The Nostalgic History of Super Mario in Photos
With the Super Mario Bros. movie upon us, now is as good a time as ever to reflect on Nintendo’s most iconic mascot. This squat Italian plumber has leaped and bounded through generations of evolving technology and game design to stay relevant in an infamously competitive and mercurial industry.
Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto
Basically, if you love Nintendo, then Shigeru Miyamoto probably made one of your favorite games of your childhood, and maybe even a couple at that. Miyamoto began working for Nintendo in 1977, and soon created some of its most lasting game series including Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda.
Mario has an obscure connection with Popeye
Miyamoto’s original vision for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong was a game depicting the love triangle between Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto. Nintendo was unable to obtain the license for the classic characters, however, so Miyamoto created Mario, Princess Peach and Donkey Kong instead.
Donkey Kong was a smash-hit for Nintendo
Before Donkey Kong, Nintendo was mostly known as a trading card company, but this arcade game proved that there was huge potential in video games. Its popularity in the United States was almost halted by a Universal City Studios lawsuit claiming Donkey Kong violated their copyright of King Kong, but the suit was dropped when Nintendo’s lawyers discovered that Universal argued that King Kong was in the public domain years earlier.
An excellent first game trilogy
Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3 were all released for Nintendo’s first home console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, or Famicom in Japan. Some fans don’t love 2 as much, but these titles still undeniably revolutionized gaming as tight and responsive 2D platformers that offered quirky worlds to explore and hidden secrets that encouraged replaying them.
Miyamoto playing Super Mario World
Super Mario World was released in 1990 for the NES follow up, the Super Nintendo or SNES. It expanded the world even more with advanced graphics which brought even more personality to the mushroom kingdom setting. The game also introduced more great characters like Yoshi and Bowser’s throng of Koopalings. Mario also began starring in great spinoff titles with games like Mario Kart, Dr. Mario and Super Mario RPG.
Classic gaming rivals
Back in the day, friendships were made and lost based on whether you picked Nintendo or Sega, aka Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sonic games first released in 1991 on the Sega Genesis system. The hardware initially fared poorly in Japan, but the Genesis was very well received in North America and spurred competition between Sega and Nintendo for control of the market.
Mario's voice actor Charles Martinet
Charles Martinet, who has provided voice lines for Mario, Luigi and many other characters in the game series since 1994’s Mario Teaches Typing, is interacting with fans in Mario’s voice at an event in the ‘90s.
Mario's live-action actor Bob Hoskins
20 years before Chris Pratt would be voicing Mario, Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo played Mario and Luigi in a bizarre live action version of the films, which added a completely new plot about interdimensional dinosaur beings that live in a city called Dinohattan. No, really, look it up if you don’t believe us.
Mario hops into 3D!
While these Mario titles from the Nintendo 64 era may not look all that impressive now, they blew the minds of gamers back in the day and the design mechanics of titles like Super Mario 64 still influence 3D platformers to this day.
Mario's Gamecube Debut
Competition has only heated up in the gaming space by the time that the Nintendo Gamecube releases in 2001, with Sony’s Playstation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox building up their own library of unique titles and hordes of fans. Nintendo still kept doing their own thing, and building delightful games for the Gamecube like Super Mario Sunshine and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Fans trying out Mario Party DS
You can’t talk about Mario without talking about his history on handheld devices. Systems like the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS re-released classic Mario games for a new audience and even had some stellar originals of their own.
Our favorite plumber goes to space
Here’s a 2007 shot of Mario “training” for low-gravity as a promo for the game Super Mario Galaxy on Nintendo Wii. Galaxy and its sequel were incredible evolutions of the classic format with intriguing 3D worlds that were made more fun to explore by the varied gravity mechanics. Galaxy was Mario’s flagship series for the Nintendo Wii, which was Nintendo’s best selling console until the Switch passed it in 2021.
Classic Mario at the Smithsonian
In 2012, the Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted the exhibit “The Art of Video Games,” so send this photo along to anyone who tries to tell you that video games aren’t an artistic medium.
Wii U woes
The Wii U was an interesting piece of hardware and had some fantastic Mario games, but it received a much more mixed response than the previous Wii console. Nevertheless, it’s an important stepping stone in the development of the excellent Switch. Also, plenty of amazing Switch games are Wii U games given a second chance and a fresh coat of paint, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Mario Kart is still a system seller
The Mario Kart series is easily Mario’s most successful spinoff. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been one of the best-selling games for the Nintendo Switch since its 2017 release, selling a whopping 52 million copies as of December 2022.
Late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata
Mario is lucky he’s had a job all these years, and one of those people he can thank for it is Satoru Iwata, who served as Nintendo’s CEO from 2002 until his death in 2015. Iwata oversaw huge growth for the company as it released the Wii and Nintendo DS, and even took responsibility for less sound decisions by taking salary cuts twice in his career during less profitable years.
DIY Mario!
One of the most interesting recent Mario spin offs, Super Mario Maker, lets fans craft their own custom stages. They can choose from the classic pixelated art style of older games, or the sleek newer presentation of recent titles like the New Super Mario Bros. series. Seeing the wild stages fans made for the game was incredible to see, and there’s a great sequel, Super Mario Maker 2, which is available for the Switch.
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