Nintendo planning Mario push for 2011

Nintendo's said it has a massive year planned for Mario in the UK.

Last year saw the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 as well as Mario All-Stars on Wii.

This year sees the release of Mario Sports Mix on Wii and Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem on DS on February 4 as an opener.

"A lot of people who we have brought in have never played a Mario game before – to them Mario 64 DS is a brand new piece of software," UK marketing manager, Dawn Paine, told MCV.

"It’s another way we have turned conventional thinking on its head – it has proved there is no such thing as ‘old’ software because things are constantly expanding."

Paine added: "What happened last year is just the start – in the UK we haven’t done as much on Mario as other territories have, so he’s a real focus for us right across 2011.

"We’ve got two cracking Mario titles kicking off the year for us and there’s going to be a huge marketing push on those.

"But even if there weren’t new Mario titles we will be promoting back catalogue. He’s the most iconic character in games history – and the UK public have fallen in love with him again in the last year."