Love the Super Mario Bros. games from Nintendo, but feel you’d like to know a bit more about Mario and his world? Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this post I am serving up 30 key facts about Mario to fill you in on all the details about this iconic gaming character. From information about his debut, to his appearances on television, film, and music, this post gives you all the highlights, in an easily digestible way.
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First up, Mario made his gaming debut in the arcade video game, Donkey Kong, way back in 1981. In the game, players controlled Mario, as he traversed platforms and avoided obstacles, with Donkey Kong as his first adversary.
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Next up, originally Mario was not actually called Mario in the Japanese version of the game – instead he was an unnamed, ‘everyman’ character that players could control. Due to his ability to jump, he was initially dubbed ‘Jumpman’ (and he was also known as ‘Videoman’), before eventually being named Mario.
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Although Mario these days is most commonly linked to Princess Peach (the princess he rescues in multiple Nintendo games), in Donkey Kong Peach was nowhere to be seen – as she hadn’t been invented at this point in time! For his debut game, Mario was instead tasked with rescuing his girlfriend, Pauline.
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If you were to name the two colours that Mario is most associated with, you would say red and blue, right? And of course you would be correct, as these are the two colours he is seen wearing the most.
But did you know where this colour scheme came from? Well, it was from the Donkey Kong game.
The colour of Mario’s clothing in Donkey Kong (his red overalls and his blue shirt) are themed around the colours that were most prominent in the game.
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Following his appearance in Donkey Kong, Mario appeared in the 1982 spinoff game, Donkey Kong Jr., before eventually moving onto his own title. This title was the 1983 game, Mario Bros. (Game & Watch).
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As the title suggests, the Mario Bros. game focused on more than one just one lead character. For the first time ever, Mario was joined by his brother, Luigi, who then became a mainstay of the Mario mythology moving forward.
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One noticeable difference with Mario in Mario Bros. when compared to Donkey Kong, was the colours of his clothing. In Donkey Kong he wore red overalls with a blue shirt, while in Mario Bros. the colours were reversed, with Mario sporting blue overalls and a red shirt.
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Although Mario had already built up a loyal following in the early ‘80s, thanks to his appearances in the Donkey Kong games and Mario Bros., it wasn’t until 1985’s Super Mario Bros. that he really became a household name. The game – which came packaged up with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) – was a huge hit with gamers, and this put Mario into millions of homes.
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As with his previous games, Mario’s appearance in Super Mario Bros. was largely the same, although this time around his colour scheme changed a touch. For Super Mario Bros., Mario sported a brownish shirt with red overalls.
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As well as being a popular game in its own right, Super Mario Bros. also marked the debut of Mario’s most famous villain, Bowser. The character – who has become a key villain in the Mario franchise ever since – started off under the name of King Koopa.
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In addition to Bowser/King Koopa, Super Mario Bros. also introduced Princess Peach (aka Princess Toadstool), as well as Peach’s mushroom friend, Toad. Both characters have become synonymous with the Mario franchise ever since.
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In 1986, a year after the release of Super Mario Bros., Mario starred in his first movie, the animated film Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!. The film is oft-forgotten these days, but it is one of the earliest examples of a computer game character crossing over into movies.
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The same year that Mario appeared in his own feature-length movie, he also popped up in a sequel to Super Mario Bros., in the appropriately titled game, Super Mario Bros. 2. However, if you live in the West this game is not the Super Mario Bros. 2 that you are familiar with – it is a different game entirely!
The original, Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 maintained the same design aesthetic as the first Super Mario Bros. game, but it was incredibly difficult to play. As such, this game was only released in Japan, and an alternative game was published for Western gamers.
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Because the original Super Mario Bros. 2 was viewed as being unsuitable for gamers outside of Japan, Nintendo released an alternate game for the US and Europe market. This game – released in 1988 – was actually a retrofitted version of the Japanese title, Doki Doki Panic, with Mario characters inserted into the game.
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With Western gamers getting their own version of Super Mario Bros. 2, the original Japanese game was later released in the US and Europe under a different title. Should you wish to track it down, look out for the game Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
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In 1988, a year after Super Mario Bros. 2 arrived in the US, Super Mario Bros. 3 debuted in Japan. This game would prove hugely successful for Nintendo, and is often regarded as one of the best Mario games of all time.
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With Mario proving to be a huge hit for Nintendo throughout the ‘80s, in 1989 the company transported the character onto their new handheld console, the Game Boy. Here he was given another new title in the shape of the side-scrolling platform game, Super Mario Land.
With Super Mario Land being a key title for the Game Boy, a new princess was introduced for Mario to rescue. It was here that Princess Daisy made her debut.
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As well as the release of Super Mario Land, 1989 was also a key year for Mario on the small screen. The character appeared in his first television show, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
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The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was devised as a series which mixed both live-action with animation. For the live-action segments of the programme, Captain’ Lou Albano played the role of Mario, while Danny Wells appeared as Luigi.
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In 1990, Mario jumped onto a new console (the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), with the release of the best-selling game, Super Mario World. This game saw the introduction of another key character in the shape of Mario’s dino friend, Yoshi.
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1991 became an important year for Mario, when voice actor Charles Martinet began working for Nintendo, voicing Mario for interactive displays at trade shows. Martinet would then continue with Mario, eventually becoming the voice of the character starting with 1994’s CD re-release of Mario Teaches Typing.
From here on, Martinet essentially became the default voice of the character for all Mario games.
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As the ‘90s continued, many new Mario titles came along, including Dr. Mario (1990), Mario Paint (1992), and Mario’s Tennis (1995). Arguably the most popular of these non-Mario Bros. games arrived in 1992, via the racing car game, Super Mario Kart, which is still incredibly popular today.
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1992 also saw the release of the British-produced Super Mario song, Supermarioland. The track was recorded by Ambassadors of Funk and reached Number Eight in the UK singles chart.
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With Mario’s popularity continuing to soar during the early ‘90s, a live-action movie was put into production, and released in 1993. The movie starred Bob Hoskins as Mario, with John Leguizamo as Luigi, and as Dennis Hopper as King Koopa.
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Although the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie was not a critical or commercial success, the film’s poor reception did not impact the character’s popularity in the gaming world whatsoever. More games (on more consoles) followed, including Mario 64 (1996), Super Mario Sunshine (2002), Super Mario 3D World (2013), and Super Mario Odyssey (2017).
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More characters were also introduced as the years went by, including Wario in 1992, Waluigi in 2000, Toadette in 2003, and Rosalina in 2007. Once these characters were introduced, they became part of the ever expanding franchise and regularly pop up in Mario games.
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In addition to new games and new characters within the Mario universe, in 1999 Mario also crossed over with various Nintendo icons (Pokémon, Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda etc) for the fighting game, Super Smash Bros. The game has had multiple iterations ever since, with Mario remaining a key character in the series.
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And it isn’t just Nintendo characters that Mario rubs shoulders with – in 2007 Nintendo joined forces with Sega for the sports game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Released on the Nintendo Wii (and then later on the Nintendo DS), the game marked the first meeting of Mario and Sega’s mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog.
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With no slowing Mario down, in 2020 the character became a key figure in the creation of the theme park, Super Nintendo World. The park opened at Universal Studios Japan, with its overall look and tone themed predominantly around the Mario franchise, and became the first in a collection of Mario/Nintendo themed attractions.
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And finally, in 2023, another new Mario film was released in the shape of the animated adventure picture, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The film – which features various Mario-related characters – stars Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario.
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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this post about Super Mario. For more posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.
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