The now famous character Mario was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and has appeared in over 200 video games. Mario’s first appearance was in Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング) in 1981, which is another iconic arcade game developed by Nintendo. In Donkey Kong, Mario was known as “Jumpman” the carpenter.
In later games, Mario is depicted as a short Italian plumber. Other characters in the cast include Princess Peach of Mushroom Kingdom. Mario has become the most popular and well-known characters in video game history and is Nintendo’s mascot. Mario was originally known as “Mr. Video” and his full names has never been revealed.
After the success of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto went on to create the arcade game Mario Bros. (マリオブラザーズ?) in 1983 which marked the beginning of the Mario franchise. In Mario Bros., Mario and his younger brother Luigi are the 2 featured characters depicted as plumbers roaming the sewers of New York full of creatures.
Super Mario Brothers was released in late 1985 with much anticipation, and was the best-selling video game of all time for over 20 years until 2009. Super Mario Bros. has sold 40 million copies worldwide and has had many sequels. The theme music by Koji Kondo is even recognized by most people who are not familiar with the game.
