has decided to celebrate the occasion differently, by turning the navigation arrow into Mario in his kart.

Nintendo and Google collaborated together to bring the famous fictional character Mario to Google Maps both in iOS and Android. This new feature is being called ‘Mario Time’ by Google and will be available in the latest Google Maps mobile app starting today.

When the destination is entered, a new yellow ‘?’ icon appears next to it. Just as the icon is tapped, it gives two options: ‘LET’S-A GO’ and ‘NO THANKS’. When user selects the former option, the navigation arrow turns to a Mario in red suit and his red kart and will accompany the user along their trip.

You can now visit Disneyland for free

According to The Verge, Mario Time is a limited feature and will invade Google Maps for one week. Also, when the ‘?’ icon is tapped 100 times, a 1-UP sound can be heard similar to that in Nintendo’s games.

This particular day has been selected because of its resemblance with the character’s name, as March 10 can also be written as MAR10, which can also be read as ‘Mario’ because of the numbers ‘1’ and ‘0’s similarity with the alphabets ‘I’ and ‘O’.

Moreover, Tech Crunch also verified from Google if this feature was more of a brand advertisement to which they clearly denied and informed that no money was exchanged in its business deal with Nintendo. Google suggested that people can also screenshot their route and share it to @GoogleMaps on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #MarioMaps.

Furthermore, this is not the first time Google has incorporated such characters to Google Maps. On 2017’s April Fools’ Day Google Maps changed its navigation arrow into Ms. Pac-Man.