iRwego, a sort-of-cleverly named iPhone app, may not have a very long lifespan, since it’s not approved by Nintendo.But I hope it stays—it soundtracks your life as if it were a Mario game.

In the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros., Mario could avoid enemies only by running and jumping. But two years later, in Super Mario Bros., he was chowing down mushrooms that increase his size, flowers ...