The second Mario Marathon is up and running right now, to benefit Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play Charity. Three crazy people will play through the seven core Super Mario Bros. games on Wii Virtual Console in one weekend, nonstop, with limited sleep. Hilarity will ensue. Donations will be made, to buy games, toys, books, and other goodies for the kids in children’s hospitals across the world. These kids suffer plenty, and anything that the gaming community can do to help keep them happy is worth it. Plus it’s a little something to help convince the world that we’re not all crazed school shooters. Check it out!
This sounds more like No Exit than something that would actually be fun.
They played for ninety-some hours and raised over $28,000. That’s a lot of stuff for sick kids.
For reasons unknown to me, Penny Arcade did not link to them during the marathon – I prefer to believe they stayed mum to avoid the server-crashing “Penny Arcade Effect” rather than the possibility that they just couldn’t be bothered.
It’s indisputably a nice thing; it’s just the method that makes me shudder.
Oddly enough, forgoing sleep to play NES games with 2 other people probably would’ve been my depiction of a good afterlife 20 years ago.