Mario

Mario’s render for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Mario Bros. Ultimate.

**Mario** (マリオ Mario), (formerly and originally under extraofficial terms) known as **Jumpman**, and originally developed under the nickname **Mr. Video**, is the titular main protagonist of the Mario series and the mascot for Nintendo.

He was created by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, and has appeared in over 200 games. Originally, he only appeared in platform games. However, he now also features in sporting games, racing games, fighting games and others.

He is considered by many to be the most famous character in video game history, and is known to many as "The Face of Video Games," having 6 games out of the top 10 on the list of best-selling video-games of all time.

Mario is a short Italian plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom. In the Mario series, he uses his well-known jump and combat abilities to stop Bowser from kidnapping Princess Peach and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. Along with Luigi, Mario has had other friends such as Yoshi and Toad.

Along with Bowser, he has had other enemies such as Fawful, Wario, and Donkey Kong. In the cartoons Mario was voiced by Peter Cullen Saturday Supercade, WWF/E Hall of Fame wrestler-turned manager the late "Captain" Lou Albano in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, and Walker Boone in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

In the live-action movie Super Mario Bros., he was played by the late Bob Hoskins. In the video games, Mario is currently voiced by Charles Martinet.

## History

Mario first appeared in 1981, in the Donkey Kong arcade video game, as a carpenter named "Jumpman." There are two possible theories why Mario was named such: a heated argument ensued between Nintendo's warehouse landlord Mario Segale, and the president of Nintendo at the time, Minoru Arakawa.

After a resolution was brought between the two, fellow Nintendo employees chose to name the character in the game Mario, after him.

There was a family-owned restaurant nearby Nintendo of America called Mario and Luigi's.

Due to hardware limitations at the time, Miyamoto dressed Mario in red overalls and a blue shirt to contrast against the background. He also gave him white gloves, so that the player could see the arms moving on the screen.

A cap was added so that Miyamoto would not have to animate the character's hair when he jumped up and down. However, Jumpman did not originally have a mustache.

The black pixels mistaken for a mustache were actually the space between Jumpman's nose and mouth; The black was just the black background. However, fans of the game mistook it for a mustache, so in all later games and artwork, Mario was given a mustache.

Mario was developed as a "go to" character for games that could be put in any title as needed. At the time, Miyamoto did not expect Mario to become popular. Over time, his appearance has become more defined, for example a red "M" in a white circle has been added to his hat, and gold buttons have been added to his overalls.

He has appeared in many television programs, video releases, comic books, and a feature-length film. He has also spawned a series of branded merchandise.

## Physical Description

Mario appears as a short and stocky adult man in most of his appearances. Most of the time, he is wearing his trademark outfit: his red cap (with the M symbol), blue overalls with yellow buttons, red shirt, white gloves, and brown shoes. He has short brown hair, fair skin, and a thick dark-brown mustache. His hair has a two sideburns. Mario has three large bangs, all of which point upward, as well as a sprout-shaped cowlick.

Mario's looks were a product of the limited graphics technology of the time: his arms would vanish with a shirt of a solid color, hair could not be properly drawn, detailed or animated; and the head could not host a proper mouth. As the developing team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto, wanted a properly detailed character, so they gave him overalls, the mustache, the cap and a big nose, in order to make a recognizable sprite. Mario's looks have been mostly unchanged for much of the franchise's history, except for the first games: in Donkey Kong, he had red overalls and a blue shirt, and in Super Mario Bros his sprite had red overalls and a brown shirt, while the artwork retained the original red/blue outfit. It wasn't until Super Mario Bros. 2 that Mario got his current clothes. Unsurprisingly, due to the notoriety of the first Mario games, his appearances in merchandising and the Super Mario Bros. Super Show cartoon segment, his clothes had the Donkey Kong palette.

In addition to his trademark clothes, Mario has used several other outfits depending on the activities. He has been seen with several sporting clothes (tennis, soccer, golf) and he wore lighter, more laid-back shirts in Super Mario Sunshine, in tune with the tropical vacation setting of the game.

Although Mario's age is never really confirmed, Super Smash Bros. Melee says that Mario is 26 years old when reading the description of his trophy in the game.