How to Make Your Own Game About Mario & Luigi

Use green card stock to create a Mario and Luigi game board that resembles the green plumber's pipes prevalent in the Mario and Luigi video games. Use a paper trimmer to cut a 3-by-11-inch piece of green card stock, and use double-stick tape to affix it atop one 8.5-inch side of an 8.5-by-11-inch piece of matching green card stock. Use a black marker to draw and fill in an 8-by-2-inch oval stretching across the center of the 3-by-11-inch piece to make it look like the "opening" of the pipe.

Draw the game spaces onto the game board with a black marker. Use a ruler to create a "grid" of 16 squares, 2-inch, arranged in four rows of four squares.

Write "start" or a Mario-inspired phrase like "let's go" on the upper-left square on the board. Write "finish" or a Mario-like "that's so nice" on the bottom-right square. Add the phrases, "Bowser throws you back two spaces" and "Peach invites you to tea, ahead two spaces" on random spots on the board. Decorate the other squares on the Nintendo-inspired board game with stickers of the characters sold at scrap-booking and toy stores.

Cut 80 pieces of red cardstock, 3-by-4-inch, with a paper trimmer. Write trivia questions on 60 of the cards featuring facts about the characters, the story lines of the video games and different items and powers in the games such as "fire flowers" and coins. Add tasks to the remaining 20 cards that require players to complete jobs such as reciting the alphabet using Mario's accent or mimicking Luigi as he reaches up to punch a coin block, for example.

Give each player a plastic Nintendo character figurine---sold at toy stores---as a game piece. The youngest player goes first and selects a card---if he answers correctly or performs the task, he moves ahead one space. If he refuses to complete the task or answers incorrectly, he moves back a space. The first "character" to reach the finish spot wins.