It's 35 years since Super Mario first flashed onto our screens. "Super Mario Bros." debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System on 13 September 1985.
The franchise began in 1981 when Donkey Kong debuted as an arcade game. Donkey Kong soon became the hottest selling arcade game in the business.
In that game, a character called "Jumpman," similar to Mario, tried to save a damsel from a big ape.
Super Mario came along four years later, packaged with the Nintendo Entertainment System, popularizing the side-scrolling video game format.
Mario's first job was carpentry, but later he became a plumber, and in many games, he travels up and down in a world of underground pipes.
In his book "Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World," David Sheff wrote that Mario was named after Nintendo's U.S. landlord, who was demanding back rent from the company's fledgling U.S. arm. Nintendo doesn't confirm or deny the story.
- Mario was created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who also created Donkey Kong and Zelda.
- Miyamoto began his professional life hoping to be a manga artist or cartoonist, now his video game creations can be compared to icons of animation, like Mickey Mouse.
- In a December 2011 interview with the Associated Press, Miyamoto, who's now 67, reflected on his popular characters outliving him.
"We have to pass away. We're all human beings. But when it comes to characters, they can just go on. And I think it's a good thing," he said.
"In Japanese manga, when you start one series you are supposed to continue your works on and on. And right after I started working on the character called Mario in the "Super Mario" game or "Mario" game series, people started to compare Mario with, for example, Mickey Mouse. And of course, Mickey Mouse is a character that has been growing with the technological evolution of the animation."
- There are more than 100 games, for various gaming systems, ranging from Donkey Kong to Super Mario Kart, in which Mario is the primary character and many more in which he makes appearances.
- Mario Brothers is the best-selling video franchise of all time, with more than 490 million units sold since 1995, according to research firm NPD.
- Nintendo is marking Mario's 35th birthday with new games coming to its Switch console and several online events running till March 2021.
- New games include "Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit", which brings Mario Kart into the real world, with physical karts that gamers can race around their lounge.
- Of course, Mario isn't just confined to video games. These costumed go-kart tours of Tokyo were part inspired by the Mario universe too.
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(AP)
