Mario Day is 10 March. Get it? MAR10... for March 10.

Google is celebrating the 'holiday', which honors the mustachioed plumber from the popular Nintendo game, by partnering with Nintendo on an all-new experience called Mario Time. Essentially, starting the day before, 9 March, they're bringing Mario to Google Maps on iOS or Android. To access it, open up the latest version of the mobile app. You should see a new yellow “?” icon next to destinations.

Tap the yellow icon to summon Mario to serve as your new navigation arrow. He'll appear in his red kart and will accompany you along your commute, acting as a position marker for an entire week. Mario Time is available globally. But the best part is the hidden Easter egg that Google has included. Easter eggs are fun little features that are buried in software. Google has them in Assistant, for instance.

For this Mario Time experience, if you quickly tap that yellow “?” icon 100 times, you’ll hear a 1-UP sound - just like in Nintendo’s games. Unfortunately, there's no red shells or bananas to be seen, but it's still good fun. And it makes us excited for Mario Kart Tour. Nintendo announced last month that its next mobile game would be based on Mario Kart. Unfortunately, it's won't arrive until March 2019.

You can read more about Mario Kart Tour here.

Mario in Google Maps How to activate Mario and the hidden Easter Egg image 1
Pocket-lint

To activate Mario Time in Google Maps:

  1. Open the latest version of the Google Maps app for iOS or Android.
  2. Pull up driving directions, like you normally would do.
  3. Look for the yellow "?" icon to the left of the regular Start button and tap it.
  4. You should see the cartoon plumber on a kart, instead of an arrow in a circle.

To activate the Easter egg in Mario Time:

  1. Follow the above steps (activate Mario Time in Google Maps).
  2. Now, tap the yellow “?” icon 100 times.
  3. That's it!