Mario (Basic Info)

As Nintendo's mascot, Mario is arguably the most famous character in video game history,  and his image is commonly associated with video games. Mario games, as a whole, have sold more than 210 million units,  making the Mario series the best-selling video game series of all time. Outside platform games, he has appeared in video games of other genres, including the Mario Kart racing series, sports games, such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, role-playing games such as Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG, and even educational games, such as Mario is Missing and Mario's Time Machine. He has inspired television shows, film, comics, and a line of licensed merchandise.


Mario was created by Shigeru Miyamoto in his attempts to produce a best-selling video game for Nintendo, after previous titles, such as Sheriff, had not achieved the same success as other titles such as Pac-Man. Originally, Miyamoto wanted to create a video game that used the characters Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl. At the time, however, Miyamoto was unable to acquire a license to use the characters, and ended up making Jumpman (later known as Mario), Donkey Kong, and Pauline.


Miyamoto developed Mario with the idea of using him as a "go to" character that could be put in any title as needed, albeit in cameo appearances as at the time he was not expecting Mario to become popular. To this end he originally called the character "Mr. Video", comparing his intent to have Mario appear in later games to the cameos done by Alfred Hitchcockwithin his films.