It's National Mario Day! Let's celebrate by reviewing some of the top Mario games out there right now. Share your love for Mario down in the comments!

National Mario Day

Mario is commonly referred to as one of the most popular video game characters out there. He first made his appearance in Donkey Kong, but quickly became the lead in his own series. The date for National Mario Day has been March 10th for roughly the past decade. Do you know why that date was chosen? If you do, let me know in the comments! To celebrate this iconic little plumber, let's talk about some of his top valued collectible video games!

Super Mario Bros.

National MArio DayThis game, along with a couple others, have been making headlines in recent years. I've talked about this in a recent blog. You can check that out here. Released in 1985, this game continues to rack up in auctions. For example, last year Heritage Auction had a 9.4 A+ mid-production go for  $114k last year and a 9.8 A+ late production go for $84k. What an iconic game! The value of this guy has increased over the past year by 679% according to GVN.

The other one that I won't talk about here - simply because I would be rewriting the blog I already wrote - but Super Mario 3 is right up there as well. One sold last year for a high as $156k on Heritage.

Super Mario Kart

This is another one that has increased in value over the past year.  This was the first time a racing game pitted players against each other rather than being a solo racing game. This started the HUGE craze that is Mario Kart. It was originally released in 1992 but was re-released for Wii in 2009-2010. A few recent sales at Heritage were a 9.0 A+ that went for $12k and a 9.2 A that sold for $10.2k. Roughly increasing by 205%, people are showing their love for this speed-based game.

Personally, I've adored playing MarioKart 8... Anyone else?

Super Mario World

This game was actually just auctioned off last night at Heritage on their first Video Game & Trading card weekly auction. This is the first appearance of Yoshi, the lovable helper! The value of this game has increased by 50% over the past year. In January of this year, Heritage sold a 9.0 B+ for the highest amount of any SMW so far and it went for over $50k. The one that was auctioned off last night was a 9.6 A++ and it sold for $7,200.

The price difference is due to the 9.0 being the original that was released in 1991, whereas the one from last night has the gold lettering on the front and was released in 1998 as Players Choice. Although the 1998 had a much smaller print run, people are clearly preferring the OG.

National Mario Day Wrap up

Some great honorable mentions: Super Mario Land. SML has increased by over 800%, which is insane. The highest sale on Heritage is a 9.8 A++ Mid Production that sold for over $43k last year. Donkey Kong didn't make MY top list, but it IS the first appearance of Mario. Heritage's highest sale was for a 9.2 A+ Mid Production that went for over $38k. Both of these are wonderful games - but personally, I like the other 3 listed above just slightly better.

So there is my humble list for today. What is YOUR favorite retro Mario game? Just a reminder - if you know why March 10th is National Mario Day - let me know in the comments!

LEVEL UP YOUR COLLECTION!