DO WANT: Nintendo announces awesome Mario playing cards

When Nintendo was founded in 1889, it started life as a card company, manufacturing handmade hanafuda cards until the mid-1970s. Next month, the company will return to its roots as card maker with a brand new set of Mario-themed playing cards. Neat! And also, I’M ALL IN SUCKERS.

Entitled Mario Trump play cards, these bridge sized (58x89mm) cards come in three different flavors, depending on your gaming tastes. There’s the old-skool 2D Mario set above (which naturally anybody with incredible taste will choose), a sort of N64-era set, decorated with standard Mario drawings, and a CGI Mario set, for all the new kids on the Mario scene. Get off my damn lawn, etc.

No matter which set you buy, Bowser will feature on the Joker card, and I assume Peach will be the Queen. They’re out next month at your favorite import site – try NCSX or Play Asia – and are going for ¥1,050 ($11.40) per set.

[Via Andriasang]