mario-marathon
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The Speed Gamers return with another 72-hour marathon for charity
Texas-based marathon-gaming group The Speed Gamers is preparing for its annual winter charity drive once again, this year raising funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation through extensive exposure to Mario and his various exploits.Starting at 7 p.m. Eastern on December 14, the group's non-stop 72-hour gaming session will work its way through a respectable block of Mario games, spanning the vastness of the plumber's body of work, both new and old. The whole event will be streamed live on the group's official website, where viewers can donate to not only help a worthy cause, but to also win prizes and play practical jokes on the marathoners.So far this year, The Speed Gamers has already raised $59,324.36 for charity, thanks to its insane 168-hour Pokemon marathon last June. In total, the organization has accumulated $369,304.15 for various causes since it was founded in 2008.
Super Mario Marathon 5 raises over $43k for Child's Play (and counting)
Super Mario Marathon 5 is streaming live from a Mario-themed living room in Indiana, where a group of gamers are playing select levels from a variety of Mario games. The levels they play are determined by the amount of money donated, with 800 total levels across ten Mario games available for them to complete.Donated money goes directly to the Child's Play foundation, which aims to improve "the lives of children with toys and games in [its] network of over 70 hospitals worldwide." Last year's event raised over $112k in donations to the foundation. Donations can be made here, and the stream can be viewed on the Mario Marathon site.[Thanks, Stefan!]
4th Annual Mario Marathon triple-jumps into action today
For the fourth year in a row, a group of insane people will board themselves up in a small, Mushroom Kingdom-decorated room to beat every level, collect every star and stomp every Goomba the Super Mario franchise has ever produced. Why would someone purposefully, harmfully oversaturate themselves with such a wonderful, timeless franchise? Because they're the Mario Marathon. It's in their blood. The crew is kicking off this suicide mission today at 11 a.m. ET, starting with a playthrough of Super Mario Galaxy 2. Even though it hasn't started yet, the event has already raised $13,000 for Child's Play. We encourage you to go watch these poor souls hurt themselves with Mario, and then, if you feel so inclined, reward their efforts with a donation to a good cause.
Mario Marathon squashing Goombas for charity once again
For the third year in a row, a small group of brave, platforming-adept gamers have holed themselves up in a room, where they'll play a vast cornucopia of Mario titles until their viewers allow them to stop. That sounds more sadistic than it actually is -- the Mario Marathon is actually a charity drive, where the players take on more difficult in-game tasks as donations for Child's Play continue to pile in. They're currently standing at a little over $20,000, but they'll need a lot more fungible encouragement if they're going to be made to tackle some of their loftier goals. Why not drop by and show your support? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Playing WoW for charity: Interview with the WoWathon team
The gamers who are playing WoW, marathon-style, for charity are still streaming their mega-leveling session over on Ustream. Thanks to fellow gamers and readers like you, they are getting close to have surpassed their goal of $5000 in order to stay playing until they get level 80. Every penny of the donations goes to Child's Play, the Penny-Arcade charity for helping sick kids in children's hospitals.The WoWathon team are leveling, chatting, eating, singing -- living their lives on the internet for your viewing pleasure and hopefully your donations. They are also, unbelievably, being griefed while questing and trolled in chat. Unflappable, these Gamers for Good continue their quest to help raise money for an excellent cause -- sometimes with Blizzard GMs as guardian angels.They took time out after reaching level 40 and even woke up one of their team (Thank you, Alex!) to answer my interview questions:
Madmen completing every Mario game for charity
We love Mario. We mean, we're somewhat contractually obligated to, being huge nerds and all. Still, there's certain stages in the core Mario games that are simply excruciating to play -- we usually skip them during our nostalgic romps. That's why we can't help but admire the efforts of three men who are playing through every Super Mario title -- collecting every star, completing every level and Shining every Get! (Err -- getting every Shine.)They're not doing this for fun, of course -- for the second year in a row, they're running through this "Mario Marathon," collecting donations for Child's Play. They've already been at it for two days -- but with the team yet to totally complete Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Sunshine, then Super Mario Galaxy again (as that totally secret character), there's a lot of ballgame left to be played.
