Nintendo expands My Mario line with apps, books, wooden blocks, shorts

Nintendo broadened My Mario with a mix of products that reach children in more than one setting, from a smart device to a bookshelf to the living room floor. The April 9 update added the Hello, Yoshi! app for smart devices, Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo Switch, a new Hello, Mario! board book from Penguin Random House, another stop-motion short in the It’s Me, Mario! series, and three wooden block sets starring Peach, Yoshi, and Luigi.

The most revealing piece is the app. Nintendo said Hello, Yoshi! is designed to help parents manage screen time, and after some interaction Yoshi falls asleep, which creates a built-in stopping point instead of an endless loop. That small design choice says a lot about where Nintendo is trying to take Mario now. The company is not just chasing one more download or toy sale. It is shaping character products around the rhythms of family life, with software behavior, pacing, and safety all serving the same goal.

The wooden blocks push that same idea into physical play. Nintendo said the blocks can also function as amiibo in compatible Super Mario games, so the set is not just a children’s toy line or a shelf item for collectors. It becomes a bridge between at-home play and the company’s game ecosystem, a reminder that Nintendo still knows how to turn a character into a platform without making the experience feel like a platform pitch.

For employees, the line shows how much coordination now sits behind a Mario launch that never touches a traditional game cartridge. My Mario now spans publishing, apps, short-form video, licensed goods, retail, and cross-platform functionality, which means brand management, localization, software development, legal review, compliance, and merchandising all have to move together. The work looks simple on the surface, but every piece has to feel recognizably Nintendo and still hold up under family scrutiny.

Nintendo said My Mario will continue appearing in select retail stores throughout the year, signaling that this is an ongoing program rather than a one-off merch drop. For a company known for guarding its characters carefully, that matters. Mario is increasingly present in the routines parents manage and children touch every day, and the real test is whether Nintendo can keep that expansion feeling deliberate, coherent, and unmistakably its own.