page_title: Mario
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: Mario / Reception / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Super Mario at the Swedish Nintendo headquarters in Kungsbacka, Sweden. Français&#160;: Statue de Super Mario, située au quartier général de Nintendo à Kungsbacka en Suède.
context_page_description: Mario is a fictional character in the Mario video game franchise, owned by Nintendo and created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Acting as the company's mascot, as well as being the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who resides in the Mushroom Kingdom, his adventures generally center upon rescuing Princess Peach from the Koopa villain Bowser. Mario's fraternal twin brother and sidekick is Luigi.
  With more than 600 million units sold worldwide, the overall Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Outside of the Super Mario platform series, other Mario genres include the Mario Kart racing series, sports games such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf franchises, role-playing games such as Mario & Luigi, Super Mario RPG, and Paper Mario, and educational games such as Mario Is Missing!, Mario's Time Machine, and Mario Teaches Typing. The franchise has branched into several media, including television shows, film, comics, and licensed merchandise. Since 1990, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.
context_section_description: As Nintendo's primary mascot, Mario is widely considered to be the most famous video game character in history, and has been called an icon of the gaming industry. The Mario series of video games has sold more than 510 million copies, making it the best-selling video game franchise. Mario was one of the first video game character inductees at the Walk of Game in 2005, alongside Link and Sonic the Hedgehog. Mario was the first video game character to be honored with a wax figure in the Hollywood Wax Museum in 2003. In 1990, a national survey found that Mario was more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse. Mario has also been called the "most recognisable" figure in the gaming industry.
  Creator Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that Mario is his favorite out of all characters that he has created. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Mario their "Coolest Mascot" award for 1996, calling him "an age-old friend." Nintendo Power listed Mario as their favorite hero, citing his defining characteristics as his mustache, red cap, plumbing prowess, and his mushrooms. In a poll conducted in 2008 by Oricon, Mario was voted the most popular video game character in Japan.
  GameDaily listed the "unlikely hero" on its top 25 video game archetypes, and used Mario as an example of this. It stated that in spite of the fact that he should have run out of energy through the first level, he kept going. Mario ranked fourth on GameDaily's top ten Smash Bros. characters list. Mario was fourth on UGO's list of the "Top 100 Heroes of All Time". They also listed Mario's hat twenty-first on their list of "The Coolest Helmets and Headgear in Video Games", stating "there's always somebody at your Halloween party wearing one." CNET listed him first on its list of the "Top 5 video game characters". He was voted 100th in IGN's Top 100 Villains for his appearance in Donkey Kong Junior, adding "This Mario is a total jerk, holding Donkey Kong Jr.'s dad hostage", and he has also been elected by GamesRadar as the 90th "most dastardly ne'er-do-wells" villain in video games in their "top 100".
caption: Mario in Kungsbacka, Sweden
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