OMG: Portal + Mario = Mari0

Aaaaaahhhhh! You LOVE Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and you LOVE Valve’s Portal. Now… love THIS: Mari0.

Last September, the world saw the beginnings of a mashup by indie game developer Stabyourself which aimed to unite the two venerable franchises and now my friends, it’s here. With Mari0, the world’s favourite old platformer gets re-imagined with Portal gun mechanics. You’ll find the familiar Super Mario Bros. 8-bit graphics and levels from the haze of our NES youth, but instead of shooting fireballs and dodging enemies, you brandish a portal gun, turning the age-old platformer into a bona fide platform-puzzler.

Shoot a portal in front of a pesky turtle and then another behind it. Boom, endless loop. I dare you not to smirk as you watch one of those pesky Testudines fall prey to your wiles. Mari0 also brings a co-op multi-player mode, level editor and a Portal-themed map pack tailored to put the focus on Mari0’s Portal-esque game genetics.

I played version 1.2 of the game on OS X and while epic amounts of fun, it’s a bit glitchy at times. Sometimes stutters and slow downs occur, but as a temporary fix this forum thread recommends turning off sound in the options/pause menu. I found playing Mari0 with a keyboard just doesn’t cut it. I highly recommend an external two-button mouse.

The best part? Although donations are appreciated, the game is free for Windows, Mac and Linux. What are you still doing reading this? Go, go, go!