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Grab your party hat! Save on Nintendo games during Mario Day 2024
Nintendo
Unless you’re a Nintendo gamer, you might not be familiar with Mario Day. Nintendo gamers and retailers around the world pay homage to the world’s most famous video game character — Mario. And it’s on this day you’ll discover huge discounts on popular Nintendo games.
Be sure to mark your calendar, because Mario Day 2024 takes place Sunday, March 10. The good news is, retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart have started celebrating Mario Day early, so many popular games are already on sale.
Score big savings on Nintendo games now for Mario Day
Our team of in-house gamers and expert shoppers have curated this list of impressive Mario Day discounts that’ll allow you to score big savings on the Nintendo games you want the most. This is the perfect time to expand your game library, with titles like “Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” “Super Mario RPG” or “Mario vs. Donkey Kong” — all of which our gaming experts have reviewed and loved.
For more help choosing the best Nintendo Switch games, check out our recently updated coverage of the five best Nintendo Switch games you can play right now. Meanwhile, if you need additional controllers to play your favorite multi-player games, we’ve got you covered with the latest info on the eight best handheld video game controllers for 2024.
‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder’ (Nintendo Switch): $48 (save $12)
Nintendo
“Super Mario Bros. Wonder” is without a doubt the best Nintendo Switch game released in the past few years. It captures everything gamers love about the Super Mario Bros. franchise, but features an all-new and original adventure.
Get ready to experience the type of graphics, sound and non-stop fun that only the Nintendo Switch gaming console can provide. To celebrate Mario Day 2024, Walmart has cut the price of this bestselling game by $12, so you can order it right now for $48. Amazon has also cut the price, to $50.
If your a Mario fan and plan to add only one game to your Nintendo Switch collection this year, this is definitely the game you want.
‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’ (Nintendo Switch): $40 (save $20)
Nintendo
Out of all the exciting games on the Nintendo Switch, “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” is one of best high-action, multi-player racing game you can get. It’s also one of the most popular Switch games of all time.
This is one of the few games that people of many ages and skill levels can play together, but it’s also just as fun and whimsical in single-player mode.
If you haven’t yet added “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” to your game library, what are you waiting for? To celebrate Mario Day 2024, you can snag this game for $20 off at Best Buy and purchase it for just $40.
Because it’s a digital download, once you purchase the game, you can download it directly to your Switch and start playing in minutes. Over at Walmart, a physical copy of the game is on sale for $48.
Head over to Amazon to snag “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” and the “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pack” for the special bundle price of $65. That’s 24% off the usual price of $85.
‘Super Mario RPG’ (Nintendo Switch): $45 (save $15)
Nintendo
The world’s most popular plumber — Mario — has starred in all sorts of video games. “Super Mario RPG,” is his first foray into the RPG genre on the Switch.
Nintendo has remade the 1996 classic “Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars” for the Nintendo Switch, and it’s become a bestseller. The new game has updated graphics and some improved gameplay mechanisms, while keeping all of the classic dialogue and story of the SNES original.
Even if you’re not a fan of traditional RPGs, don’t write off “Super Mario RPG.” It’s more reminiscent of a lighthearted Pokemon game with constant exploration, rather than, say, a more elaborate Final Fantasy-type game with complex mechanics and dark storylines.
The game requires a fair amount of reading, so younger players may find it less satisfying than more traditional action-adventure hybrids. But older gamers who have more patience and a willingness to explore will love it.
Celebrate Mario Day 2024 by adding this game to your collection for just $45. That’s $15 off, but only for a limited time when you shop at Walmart.
‘Super Mario 3D World’ (Nintendo Switch): $50 (save $10)
Nintendo
This game features two separate Mario-based adventures, and right now, Amazon and Walmart are selling it for $10 off, which brings the price of this game down to $50.
In “Super Mario 3D World,” each character has a distinct play style. But whichever character you control, you’ll find yourself dashing and climbing your way through dozens of colorful courses, with the goal of collecting green stars and power-ups along the way. Play alone or grab a few friends and have them join in on the fun.
This colorful action-oriented game is rated “E” for everyone, so it’s suitable for players of all ages.
‘Super Mario Maker 2’ (Nintendo Switch): $45 (save $15)
Nintendo
Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the most famous video game designers in the world. He’s the genius behind countless Nintendo classics, including those in the Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong and Legend of Zelda series. He’s been referred to as “he godfather of gaming, which is a title he’s certainly earned.
But if you have aspirations to follow in his footsteps and create your own Super Mario Bros. adventures, now you can — and you don’t need an advanced degree in programming or game development to do it.
With “Super Mario Maker 2,” just about anyone can create their own side-scrolling Super Mario adventures and then play them and share them with friends. Plus, you can play a nearly limitless number of side-scrolling Super Mario courses anytime and anywhere.
Start with the more than 100 built-in courses in the single-player story mode, which is a new Mario adventure that unleashes the creative potential of Super Mario Maker 2. Then, start breaking the rules as you use a wide range of parts, tools and customization options to create the side-scrolling Super Mario courses you’ve always dreamed about.
‘Super Mario Party’ (Nintendo Switch): $52 (save $8)
Nintendo
There’s no better way to celebrate Mario Day 2024 with your friends than to play “Super Mario Party.”
This is a classic and extremely popular multi-player game suitable for all ages. Whether you’re playing with family members or friends, you’re sure to have a fun and challenging time.
Up to four players will use Joy-Con controllers in clever ways across 80 wild and challenging mini games. Some are all-out free-for-alls, others are two on two, or even one on three challenges. You can also set up a private room and play your favorite mini games and enjoy some competition with friends online via the Nintendo Switch Online service.
Head over to Best Buy right now and save $8 on this classic Nintendo Switch game. It’s on sale for just $52, but only for a limited time.
‘Mario Golf: Super Rush’ (Nintendo Switch): $58 (save $2)
Best Buy
Some golf simulation games, like EA Sports’ “PGA Tour,” are rather complex and require a strong knowledge of golf and PGA players. That’s not the case with “Mario Golf: Super Rush.” This is more a whimsical and cartoon-style golf game that people of all ages will enjoy.
Play alone or against up to three other players, each of whom will control one of 16 popular characters, such as Mario, Peach, Yoshi or Luigi. The game features multiple modes, like speed golf and battle golf, as well as an original adventure mode.
At Best Buy, you can get this game for $58. While this is just $2 off its regular price, this is a fun-filled game that offers a great way to celebrate Mario Day (or any day of the year) with friends.
‘Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’ (Nintendo Switch): $20 (save $20)
UbiSoft
Select a team of three characters from a roster of nine and then embark on an epic journey through the galaxy.
Your goal is to rescue the Sparks, who ultimately provide your character with unique powers needed to win battles.
This game was developed by UbiSoft, not Nintendo, but it features popular characters from the Super Mario Bros. games.
Right now, the game is on sale at both Best Buy and Amazon for just $20 — which is half off.
‘Luigi’s Mansion 3’ (Nintendo Switch): $40 ($20 off)
Nintendo
In this spooky action-adventure, Luigi gets invited to the towering Last Resort hotel, but when Mario and friends go missing, he’ll need to conquer his fears to save them. Wherever Luigi goes, the area is inundated with ghosts.
He’ll need to slam, blow away and vacuum up the spooks with his Poltergust G-00 contraption. Luigi will join forces with Gooigi to overcome the puzzling contraptions and mischievous bosses found at the end of each floor.
“Luigi’s Mansion 3” is a fun single-player game, but it’s even more exciting when played in multiplayer story mode, or the “scarescraper” mode that supports up to eight players.
Just in time for Mario Day 2024, you can buy this game, which stars Mario’s best pal Luigi, for 15% off and pay $51 on Amazon. Meanwhile, Walmart has this game on sale for just $40 — that’s $20 off its usual $60 price.
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The escalating fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continued Saturday as both sides traded strikes as the war in Gaza nears one year.
The Israel Defense Forces said its air force struck Hezbollah fighters inside a mosque in southern Lebanon that they said was used as a command center to “plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
The mosque was adjacent to Salah Ghandour Hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil. The hospital said in a statement that Israeli forces had shelled it after being warned to evacuate. The shelling “resulted in nine members of the medical and nursing staff being injured, most of them seriously,” while most of the medical staff were evacuated. On Thursday, the World Health Organization said 28 health workers in Lebanon had been killed in the past 24 hours.
ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images
At the same time, 12 Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, including one that badly damaged a large hall Hezbollah used to hold ceremonies, Lebanon’s state news agency said.
Later in the day, more strikes hit the area, from which tens of thousands of people have fled over the past two weeks.
Israeli airstrikes also hit areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to state media. At least six people were killed, according to NNA.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched a series of rockets at an Israeli air base near Haifa, about 30 miles from the Lebanese border. Israeli police said fragments of interceptors fell in several sites but no injuries were reported, according to the Associated Press.
Israel has sharply expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah — long designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and many other nations. The IDF has been carrying out nightly bombardment of Beirut’s once densely populated southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Overnight, a military spokesman issued three alerts for residents there to evacuate.
Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images
Nearly a week of Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon, near Israel’s northern border, and two weeks of airstrikes in that region and in southern Beirut — both Hezbollah strongholds — had killed more than 2,000 people, the health ministry said. More than 1 million people have been driven from their homes, including tens of thousands under Israel evacuation orders in almost 100 towns and villages near the border.
Hezbollah started launching those attacks in support of its ideological ally Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, the day after Hamas sparked the ongoing war in Gaza with its Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel. The IDF says Hezbollah militants have fired over 10,000 rockets across the border since Oct. 8, 2023. The vast majority of them have been intercepted by Israel’s advanced missile defense systems.
Israel conducts more ground raids
The Israeli military said on Saturday its special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.
Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border. On Tuesday, Israel launched what it calls a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon.
Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area in the past few days, which is saturated with arms and explosives, the military said.
Americans attempt to leave Lebanon
The U.S. government has warned Americans not to travel to Lebanon since mid-September and urged any citizens in the country to leave via commercial travel routes. As of Friday night, the U.S. State Department has assisted approximately 500 U.S. citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on flights organized by the agency.
Other nations are also working to evacuate their residents from Lebanon. Germany has evacuated 460 citizens on German military flights, while a Dutch military transport plane carried more than 100 citizens out of Lebanon. There were also citizens of Belgium, Finland and Ireland who were repatriated on that flight.
ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s great that these people are safely back in the Netherlands. These have been tense times for them,” Christiaan Rebergen, secretary-general of the foreign ministry, said after they landed Friday.
Fighting ongoing in Gaza
Palestinian medical officials say Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday have killed at least nine people, including two children.
One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.
Another strike hit a house in the northern part of Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of wounded people, it said.
The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes but has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli military had warned residents in parts of central Gaza to evacuate, saying its forces would soon operate there in response to Palestinian militants.
The warnings cover areas along a strategic corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a ceasefire deal earlier this summer. The military warned Palestinians in areas of Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, located along the Netzarim corridor, to evacuate to an along Gaza’s shore called Muwasi, which the military has designated a humanitarian zone. It’s unclear how many Palestinians are currently living in the areas affected by the order, parts of which were evacuated previously.
Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the almost year-long war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.
CBS News
1-month-old twins who died with mother believed to be the youngest-known Hurricane Helene victims
Month-old twin boys are believed to be the youngest known victims of Hurricane Helene. The boys died alongside their mother last week when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia.
Obie Williams, grandfather of the twins, said he could hear babies crying and branches battering the windows when he spoke with his daughter, Kobe Williams, 27, on the phone last week as the storm tore through Georgia.
The single mother had been sitting in bed holding sons Khyzier and Khazmir and chatting on the phone with various family members while the storm raged outside.
AP
Kobe’s mother, Mary Jones, was staying with her daughter, helping her take care of the babies. She was on the other side of the trailer home when she heard a loud crash as a tree fell through the roof of her daughter’s bedroom.
“Kobe, Kobe, answer me, please,” Jones cried out in desperation, but she received no response.
Kobe and the twins were found dead.
“I’d seen pictures when they were born and pictures every day since, but I hadn’t made it out there yet to meet them,” Obie Williams told The Associated Press days after the storm ravaged eastern Georgia. “Now I’ll never get to meet my grandsons. It’s devastating.”
The babies, born Aug. 20, are the youngest known victims of a storm that had claimed more than 200 lives across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas. Among the other young victims are a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south in Washington County, Georgia.
“She was so excited to be a mother of those beautiful twin boys,” said Chiquita Jones-Hampton, Kobe’ Jones’ niece. “She was doing such a good job and was so proud to be their mom.”
Jones-Hampton, who considered Kobe a sister, said the family is in shock and heartbroken.
In Obie Williams’ home city of Augusta, 30 miles east of his daughter’s home in Thomson, power lines stretched along the sidewalks, tree branches blocked the roads and utility poles lay cracked and broken. The debris left him trapped in his neighborhood near the South Carolina border for a little over a day after the storm barreled through.
He said one of his sons dodged fallen trees and downed power lines to check on Kobe, and he could barely bear to tell his father what he found.
Many of his 14 other children are still without power in their homes across Georgia. Some have sought refuge in Atlanta, and others have traveled to Augusta to see their father and mourn together, he said.
He described his daughter as a lovable, social and strong woman. She always had a smile and loved to make people laugh, he said.
And she loved to dance, Jones-Hampton said.
“That was my baby,” Williams said. “And everybody loved her.”