Mario

From those early days, Mario has gone on to star in an enormous number of Nintendo games and save the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach from Bowser time and time again.

Legacy

Games in the Mario series are constantly redefining their own standards, and often influencing the games that follow as a result.Super Mario Bros. defined the 2D platforming genre in the mid-80's. Super Mario World showed the abilities of the Super Nintendo with scaling and rotation of sprites, and gameplay mechanics that rewarded 100 percent completion of levels. Super Mario 64 famously set the standard for 3D platforming, and for taking traditional 2D franchises into the third dimension. Most recently, Super Mario Galaxy has offered innovative uses of the Wii's unique control scheme. Even offshoot games like Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario have consistently surprised Mario's fans with their refreshing and unexpected styles of gameplay. Mario has also starred in many spin-off sports games, ranging from racing (Mario Kart) to golf and tennis (Mario Golf, Mario Tennis), as well as a successful series of party games (Mario Party).

Fun Facts

- Mario has a mustache because he was too small to draw a mouth onto when he was first created.
- It was difficult to animate hair and ears at the time, so that's why Mario has a hat and sideburns.
- Mario and Luigi are both bright colours to make them stand out from the background of the older games.
- Mario also wears bright colours and overalls to fix a problem with Mario's hands disappearing when he walked.