Thursday’s Download: Mario Wraps Up Nintendo’s “Month of Mario” With You Guessed It: A Couple of Mario Games.

And this week’s temporary price drop goeeesss tooooo….Mario’s Picross!(?)

To be honest, this choice immediately struck me as kind of odd when I read that it’d been included in Nintendo’s month-long build up to New Super Mario Bros. 2. I wondered what the hell these guys were smoking placing a generic puzzler alongside some of Mario’s most celebrated platformers. Then I remembered that Matt wrote a glowing review of it a while back (which you can read by clicking right here) so there must be something to it. In any case, the game is now available for 2.99.

In other news, Nintendo is dipping their tiny yellow toes into the deep blue ocean of full retail downloads by releasing New Super Mario Bros. 2 ($39.99) this Sunday both on store shelves and within the digital walls of the eShop. Personally I’d planned on picking up an actual cart but apparently downloading instead will net Club Nintendo members double the amount of coins that a physical copy provides. I guess that makes my decision for me right there. The early word is that New SMB2 is a lot of fun if not slightly derivative of previous installments of the “New” series. As the past 2 games became minor obsessions, I’m not too worried as to whether or not I’ll enjoy this new entry. Maybe I’ll even be able to pull myself away from it long enough to write a proper review!

I know, I know…let’s not get ahead of ourselves.