The team at Nintendo has created some of the most well-known characters in the video game industry, including Mario. He is one of the most popular video game figures ever, thanks to titles like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! that have embedded themselves into pop culture forever.
Now, you can find Mario in Nintendo’s latest video game release Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Check out some of his later adventures!
The original Donkey Kong Game & Watch unit The first Nintendo character was actually not Mario at all; it was a man named Mr. Game & Watch who starred in the early series of handheld LCD games known as Game & Watch.
Mario’s first appearance (1981)
Mario first appeared as Jumpman in the original Donkey Kong arcade game and its Game & Watch version. He wore a red shirt, blue overalls, white gloves and was mustachioed; additionally he had hair on the top of his head.
Jumpman has not changed much since then, although his appearance has been updated to be more realistic in games like Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. In Donkey Kong, he had to save Pauline from Donkey Kong by jumping on the barrels that the ape threw down.
The original Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Mario made his home console debut in 1985’s Super Mario Bros. for the NES, where he had to once again save princess Peach from the villain Bowser. He wore an even more detailed outfit, with his overalls being red and without a belt buckle. His boots were brown with white edges at the base of each one, while he had blue eyes and his gloves were now completely blue.
Mario has only had three real “remakes” – meaning games that were technically sequels but had different graphics and gameplay – in his entire history: Super Mario Bros. 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Super Mario Galaxy 2. In these games, he has largely retained his classic look with a few updated elements.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (1989)
Mario’s first animated appearance was in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, an American TV series that aired on NBC from 1989 to 1990. In it, Mario and Luigi were plumbers who lived in the Mushroom Kingdom and often fought Bowser and his minions.
The show was notorious for its low production values; many of the sound effects were recycled from other Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and the animation was often recycled as well. Despite this, the show was popular enough to warrant a sequel cartoon called The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, which aired from 1990 to 1991.
Mario Kart (1992)
One of Mario’s most popular spin-off series is Mario Kart, which made its debut in 1992 on the Super NES. In the series, Mario and his friends race in go-karts against each other while using items from item boxes to gain an advantage over their opponents.
In the first installment of the series, Mario’s kart was colored red and white with a blue “M” on it. His signature overalls were also blue, while his hair retained its usual style. The color of Mario’s kart has changed in every version of the game, although it is often red with some sort of emblem on it.
How was mario created?
The original Mario was based on the creator of the game, Shigeru Miyamoto. In an interview with IGN, Miyamoto said: “Well, originally I was thinking about using Popeye as the model. But then I decided that wasn’t appropriate, and I started thinking about other cartoon characters. Eventually I decided on a character called ‘Jumpman.’ That character wore a tie, and I thought that would be a good fit for the color red because it’s often used as the color of someone who works hard. Plus, our office was right near the Hamamatsu train station where everyone wears red jumpsuits to work.” “Don’t you remember? Mario used to have hair on the top of his head.”
“Mario’s mustache?”
“That’s right. But we decided to get rid of it because it was too difficult to animate.”
The rest is history. mario has been around for a long time and shows no signs of stopping. With new games and remakes on the horizon, fans can look forward to more classic mario gameplay for years to come.
Conclusion
Mario is Nintendo’s iconic character, standing alongside famous names like Link, Samus and Kirby. He continues to be a popular character in all of his forms, appearing in many games across multiple platforms.