"Super Mario Sunshine" has several few power-ups with a water theme. He is granted a F.L.U.D.D. (Flash Liquidizing Ultra Dousing Device) pack that performs his main attack and squirts paint and enemies with water, named the Squirt Nozzle. He has three other expansion packs including the Hover Nozzle, which allows him to hover for short distances, the Turbo Nozzle, which allows him to move a lot faster and break through some barriers, and the Rocket Nozzle, which charges water up, then blasts Mario high into the air.
"Super Mario Galaxy" introduced several new power-ups along with a few older items re-done. These include the Bee Shroom, which allows him to float short distances and stick to certain surfaces; the Boo Shroom, which makes him capable of floating as well as traveling through walls; the Life Shroom, which gives him three more life wedges; the Rainbow Star, granting him brief invincibility; the Fire Flower, which appeared for the first time in a 3D game; and the Ice Flower, which allows him to turn water into solid ice so he can go to otherwise unreachable or deadly places. A hidden power-up is the Flight Star, which allows Mario to fly for a while.
Mario uses hammers in numerous games, such as "Super Mario Bros. 3", the original "Donkey Kong", and "Super Mario RPG". Hammers are used to attack and for other things, like flicking switches and solving puzzles. He often picks up and throws various projectiles around him, however, starting in "Super Mario Bros. 2". He tosses items such as vegetables, giant blocks and Bob-ombs.
In the Mario Kart series, there are a number of items to use. For example, a mushroom makes the characters go faster, and a Koopa shell knocks into other players to slow them down.
As Nintendo's mascot, many people think that Mario is the most famous video game character of all time. The "Mario" series of video games has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the best selling game series of all time. Mario was the first video game character to get a wax figure in the Hollywood Wax Museum in 2003. In 1990, a national survey showed that more kids knew Mario than Mickey Mouse.
Since he was created, Mario has become a very famous person having been in many television shows, comic books, and in a movie. He has been on lunch boxes, T-shirts, magazines, commercials, in candy form, on Shampoo bottles, cereal, badges, and as a stuffed toy. Nintendo of Japan made a 60-minute anime (Japanese cartoon) movie starring Mario and his friends in 1986, but this movie has never been shown or sold on DVD outside of Japan. The animated series "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" had a live-action series of episodes starring former WWF manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi. There was even a book series, the Nintendo Adventure Books. In 2005, Jonathan Mann even wrote an opera based on the character, and performed "The Mario Opera" at the California Institute of the Arts.
Bergsala, the distributor of Nintendo's products in the Nordic and the Baltic countries, is located at Marios Gata 21 (Mario's Street 21) in Kungsbacka, Sweden, named after Mario.
Mario's legacy is recognized by Guinness World Records, who awarded the Nintendo Mascot and his games seven records in the "Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008". These records include, "Best Selling Video Game Series of All Time", "First Movie Based on an Existing Video Game", and "Most Prolific Video Game Character", with Mario appearing in 116 distinct titles (not including remakes or re-releases).
In a poll conducted in 2008, Mario was voted as the most popular video game character in Japan.
Former NHL hockey player, Mario Lemieux was given the nickname "Super Mario" by the media during his career. Mario Williams, the #1 draft pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, was also given the nickname "Super Mario", as was pro-cyclist, Mario Cipollini. German international footballer Mario Basler was affectionately referred to as "Super Mario" by fans and the media. Another sportsman who received this nickname was the Brazilian soccer player Mário Jardel, famous for his jumps and headers.
Video game
Video games are electronic games played on a video screen (normally a television, a built-in screen when played on a handheld machine, or a computer).
There are many types, or genres, of these games: role-playing games; shooters, first-person shooters, side-scrollers, and platformers are just a few.
Video games usually come on CDs, DVDs or digital download. Many games used to come on cartridges. A specialised device used to play a video game at home is called a console. There have been many types of consoles and home computers used to play video games. Some of the first were the Atari 2600, the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s. Newer video game consoles are the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The best selling video game console of all time is the PlayStation 2, made by Sony.
People can also use computers to play games, which are sometimes called PC games. The older consoles do not have new games developed for them often, although console games are emulated for PCs (see emulator). This means that new computers can play many old console games along with games made just for new computers. Older games are often more popular emulated than when they were first on sale, because of the ease of download.
People can play portable video games anywhere. Mobile devices (running operating systems such as iOS or Android) also can download games, making them portable game machines. Mobile phones have many games, some of them using a mobile emulator for games from consoles. Not all PC or console Games are on mobile or iPad/ iPod/Tablet.
Competitions of video game players are called electronic sports.
Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) came out in 2004. A new version, the PlayStation Vita, first came out in 2012.
Also in 2004, Nintendo released the DS(Dual Screen), which has two separate screens, one of which is a touchscreen. New versions came out in later years, such as the Nintendo DSi in 2008 and the Nintendo DSi XL. The Nintendo 3DS, the first handheld console with 3D graphics, came out in 2011. The 2DS followed in 2013. The New 3DS XL, which is similar to the 3DS but with updated graphical capabilities, was released in 2015. The latest entry into the DS lineup is the "New 2DS XL", released on the 28th of July 2017.
In March 2017, Nintendo began selling a new console called the Nintendo Switch, which looks like a tablet computer but can also be plugged into a TV. It is the first example of a "hybrid console" that can be used as both as a TV-based model and a handheld device.
The first video game ever is often said to be "Tennis for Two", a rudimentary tennis game to be played with two people developed in 1958. Another early example is "Spacewar!", developed in 1962.
In the 1950s, when the first computers began to be made, three people had some ideas to create the basis of actual video games. In 1951, Ralph Baer, an American engineer of Loral Electronics, tried to create "the best television", proposing to add a gaming module, but his employer did not like his idea. Even if his idea was never realized, he is the first man to have thought of the idea of video games, later creating the first video game console, the Odyssey. Later, in 1952, A.S Douglas, of the Cambridge University in the UK, made a video game on a computer in order to illustrate one of his speeches. The game, called "OXO", was a tic-tac-toe game, with two players (the person itself and the opponent, the computer) .In 1953, Willy Higinbotham made a game called "Tennis For Two", similar to the later "Pong", to entertain visitors to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Another early video game is a version of checkers, but this is largely overlooked.