The last thing we’ll look at in our “Free-to-Play” Week is an application for 3DS that you can download on the eShop for free.  It’ll let you take photos of Mario characters using cards, similar to how the AR Games functions on your 3DS.  But while the Photos With Mario app is free, the way you get the cards isn’t.  You have to buy special Nintendo Points cards that have the Mario cards included, and you can only buy them at Target stores.

Here is what the special Nintendo Points cards look like, so that you don’t get them mixed up with the other Nintendo Points cards they sell.

The cards are worth 10 dollars of Nintendo points each, and the redemption code is on the back. When you unfold the card, you can see instructions on how to download the app and use the cards, and you get one of three perforated character cards: Mario, Peach, or a Goomba.  Here’s what the cards look like on the inside:

Again, the program works like the AR Games does.  Just place a card in front of the 3DS camera and a 3-D character will pop out.  You can use the control stick to adjust the lighting on the character, and the right shoulder button lets you ‘grab’ the character and move it around so you don’t have to always have the card in view to take photos.  Using forced perspective and your imagination, you could take 3DS pictures of you hanging out with Mario, proposing marriage to Peach, or other weird things.

Similar to how the collectible cards worked in Kid Icarus: Uprising (the only part of that game I liked), if you put two different Photos With Mario cards down, they’ll react to each other.  Peach and Mario will wave to each other, the Goomba will charge at Mario before getting stomped, and Peach gasps in apathetic horror at the Goomba (come on, Peach, you can stomp that thing, too).

If you have the AR card with the question block on it (included with the 3DS and the points cards), you can make a warp pipe come out that’ll also do different things depending on who stands around it.  When it’s by itself, sometimes a Bullet Bill will come out of the pipe for some reason.  When the Goomba is near the pipe, a Piranha Plant will come out.  And when Mario or Peach stands around the pipe, Toad will come out.  Yay, Toad!  I was about to complain that they didn’t have an AR card of my favorite Mario character (yeah it’s Toad), but I guess he’s kind of in there anyway.  I can understand why they would make cards of Mario and Peach, but a Goomba?  You’d think they’d make a card of a more popular Mario character, like Luigi or Bowser.  Actually I heard they had more cards in Japan, so maybe they’ll bring them over here later, too.

And that’s Photos With Mario.  It may seem kind of silly and pointless, but I needed some Nintendo point cards anyway so I could get Shovel Knight on Wii U (very good game, by the way).  So I figured I’d go to Target and get the special cards so I could have a little something extra.  Plus, the 3DS AR cards are fun to collect.  Look for the Photos With Mario cards at Target stores!

Tags: Game Reviews