History
Mario is the creation of Shigero Miyamoto, back in 1981, and since then he has been one of the most recognizable figures in videogames to this day. He has inspired, games, movies, cartoon shows, and is still going strong. He has even branched out from his platform games and created several new franchise, like Mario Tennis, Mario Party, Mario RPG, Mario Kart, and more.
Games
Mario's first appearance.
Following the success of Donkey Kong came Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This is one of the first platforming games, and featured Mario and his brother Luigi trying to save Princess Peach from Bowser. After three levels the players is faced with a castle with Bowser waiting at the end, after the player defeats him he is told that the princess is in another castle and he's off to a new set of levels.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was next up. This game is actually a modified version of Doki Doki Panic converted into a Mario game. In this game the player was given a choice to play as Mario, Luigi, Princess, and Toad, each had their own unique way of handling, Luigi has the highest jumps, Princess could glide for several second, Toad had the most powerful jump but the least height and distance, and Mario was the middle ground. In this game Mario and his friends had to stop a frog named Wart from taking over Dream Land.
In Super Mario Bros. 3 Mario and Luigi have to save the Princess and the rulers of 7 kingdoms, by obtaining the wands that the Koopa kids have stolen. This game introduced the world map to Mario games and new items, like the raccoon tail, and the Tanooki suit.
In his first Game Boy game, Super Mario Land, Mario had to save Princess Daisy of Sarasaland from Tatanga, an alien that had captured her. The gameplay for this game is very similar to the previous installments, but the fire flower has been changed to fire superballs, these balls bounce off walls, ceilings, and floors and can be used to obtain hard to reach items.
Super Mario World
Super Mario Land had a sequel named, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. This game was the first appearance of Wario, Mario's evil counter part, who has taken over Mario's castle in his absence during the events of Mario Land 1, and puts all the inhabitants in a hypnotic spell making them believe Wario is their master. To enter his castle Mario must find six golden coins scattered through the world, and defeat Wario, freeing his people from his spell. Wario later starred in his own game, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, the first in the Wario series of games.
Super Mario World was a launch title for the Super Nintendo, featuring Mario and Luigi fighting Bowser and his kids in various worlds. Accompanying them was Yoshi, a dinosaur that Mario and Luigi could ride. Yoshi could eat enemies and, after eating shells, would gain a new ability. Blue shells allowed him to fly; red shells made him spit fire; whilst yellow made him land with a damaging puff of smoke.
In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Mario takes a back seat and lets Yoshi take the helm as this game tells the beginnings of Mario and Luigi. Kamek, Bowser's sorcerer has foreseen that Mario and Luigi will cause trouble for Bowser in the future, so as the stork is delivering them to his parents he tries to kidnap them, but only manages to grab Luigi. Mario falls toward Yoshi's Island where a group of Yoshi's rescue him and set out to save Luigi and return them both home. The gameplay in Yoshi's Island kept the platforming aspects of Mario games intact, but added a feature that when Yoshi is hit, baby Mario would fly off his back and must be reobtained before Kamek can take him, Yoshi is also able to fire eggs at his enemies.
Mario and Bowser in Super Mario 64.
Mario's first 3D appearance was in Mario 64. In this installment Mario goes to the Princess castle, but when he gets their he finds that the Princess and her servants have been captured by Bowser. Mario must enter various paintings in the castle and obtain stars to unlock more levels of the castle and get closer to saving the Princess and defeating Bowser. This game defined 3D platformers for quite some time and gave Mario a new set of moves and items, he is now capable of punching, Triple Jumping, performing back flips and jumping off walls, he could now also obtain a Wing Cap, Metal Cap, and the Vanish Cap.
The title screen for Super Mario Sunshine
The title screen for New Super Mario Bros. Wii
The original New Super Mario Bros.
New Super Mario Bros. is a classic 2D Mario game for the Nintendo DS. In this game Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and his child Bowser Jr. Many of the items are the classic items from the Mario series, the fire flower, starman, and super mushroom are present, but the mega mushroom is a new addition making Mario grow several times larger and become invulnerable to everything but lava, acid, and pits. The sequel to the game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, has new enemies, new friends, and a new console. It will come out on November 15th, 2009.
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario and Bowser face off in Super Mario Galaxy.
Spin-Offs
The Mario franchise has had its fair share of spin-offs. Mario has been in just about every genre since his game debut, from puzzle games to fighting. In addition, several popular characters have had their own games.
One of the first towns in Super Mario RPG.
The title screen for Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
The title screen for Mario Party DS.
The title screen for the original Mario Party.
Mario Kart DS was the first in the Mario Kart franchise to have online capabilities.
Mario Kart Wii is the 6th in the series. In this picture, Yoshi is ready to race!
Technically, the Mario Golf franchise began with Golf on the NES in 1985, but the first "official" Mario Golf game was Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64. Camelot has since headed the franchise, with Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color in 1999, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube, and Mario Golf: Advance Tour on the Game Boy Advance. The franchise has been generally well-received, and Camelot has since gone on to develop golf titles for other companies (such as We Love Golf! for Capcom).
Gooper Blooper is in one of the minigames in Mario Power Tennis.
The logo for Mario Strikers Charged.
Mario, as he appears in Mario Superstar Baseball.
The logo for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.
Dr. Mario
Being one of the most popular characters in video game history, Mario has naturally been in wide variety of other spin-offs. One of the first such was before the original Super Mario Bros. was even released. 1985 saw the release of Wrecking Crew, a puzzle game starring Mario. Mario's goal was to smash blocks and avoid enemies. A sequel was released on the Super Famicom titled Wrecking Crew '98 in 1998. In 2004, Nintendo released Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Game Boy Advance. This game was a continuation of the struggle that unfolded in 1994's Donkey Kong on the Game Boy, as well as the original NES game. The game followed Mario, as he controls several toy versions of himself, keep them from harm and trying to get them to the end of each level. A sequel was released for the Nintendo DS titled Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis.
Black Mage in Mario Hoops 3-on-3.
The title screen for Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
A solved puzzle looks something like this.
The cutscenes that Hotel Mario was criticized for.
TV Shows
The Mario franchise has had many television shows based off of the games. The first such show, Saturday Supercade, began airing in 1983 on CBS. It was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, and aired on Saturday mornings. The show ran for two seasons, with each episode focusing on characters from popular arcade video games of the time. Starring characters included Donkey Kong, Mario, and Pauline (all from the Donkey Kong arcade game).
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! DVD release.
The live action King Koopa.
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 complete series DVD release.
Super Mario Challenge was another television show that was broadcasted on The Children's Channel from 1990 to 1991. The show was hosted by John Lenahan, who portrayed Mario. It was one of the many popular "challenge" shows from that era, with two players competing in either Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, or Super Mario Bros. 3. Such goals included finishing a level in a certain amount of time or collecting the most coins.
The cast of Super Mario World.
Film
Super Mario Bros. movie poster.
A film very loosely based of off the original super Mario Bros. was released in 1993. It was billed as a family comedy. The movie starred Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) in a fight against King Koopa (Dennis Hooper). Instead of Princess Peach, this movie had Princess Daisy (Samantha Mathis). The movie took place in Brooklyn, in a dystopian future. The film involves two dimensions (one of which is ruled by an evolved humanlike race of dinosaurs). King Koopa is trying to merge the two dimensions, while Mario and Luigi fight to stop him. In addition, the film has a romance between Luigi and Princess Daisy. The film was considered to be a major flop (and a terrible movie), with it making only about $21 million, while the budget was around $42 million. Later, a soundtrack of the film was released.
