Mario’s 30th anniversary this year has, of course, raised a marketing fervor by Nintendo. Augmented by the Mario Maker game coming out in September, other venues include a special website dedicated to chronicling fan experiences with Mario in commemoration, in both English (http://supermario.nintendo.com/lsm/index.html ) and Japanese (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/mario30th/index.html ), with easter eggs abounding.

Yet perhaps the most tasteful is Nintendo’s partnership with Tokyo Tower Records Cafes to create Super-Mario themed cafes.

The cafes are available for a limited time and feature Mario-themed menu items. Customers can sample curry topped with stars, ice cream shaped to look like pipes (complete with Mario seeming to pop out of the top), and latte art featuring Nintendo’s iconic plumber, including a whole line of desserts. Furthermore, each restaurant has its own selection of food, so no location offers the same experience.

The food, however, is not all that sets the cafes apart. Inside, plushies and posters are everywhere, with familiar faces always within reach. Some cafes limit their decor to the interior, but others- such as a location in Shibuya- display a giant 8-bit Mario dominating the building, in between two detailed green pipes.  

Character-themed restaurants are not a completely new notion to Japan; well-known franchises have often had a culinary adaptation, such as the Gundam Cafe located right next to a life-sized Gundam robot replica, and Luida’s Bar, a Dragon Quest restaurant that plays the Quester’s Rest inn tune until you wished the loudspeakers exploded.  

For a detailed account of the food and experience in a Shibuya Mario Cafe, please check out the link below: http://kotaku.com/visiting-tokyos-super-mario-cafes-1713298771

That. Is cool. Of course I want to go there, but I'm not able to. Ice cream looking like pipes with it looking like Mario pops out of the top? That's my favorite thing about this. I'm so happy Nintendo is continuing to give back to Mario fans after 30 years of Mario!

I've never heard of character-themed restaurants before, and I probably shouldn't be surprised about the Mario ones or the previous ones. But I am surprised, and amazed.

Why can't we have video game themed cafes or anything for that matter over here :V I'd hang out there all the time if there was, it's time like this I get jealous of Japanese people. Oh well, maybe in due time it could happen.

I love everything they do to keep the Mario tradition going. I Goggled these Mario themed cafe and they look nice but, my favorite part are how creative some of their dishes were specially the desserts. I'd like to go to one.

I wish I could go to one of these, but alas I won't be able to. Too bad there aren't any in America. Who doesn't want Mario Warp Pipe Ice Cream? Also hope they have lots of spaghetti.

I've really been wanting to go to Tokyo for some time because of all the awesome stuff like this that they do. Hopefully I can get there sometime in the next couple years. I know it's going to be AWESOME!

Also, if any of the members of Vizzed DO get to go, please take pictures/video and share them with us! I'll be VERY excited to see them!

Jordanv78 : Character cafes are so much fun! I really wish I could go to this one too. I did go to Luida's Bar, the Dragon Quest cafe, in Tokyo with my friends, though. It was a blast. When I wrote that it "plays the Quester's Rest inn tune until you wished the loudspeakers exploded," I spoke from experience. But the food was great, and really, really cute.

I hope you will be able to visit Tokyo someday. I would encourage you to check out Shibuya and Akihabara- there's lots of shopping and anime merch available, respectively- and, of course, more character cafes. But when you go, I would also encourage you to visit Asakusa or the more traditional parts; my favorite thing about Tokyo was how the modern setting was interspersed with tradition in a blend very uniquely Japanese.

I really admire this aspect of Japanese culture. I wish things like this were more frequent in the States. Maybe they are, but certainly not anywhere near where I live. Japan is one of my top 3 travel destinations, so maybe one day I'll get to check things like this out. At least Nintendo put on events like this, even if people (like a lot of Vizzed members) don't always agree with their business practices.

Side note for Stephi - Your avatar is hilarious. He's such a pipsqueak lol.