Mario (franchise)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Mario franchise has sold more than 900 million copies of its games, which makes it the best-selling video game series ever. Shigeru Miyamoto created it for Nintendo. It now covers over 200 games, along with cartoons, comic books, feature films and a theme park area. Its hero first appeared in 1981, in an arcade cabinet, under a different name. He had no backstory, no brother and no kingdom to defend. How does a character like that become the face of a company? Why do the stories stay almost the same while the games keep changing shape? And what happens when the plumber leaves Nintendo's own hands and lands in other studios, on other machines and on other screens?

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• 2. Jumpman Gets a Name

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  Radar Scope had flopped, and Nintendo needed something to save the company. Its president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, turned to the designer Shigeru Miyamoto and asked for a new arcade game. Miyamoto pictured an obstacle course of sloped platforms, ladders and rolling barrels. He called the game Donkey Kong and named its hero Jumpman. The player's goal was to save a captive named Pauline. Points came from finishing screens, leaping over hazards and smashing objects with a hammer. Players also scored by collecting hats, parasols and purses, which were presumably Pauline's. The game was an early example of the platform genre, and it was surprisingly successful.

  Mario Segale was the landlord of the Nintendo of America office and warehouse, and his surname gave the hero his first name. Promotional material for the overseas release called Jumpman "Mario". One version of the story says Segale burst into a meeting to demand overdue rent. Don James, a former warehouse manager at Nintendo of America, disputed that in 2012. He said that he and the company's then-president, Minoru Arakawa, picked the name as a joke, because Segale was so reclusive that no employee had ever met him. James told the same account again in 2018.

  In 1982, Donkey Kong Jr. cast Mario as the villain. Players guided the young ape up vines and collected keys to free his kidnapped father from Mario's clutches. The game later reached the Famicom, the NES and several Atari home consoles. It also received a Game & Watch port and sequel.

  Then came Mario Bros. in 1983, the first game with his name in the title and the first to include Luigi. Each phase was a set of platforms with four pipes in the corners and a "POW" block in the center. Players could only run and jump, and they could not land on an enemy until it had been flipped over. The game later returned as a minigame inside Super Mario Bros. 3.

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• 3. A Fairy Tale Template

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  Princess Peach is kidnapped, Bowser is the culprit, and Mario sets off to rescue her. That pattern recurs across the franchise on purpose. Entries are mostly episodic instead of serialized, so one game barely affects the next. Reusing a familiar backdrop keeps each new entry easy for newcomers to approach.

  Mario himself is an Italian plumber whose superpower is jumping. A rotating cast of allies and power-ups travels with him. The story echoes Western fairy tales, but it mostly exists to support play. The real business is moving through themed environments full of cartoony obstacles and enemies. The look and layout of the world reflect Japanese aesthetics, which value expressive settings and give space priority over character.

  New York City was once named in supporting material as a setting for early games and adaptations. That has largely been retconned. Later material places the action in fantasy lands such as the Mushroom Kingdom, the Metro Kingdom and Yoshi's Island. Their levels follow particular themes or habitats. They share warp pipes, floating blocks, coins and scenery that has faces and limbs.

  Luigi, the younger twin, is taller than his older brother. Princess Daisy is the ruler of Sarasaland, whom Mario rescued from the villain Tatanga in Super Mario Land. She is often shown as a tomboy, unlike Peach.

  Yoshi, a green dinosaur, debuted in Super Mario World as a mount for the brothers. He later starred in his own series. Toad, a short, mushroom-like character, started as a helper in Super Mario Bros. and became playable in Wario's Woods. Toadsworth serves as Peach's aide. Toadette first appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash, and a Super Crown transforms her into Peachette.

  Wario began as a villain in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, then turned into an anti-hero with his own games. Waluigi, tall and scrawny, arrived in Mario Tennis as Wario's partner in a relationship the games never define consistently. Rosalina first appeared in Super Mario Galaxy. She is the adoptive mother of the Lumas, and she lives aboard a starship called the Comet Observatory.

  Bowser, king of the turtle-like Koopas, is huge and breathes fire. His son, Bowser Jr., debuted in Super Mario Sunshine and shares his father's ambition to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. The Koopalings arrived in Super Mario Bros. 3. They are six boys and one girl, each armed with a magic wand. Kamek, Bowser's childhood caretaker, rides a broom and is the chief antagonist of the Yoshi series. King Boo rules the ghostly Boos and is the final boss of the first Luigi's Mansion.

  Several of these side characters have headlined spinoffs of their own, including Donkey Kong, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Captain Toad and Peach.

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• 4. The Platform Lineage

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  Super Mario Bros. arrived in 1985 as the pack-in game bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later sold in a package with Duck Hunt. This is the flagship line, and its games usually let Mario progress by jumping through levels.

  The numbering gets tangled after that. A game called Super Mario Bros. 2 came out in Japan in 1986, and it reached other countries as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. A completely different game with the same name was released internationally in 1988. Super Mario Bros. 3 followed later that same year in Japan. Super Mario World reached the Super Nintendo in 1990.

  The Game Boy received Super Mario Land and two sequels. The Game Boy Advance got only remakes, with no original entries. In 1996, Super Mario 64 debuted as the launch title for the Nintendo 64 and was the first Super Mario game with fully 3D graphics. Super Mario Sunshine came to the GameCube. Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel continued the line on the Wii, and Super Mario 3D Land became the flagship title for the Nintendo 3DS.

  In 2006, the New Super Mario Bros. line launched on the Nintendo DS, bringing back the mechanics of the early games in 2.5D. It continued with New Super Mario Bros. Wii in 2009, New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the 3DS in 2012 and New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U that same year. New Super Luigi U followed in 2013. A Switch port, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, appeared in January 2019.

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• 5. Beyond the Jump

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  Dr. Mario reached the NES and Game Boy in 1990 to critical and commercial success. Mario plays a doctor who clears viruses from the screen by dropping colored capsules, much as in Tetris. Dr. Mario 64 in 2001 added a Story mode, Wario as a playable character and four-player multiplayer. Online play came in 2008 with Dr. Mario Online Rx. Dr. Luigi in 2013 included an Operation L mode, in which every capsule takes the shape of the letter L. A mobile entry, Dr. Mario World, appeared in 2019 and was permanently shut down in July 2021.

  Mario's Picross casts him as an archaeologist who chisels grid puzzles into pictures. In the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, wind-up Mini-Marios take over as the playable characters from the second game onward. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, a 2014 Wii U puzzle game, grew from the isometric minigames starring the explorer in Super Mario 3D World. Its Switch port has sold over 1 million copies.

  Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was the first role-playing game in the franchise. Paper Mario followed on the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Its characters look like paper cutouts moving through 3D scenery, and Mario fights in turn-based battles where well-timed button presses boost his attacks. Later entries kept experimenting. The Thousand-Year Door in 2004 let Mario fold into a paper airplane or boat. Super Paper Mario in 2007 let him flip into a 3D view. Sticker Star in 2012 and Color Splash in 2016 built their battles around stickers and paint. The Origami King, announced in 2020, brought in origami.

  The Mario & Luigi series was made by AlphaDream and appeared only on handheld consoles. It began with Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. Partners in Time in 2005 introduced baby versions of the cast. Bowser's Inside Story in 2009 sent the brothers into Bowser's body. Paper Jam in 2015 made Paper Mario playable after Luigi knocks over the book that holds him. A new entry, Brothership, was announced in June 2024, about nine years later.

  Mario Party debuted on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, developed by Hudson. Four human or computer players compete in a board game interrupted by minigames. Nine numbered sequels followed, along with four unnumbered main titles, ending with Super Mario Party Jamboree in 2024.

  Sports came in waves. Mario first appeared in tennis as a referee in Tennis for the NES and Game Boy, before Camelot made Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64. In golf, NES Open Tournament Golf had Mario and Luigi as players, with Princess Toadstool and Princess Daisy as their caddies. Mario Golf followed in 1999. Next Level Games launched the Mario Strikers series in 2005. In 2007, Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games paired Mario with Sonic the Hedgehog, and five sequels followed.

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• 6. Other Hands

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  Hudson Soft released Mario Bros. Special in 1984 for Japanese home computers such as the NEC PC-6001mkII and the Sharp X1. It remade the original with new stages and mechanics. Its sibling, Punch Ball Mario Bros., let Mario and Luigi kick small balls to stun enemies. Hudson also ran Mario Party until Mario Party DS in 2007. By March 2012, Konami had absorbed Hudson, and NDcube, staffed by many former Hudson employees, had taken over.

  In the 1990s, Philips Interactive Media planned three Mario games for its CD-i machine. Philips had permission to use Nintendo's characters because it had helped develop an unreleased add-on for the Super Nintendo. Super Mario's Wacky Worlds was built around locations on Earth, and the pointing-device controller made even running and jumping awkward. Mario Takes America, about a trip to Hollywood to make a movie, was canceled when Philips grew unhappy with progress. Only Hotel Mario appeared, in 1994. Mario and Luigi searched seven Koopa Hotels for Princess Peach, closing every door on each stage. It is often called one of the worst Mario games, and Nintendo never acknowledged it as part of the series.

  The early 1990s also brought nine licensed educational games, released from 1991 to 1996. Mario Teaches Typing is one example. Software Toolworks, Interplay Entertainment and Brainstorm made them independently, and Nintendo does not officially recognize them.

  In 2014, creative director Davide Soliani showed Shigeru Miyamoto a prototype at Ubisoft Milan. Miyamoto was impressed, and Nintendo approved a Switch game that crossed Mario with Ubisoft's Rabbids. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a turn-based tactical game, was released on the 29th of August 2017 to generally favorable reviews. Its sequel, Sparks of Hope, arrived on the 28th of October 2022.

  Electronic Arts put Mario, Luigi and Peach into the GameCube versions of NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour in 2005. Square Enix's Itadaki Street DS and Wii also borrowed the cast.

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• 7. Screens, Pages and Plastic

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  Saturday Supercade debuted on CBS in 1983 and ran for two seasons. Ruby-Spears produced the Saturday-morning cartoon, built from short segments starring arcade-era characters, including Donkey Kong, Mario and Pauline. In 1989, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! ran in syndication from the 4th of September to the 1st of December. DIC Entertainment made it. That holiday season, a Los Angeles station aired King Koopa's Kool Kartoons, a live-action children's show starring Bowser. The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 aired on NBC in autumn 1990. In it, the Koopalings had different names, including Hip, Hop and Cheatsy. In Britain, The Children's Channel broadcast Super Mario Challenge from 1990 to 1991. Its host, John Lenahan, was a lookalike who dressed as Mario and refereed contests over coins and level times. Super Mario World, on NBC in 1991-92, was the third and last Saturday-morning cartoon.

  The anime Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! premiered on the 20th of July 1986. Masami Hata directed it. Mario and Luigi get stuck inside a Famicom game and must save Peach from King Koopa. In 1989, three OVA episodes retold Momotaro, Issun-boshi and Snow White with Mario as the hero.

  The 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. starred Bob Hoskins as Mario, John Leguizamo as Luigi and Dennis Hopper as King Koopa. It was the first major live-action film based on a video game. The film earned $39 million against a $48 million budget. Siskel & Ebert gave it two thumbs down, and it was widely seen as a flop.

  The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released on the 5th of April 2023, took the opposite path. Illumination and Nintendo produced it, with Chris Pratt voicing Mario, Charlie Day voicing Luigi and Jack Black voicing Bowser. Charles Martinet, Mario's longtime game voice, made cameo appearances. The film broke box office records, and a sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, arrived on the 1st of April 2026.

  In print, Yukio Sawada's manga Super Mario-kun runs in CoroCoro Comic and has reached its 41st volume. That makes it the longest-running Mario manga. Valiant Comics published Nintendo Comics System books in 1990 and 1991. The Nintendo Adventure Book series, published from 1991 to 1992, produced twelve choose-your-path books, ten of them set in the Mushroom Kingdom. Nintendo Power ran an anthology of manga-style comics throughout 1992. Archie Comics once pitched Nintendo a Mario series like its Sonic the Hedgehog comics, and Nintendo turned it down.

  Mario has also appeared on lunch boxes, jeans, cereal, shampoo bottles and plush toys. He even starred in a Got Milk? commercial. Gottlieb made a Mario pinball machine in 1992. Mario-themed Lego sets with an electronic Mario figure arrived in August 2020. The Super Mario Bros. theme has also reached concert halls, with Koji Kondo himself performing it at Video Games Live.

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• 8. The Scoreboard

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  By 1997, the series had sold 130 million copies, and a 1996 article in Next Generation praised its influence. It said: "The evolution of the Mario series led the rest of gaming by the hand, blazing a trail, and teaching lessons in game mechanics, structure, and sheer playability to any who would study its secrets."

  Mario has since appeared in 256 games, spanning sports, puzzles, parties, racing and even a first-person shooter. At least 31 of them have sold more than a million copies each since 1995. The core Super Mario series alone has sold over 430 million units. Mario Kart has sold 189.85 million, and Mario Party has passed 84 million.

  The older arcade and cartridge numbers are smaller but still striking. Donkey Kong sold over 125,000 arcade machines and six million Coleco cartridges. Mario Bros. sold 1.72 million Famicom cartridges.

  The money followed. By 1999, the character had generated more than $5 billion in sales for Nintendo. By 2002, the Super Mario games alone had grossed more than $7 billion in software. At its peak, the franchise sold over $200 million in merchandise every year.

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