Navigate Google Maps as Super Mario in his go-kart on Mario Day

On March 10, Google Maps users will be able to navigate Singapore's roads as Mario in his go-kart. PHOTO: GOOGLE MAPS

SINGAPORE - In celebration of Mario Day on March 10, Google has introduced a quirky feature in its Google Maps application - users will be able to navigate Singapore's roads as the classic Nintendo character in his go-kart.

March 10 is dubbed Mario Day because the abbreviated date of Mar10 looks like his name.

To use the feature, users must update their Google Map apps via the Google Play or App Store.

There will be a yellow question mark in the bottom right of the updated app. Tap on this, and a message will pop up prompting you enable "Mario Time".

The feature will be available globally for a week.

Nintendo is also offering a discount on its smartphone app Super Mario Run from March 10 to March 25.

The US$9.99 (S$13.20) game will be on sale at US$4.99 during that period.

The Super Mario character, a plumber often joined by his brother Luigi, was launched in a series of platform video games by Nintendo in the 1980s.

A spin-off, Mario Kart, was launched in 1992 featuring the red-capped plumber as one of several playable characters from the Mario franchise in a go-kart-style racing video game.

Google Maps was launched in February 2005.

This is not the first time such a feature has been introduced - in 2015, it created a version of Pac-Man that users could play within Google Maps. A year before that, it introduced a game called Smarty Pins, a map-based trivia game where users guess locations based on hints.

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