As Nintendo's flagship franchise, the Mario franchise is one of gaming's most successful and renowned franchises, with many of its games, in particular within the Super Mario subseries, considered some of the greatest video games ever made. It is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, with more than 900 million copies of games sold, including more than 430million for the Super Mario games alone, and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Premise
Media in the Mario franchise usually makes use of episodic instead of serialized plot lines, with the events of one entry bearing little impact on the others. Instead, narrative elements (such as a damsel in distress having to be rescued from a monstrous villain by the protagonist after an ambush or military incursion) are often reused as a backdrop to contextualize more specific scenarios; a measure intended to maximize the franchise's appeal to new audiences.
The roles in this recurring narrative premise are usually filled by the fictional protagonist Mario, an Italian-American plumber with a jumping superpower, who, along with a rotating cast of allies and ability-granting power-ups, traverses a fantastical environment to rescue Princess Peach from the antagonist King Bowser. This framework, reflecting elements of Western fairy tale traditions, primarily functions as a secondary structure to support gameplay in the franchise's video games, which centers on navigation through a sequence of themed environments populated by cartoonish obstacles, enemies, and interactive objects. The visual and spatial design of the Mario universe reflects Japanese aesthetic tendencies, including an emphasis on expressive environments and the primacy of space over character. Key Nintendo executives, including creator Shigeru Miyamoto and former company president Satoru Iwata, have emphasized that the games are designed to be "cool" while remaining accessible to players of all ages by pairing simple core controls with optional bonus stages and challenges for experienced players.
In the main Super Mario series, Mario progresses through levels by defeating enemies, collecting coins, and solving puzzles using his trademark jumping ability, which evolved to include moves such as the Spin Jump in Super Mario World and the Triple Jump, Wall Kick, and Long Jump in Super Mario 64. Whereas 2D platformers typically require the player to reach a single-exit objective such as a Goal Pole within a time limit, 3D entries feature less linear environments centered on gathering star-themed collectibles such as Power Stars, Shine Sprites, Green Stars, or Power Moons. Power-up items, often struck from question-mark blocks (? Blocks), include mushroom variants such as the Super Mushroom (which increases Mario's size and allows him to shatter brick blocks), the extra life-granting 1-Up Mushroom (complemented by the 3-Up Moon in Super Mario World), the harmful Poison Mushroom introduced in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, the shrinking Mini Mushroom, and the giant Mega Mushroom. Other recurring items include projectile-granting flowers (such as the Fire Flower, Ice Flower, and Gold Flower), invincibility items (such as the Super Star, Super Mario 64's Metal and Vanish Caps, and Super Mario Galaxy's Rainbow Star), and flight- or animal-themed transformations such as the Super Leaf, Tanooki Suit, Cape Feather, Power Balloon, Wing Cap, Propeller Mushroom, Flying Squirrel form, Frog Suit, Hammer Suit, Penguin Suit, Bee Suit, Boomerang Suit, and Cat Suit.
Coins are incorporated across levels as rewards and guides; collecting 50 or 100 coins in platformers traditionally grants an extra life, while 3D entries such as Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy use coins to replenish health and underwater air, and role-playing entries use them as currency alongside collectible variants such as Dragon Coins, Red Coins, and Star Coins. Common transportation mechanics include color-coded Warp Pipes (which lead to underground coin rooms or world-skipping Warp Zones), launch cannons in 3D games, and riding mounts such as Yoshi, the plesiosaurs Dorrie and Plessie, the submarine Marine Pop and biplane Sky Pop in Super Mario Land, and Bowser's Koopa Clown Car.
While early Mario video games and adaptations were often described in supplementary material to be set in or linked to real-world locations (such as New York City), however, subsequent material has since been adjusted to take place in fictional fantasy locations. These often consist of distinct kingdoms or islands (such as the Mushroom Kingdom, Sarasaland, Isle Delfino, the Metro Kingdom, or Yoshi's Island) featuring areas designated for levels of specific biotopes or themes, each filled with common characteristics such as warp pipes, anthropomorphic environmental elements, floating blocks, coins, and recognizable species.
Spin-off material set in the same universe, but not featuring the titular protagonist and instead depicting stories exclusively involving secondary characters, has been produced as well, notably for Donkey Kong, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Captain Toad, and Princess Peach.
The protagonist of the Mario franchise, Mario is an Italian-American plumber and the older twin brother of Luigi. Originating in the arcade game Donkey Kong (1981), Mario has since appeared as the primary hero of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Luigi is the younger twin brother of Mario, though he is notably taller. Introduced in the 1983 Game & Watch and arcade versions of Mario Bros., Luigi frequently appears alongside his brother throughout the franchise and stars as the main protagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series.
Princess Peach (originally known in Western markets as Princess Toadstool) is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. First introduced in Super Mario Bros. (1985), she is frequently kidnapped by Bowser, prompting Mario and Luigi to set off to rescue her, though she has also appeared as a playable protagonist in main series entries and starred in Super Princess Peach (2005) and Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024).
Toad is a short-statured anthropomorphicmushroom-like race of characters that first appeared in Super Mario Bros. as support characters, alongside an individualized character of the same name who made playable appearances starting with Super Mario Bros. 2 and Wario's Woods. Specific notable Toads in the franchise include Toadsworth, an aide to Princess Peach, and Captain Toad, an adventurer and star of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. A female counterpart named Toadette was introduced in Mario Kart: Double Dash (2003), and later appeared as a playable protagonist in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (where she transforms into an analogue of Princess Peach dubbed Peachette upon acquiring a Super Crown power-up), and Super Mario Maker 2.
Yoshi is a green anthropomorphic dinosaur who first appeared in Super Mario World (1990) as a riding mount for Mario and Luigi, using his long tongue to eat enemies and fruit. Although Miyamoto had wanted Mario to ride a dinosaur companion since the completion of Super Mario Bros., hardware limitations prevented Yoshi's inclusion until the SNES. He subsequently starred in the Yoshi series.
Donkey Kong is an anthropomorphic gorilla that first appeared in the 1981 arcade game of the same name. The leader of the Kong family, he acts as the antagonist of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, while also starring in the Donkey Kong franchise.
Pauline was first introduced in Donkey Kong (1981), where she is kidnapped by the titular character with Mario having to rescue her. She subsequently appeared in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, before returning as the mayor of New Donk City and a singer in Super Mario Odyssey (2017) and later Mario spin-off titles.
Princess Daisy was introduced as the princess of Sarasaland in Super Mario Land (1989), where Mario rescues her from the alien villain Tatanga. In contrast to Peach, she is depicted as having a tomboyish demeanor, and has appeared as a playable character across Mario spin-off series as well as Super Mario Run and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Wario is an obese, hot-tempered doppelgänger rival to Mario and Luigi. Originally introduced as the main antagonist in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992), he eventually became an anti-hero and the star of the Wario franchise.
Waluigi is a tall, scrawny character appearing similar to Wario. He was introduced in Mario Tennis (2000), and throughout the franchise is often portrayed as Wario's partner of inconsistently defined relation.
Rosalina is a cosmic princess introduced in Super Mario Galaxy (2007) who resides in the Comet Observatory and acts as the adoptive mother of the Lumas, a species of star-like creatures who accompany her and transform into celestial bodies and Power Stars.
Professor E. Gadd
Professor Elvin Gadd (commonly known as Professor E. Gadd) is an eccentric scientist and inventor introduced in Luigi's Mansion (2001). He continues to support Luigi across the Luigi's Mansion series, including the sequels Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (2013) and Luigi's Mansion 3 (2019), by equipping him with the ghost-vacuuming Poltergust model, and his creations and cameos also appear across Super Mario Sunshine (where he is the inventor of F.L.U.D.D.), the Mario & Luigi series, and Mario Party.
Birdo is a pink, anthropomorphic dinosaur who wears a red bow on her head, and has a round mouth that can fire eggs as projectiles, first appearing in Super Mario Bros. 2 as a recurring boss. Early material referred to her as a "man who thinks of himself as female", leading some to consider her an early example of a transgender video game character.
Bowser is the fire-breathing king of the Koopas, a race of turtle-like creatures in the Mario franchise. Introduced in Super Mario Bros. (1985), he serves as the primary antagonist of the franchise, frequently kidnapping Princess Peach and leading his army of minions against Mario and Luigi.
Bowser Jr. is the son of Bowser, introduced in Super Mario Sunshine (2002). He looks up to his father, and shares his ambition to defeat Mario and take over the Mushroom Kingdom.
The Koopalings are a seven-member clan of Koopas (six males and one female) introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). Armed with magic wands, they serve as Bowser's elite bosses across Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and the New Super Mario Bros. series.
Kamek
Kamek is a member of the fictional Magikoopa species who is Bowser's childhood caretaker, and later in life one of his high-ranking minions. Kamek is the main antagonist of the Yoshi series, and first appeared in the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. He uses magic, including self-duplication, teleportation, magical blasts, and size manipulation. He differs from other Magikoopas by riding a broom. In Japan, his species is also named Kamek.
King Boo
King Boo is the king of the ghost-like Boos, and is the main antagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series, acting as the final boss of the Luigi's Mansion games and appearing as a boss and playable character in Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64 DS, Mario Kart, and Mario Party.
After the commercial failure of Radar Scope in North America, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi assigned Shigeru Miyamoto to create an arcade game to appeal to the Western market. Miyamoto came up with a platform game in which the playable character, "Jumpman", navigates an obstacle course consisting of sloped girders, ladders, and rolling barrels to save Lady (later renamed Pauline) from the ape Donkey Kong. Released on July 9, 1981, Donkey Kong is an early example of the platform genre and awards points for finishing screens, leaping over obstacles, destroying objects with a hammer power-up, and collecting items such as hats, parasols, and purses. The game was a major commercial success and spawned ports to numerous platforms such as the ColecoVision and Atari 2600. "Jumpman" was called "Mario" in overseas promotional materials; his namesake was Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America (NOA)'s Tukwila warehouse. Former NOA warehouse manager Don James stated in 2012 and 2018 that he and then-NOA president Minoru Arakawa named the character after Segale as a joke because Segale was so reclusive that none of the employees had ever met him.
Mario next appeared in 1982's Donkey Kong Jr., the only game in the franchise to feature him as the antagonist. Players control Donkey Kong's son as he climbs vines and collects keys to rescue his caged father from Mario. The game was later ported to the Famicom, NES, several Atari consoles, and the Game & Watch line. A subsequent arcade sequel, Donkey Kong 3 (1983), did not feature Mario, instead starring an exterminator named Stanley defending his greenhouse from Donkey Kong.
Mario Bros. (1983) was the first arcade game to feature "Mario" in the title and introduced his brother Luigi as a green palette swap. Set in a wraparound single-screen sewer stage ("phase") with four corner pipes and a central "POW" block, the game tasks Mario and Luigi with flipping emerging pests onto their backs from below before kicking them away. The game has since reappeared as a battle minigame in Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Mario Advance series, was reimagined as Mario Clash (1995) for the Virtual Boy, and was adapted into Luigi Bros. inside Super Mario 3D World for the 2013 "Year of Luigi" celebration.
Mario also starred in the 1984 Nintendo VS. System arcade action-puzzle game VS. Wrecking Crew and its 1985 Famicom and NES follow-up Wrecking Crew, in which Mario works on a demolition site breaking walls with a hammer while avoiding Gotchawrenches, Eggplant Men, and rival site foreman Spike. A Super Famicom sequel, Wrecking Crew '98, was released in Japan in 1998 via the Nintendo Power flash-cartridge service (and later on Nintendo Switch Online in 2024), adding a competitive puzzle story mode in which Mario stops Bowser from constructing high-rises across the Mushroom Kingdom.
Nintendo released eleven Mario and Donkey Kong LCD electronic games for the Game & Watch line between 1982 and 1994, including 1983's Mario Bros. (where Mario first received title billing alongside Luigi in a bottling plant), Mario's Cement Factory, and Mario's Bombs Away. Between 1997 and 2002, Nintendo released four Game & Watch Gallery compilations on the Game Boy line, featuring eighteen Game & Watch games in both their original LCD forms and updated "Modern" versions starring the Mario cast. Nintendo also licensed Mario LCD watch games to Nelsonic Industries between 1989 and 1994, promotional LCD watches to McDonald's in 1990, and two handheld LCD games to Hong Kong manufacturer Mani Industries in 1992. In 2020, Nintendo released Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. for the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.
Mario became the star of his own side-scrolling platform game in 1985 with Super Mario Bros., the pack-in launch title for the Nintendo Entertainment System (later bundled with Duck Hunt), which sold over 40million copies on the Famicom and NES and remained the franchise's best-selling game until late 2021. In Japan, a more challenging direct sequel, Super Mario Bros. 2, was released in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System; deeming it too difficult for Western audiences, Nintendo of America instead adapted the Famicom Disk System game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic into the international Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), in which Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad free the dream land of Subcon from the frog king Wart. It was followed by Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988 in Japan, 1990 in North America), in which Mario battles the seven Koopalings across the Mushroom World, and Super Mario World (1990) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, set in Dinosaur Land and introducing Yoshi. In 1993, Nintendo released the SNES compilation Super Mario All-Stars, remaking the NES trilogy with 16-bit graphics alongside the Western debut of The Lost Levels.
A number of 2.5D games have recreated the side-scrolling gameplay of the early entries. In 2006, New Super Mario Bros. launched on the Nintendo DS, followed by New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009, introducing four-player co-op with Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad, and Yellow Toad), New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012) on the 3DS, and New Super Mario Bros. U (2012) and New Super Luigi U (2013) on the Wii U, which were ported to the Switch as New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe in January 2019. The level-creation game Super Mario Maker launched on the Wii U in 2015 (ported to 3DS in 2016), followed by Super Mario Maker 2 on the Switch on June 28, 2019. In 2016, Nintendo released the auto-running Super Mario Run for iOS and Android smartphones. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launched on the Switch on October 20, 2023, following Mario and his friends across Prince Florian's Flower Kingdom using reality-warping Wonder Flowers to stop Bowser after he merges with the kingdom's castle.
Dr. Mario (stylized as D℞. Mario) is a series of arcade-style falling-block puzzle video games originally developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, and later developed by Arika and produced by Nintendo Software Planning & Development. The first entry, Dr. Mario, launched in 1990 on the NES and Game Boy to critical and commercial success. Casting Mario as a physician, the game tasks players with aligning falling two-colored vitamin capsules with matching colored viruses on the playfield until all viruses in the level are eliminated.
Subsequent entries introduced new modes and multiplayer features: Dr. Mario 64 (2001) on the Nintendo 64 introduced Story, Score Attack, and Marathon modes, Wario as a playable character, and four-player multiplayer; Dr. Mario Express and Dr. Mario Online Rx launched in 2008 for DSiWare and WiiWare, with the latter introducing online multiplayer; Dr. Luigi (2013) on Wii U introduced an "Operation L" mode in which capsules assume the shape of the letter "L"; and Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (2015) on the Nintendo 3DS eShop introduced Miracle Cure power-up items capable of clearing multiple viruses at once. A mobile game titled Dr. Mario World was released in 2019, but was permanently discontinued in July 2021.
Mario's Picross series
Developed by Jupiter Corporation, the Mario's Picross series is a collection of nonogram logic puzzle games involving a grid (ranging from 5×5 to 15×15) with numbers for every row and column indicating the number of marked squares, featuring Mario as an archaeologist who chisels away to form images on the grid. Following Mario's Picross on the Game Boy in 1995, two Japan-exclusive sequels were released: Mario's Super Picross (1995) on the Super Famicom and Picross 2 (1996) on the Game Boy, spawning Jupiter's ongoing Picross series.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a 2014 action puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. Expanding upon the isometric "Adventures of Captain Toad" stages from Super Mario 3D World, the game stars Captain Toad and Toadette—who are unable to jump due to their heavy backpacks—as they navigate diorama-like courses and throw turnips to rescue each other from the giant magpie Wingo.
Enhanced ports were released for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch on July 13, 2018, replacing the Super Mario 3D World bonus stages with new levels themed around Super Mario Odyssey. A free update for the Nintendo Switch version was released on February 13, 2019, adding two-player co-op multiplayer alongside a paid Special EpisodeDLC expansion containing 18 new challenges.
The first role-playing game in the Mario franchise was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, developed by Square for the SNES in 1996 (and remade for the Nintendo Switch in November 2023), in which Mario teams up with Bowser, Peach, Mallow, and Geno to recover the seven pieces of the Star Road from the Smithy Gang. Its timed-hit combat and comedic tone inspired two ongoing spiritual-successor subseries: Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi.
Paper Mario is a spin-off series of RPG video games developed by Intelligent Systems and produced by Nintendo Software Planning & Development. The first game in the series, Paper Mario, launched in 2000 on the Nintendo 64 to critical and commercial success, following Mario's quest to rescue the seven Star Spirits after Bowser steals the Star Rod and lifts Peach's Castle into the sky. In the Paper Mario series, the player controls a 2D paper-cutout version of Mario within 3D environments constructed from paper and craft materials. In the early entries, Mario recruits specialized partners to solve overworld puzzles and assist in turn-based battles, using timed button-press "Action Commands", Flower Points (FP), Star Points (experience points), and equippable badges consuming Badge Points (BP).
Five sequels followed Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004 on the GameCube, remade for the Nintendo Switch in May 2024), in which Mario folds into a paper airplane and boat to recover seven Crystal Stars from Sir Grodus and the X-Nauts; Super Paper Mario (2007) on the Wii, which shifted to 2D action RPG gameplay where Mario flips into a 3D z-axis and teams up with Peach, Bowser, and Luigi to collect eight Pure Hearts and stop Count Bleck; Sticker Star (2012) on the Nintendo 3DS, which replaced traditional experience progression with consumable stickers as Mario recovers six Royal Stickers; Color Splash (2016) on the Wii U, in which Mario retrieves six Big Paint Stars to restore color to Prism Island; and The Origami King (2020) on the Switch, in which Mario battles King Olly and his origami Folded Soldiers to destroy five streamers wrapped around Peach's Castle.
The Mario & Luigi spin-off series, developed by AlphaDream until 2019 and Acquire thereafter, emphasizes simultaneous control of Mario and Luigi in overworld puzzles and timing-based turn-based "Bros. Attacks", often accompanied by their travel companion Starlow. The series began on the Game Boy Advance with Superstar Saga (2003; remade for the 3DS in 2017 as Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions), in which the brothers travel to the Beanbean Kingdom to stop the witch Cackletta and her assistant Fawful after they steal Peach's voice to awaken the Beanstar. In 2005, Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS paired the brothers with their infant counterparts—Baby Mario and Baby Luigi—across time to rescue Peach from the alien Shroobs. In 2009, Bowser's Inside Story for the DS (remade for the 3DS in 2018–2019 as Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey) made Bowser a playable protagonist battling Fawful while a miniaturized Mario and Luigi assist him from inside his body. Two original 3DS entries followed: Dream Team (2013), set on Pi'illo Island against the bat king Antasma during the Year of Luigi, and Paper Jam (2015), a crossover with the Paper Mario cast. The sixth mainline installment, Brothership, developed by Acquire, released on the Nintendo Switch on November 7, 2024, as the series' first fully 3D and home-console entry, following Mario and Luigi across the fractured world of Concordia to dispel the isolating force Glohm.
Mario Party is a multiplayer party game series in which four human- or computer-controlled characters compete in a board game interspersed with minigames. Originally developed by Hudson Soft beginning with Mario Party on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, development transitioned to Nintendo Cube (formerly NDcube) after several key Hudson Soft designers moved there. The series comprises ten numbered home console installments (Mario Party through Mario Party 10), four unnumbered main series titles—Mario Party DS (2007), Super Mario Party (2018), Mario Party Superstars (2021), and Super Mario Party Jamboree (2024)— four handheld spin-offs (Mario Party Advance, Island Tour, Star Rush, and The Top 100), and three Japan-only arcade games developed by Capcom between 2004 and 2009 (Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party, its sequel, and Mario Party Fushigi no Korokoro Catcher).
Mario's first appearances in tennis games were as the chair referee in Tennis (1984) for the NES and Game Boy, before headlining Mario's Tennis (1995) for the Virtual Boy. In 2000, Camelot Software Planning launched the main Mario Tennis series on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color, adding power shots, item boxes, home-console-to-handheld connectivity, and original human RPG characters in its first two generations. Subsequent entries include Mario Power Tennis (2004) for the GameCube and Wii, Power Tour (2005) for the Game Boy Advance, Mario Tennis Open (2012) for the Nintendo 3DS, Ultra Smash (2015) for the Wii U, and Aces (2018) for the Nintendo Switch.
The golfer in Golf (1984) for the NES and Game Boy featured a mustached man resembling Mario (identified as Mario in Western releases), followed by NES Open Tournament Golf (1991), which featured Mario and Luigi as golfers with Princess Toadstool and Princess Daisy as their caddies. Camelot Software Planning launched the main Mario Golf series with Mario Golf (1999) on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color (featuring console-to-handheld linking and RPG human characters), followed by Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003) for the GameCube, Mario Golf: Advance Tour (2004) for the Game Boy Advance, Mario Golf: World Tour (2014) for the Nintendo 3DS, and Mario Golf: Super Rush (2021) for the Nintendo Switch.
Baseball and Mario Strikers series
Mario and Luigi appeared as team captains in the Game Boy version of Baseball (1989). Namco later developed two baseball entries known in Japan as the Super Mario Stadium series: Mario Superstar Baseball (2005) for the GameCube and Mario Super Sluggers (2008) for the Wii, the latter featuring a roster of over forty playable characters.
There have been eight Mario Kart games released for home consoles (including one enhanced port and one augmented-reality title), three portable games, one smartphone game (Mario Kart Tour), and four Bandai Namco co-developed arcade spin-off games (Mario Kart Arcade GP, Arcade GP 2, Arcade GP DX, and Arcade GP VR, which cross over characters from Pac-Man, Tamagotchi, and Taiko no Tatsujin), for a total of sixteen titles. Successive entries introduced four-player 3D racing in Mario Kart 64 (1996), unlockable retro tracks in Mario Kart: Super Circuit (2001), two-person karts in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2003), online Wi-Fi multiplayer in Mario Kart DS (2005), motion controls, motorbikes, and 12-player races in Mario Kart Wii (2008), hang gliding, submersible karts, and kart customization in Mario Kart 7 (2011), anti-gravity racing and ATVs in Mario Kart 8 (2014; ported to the Switch in 2017 as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with "smart steering" and "Ultra Mini Turbo" mechanics), and 24-player open-world racing in Mario Kart World, which released on June 5, 2025, as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2. With over 189million copies sold worldwide—including over 71.5million for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe alone—it is the most successful kart racing series in history.
In 1992, Nintendo released the creativity title Mario Paint for the SNES, bundled with the Super NES Mouse peripheral. Functioning similarly to computer graphics software, the game allowed users to draw illustrations, create animations using pre-drawn sprite "stamps" taken from Super Mario World, compose music samples, and play the mouse-based "Gnat Attack" minigame. Mario Paint later inspired the Mario Artist series of creativity software for the Nintendo 64's 64DD disk-drive peripheral in 1999 and 2000.
In 2001, Nintendo launched the GameCube with Luigi's Mansion, casting Luigi as the main protagonist exploring a haunted mansion that he wins in a contest he never entered. When Mario goes missing inside the estate, Professor E. Gadd equips Luigi with a ghost-hunting vacuum cleaner called the Poltergust 3000 to capture the mansion's ghosts and defeat their leader, King Boo. The game spawned a full series in the 2010s, beginning with the 2013 Nintendo 3DS sequel Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (released during the "Year of Luigi" celebration), in which Luigi uses the upgraded Poltergust 5000 across five mansions in Evershade Valley after King Boo shatters the Dark Moon. It was followed by a Capcom-developed arcade spin-off in 2015, a 3DS remake of the original game in 2018, Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch in 2019 (introducing the Poltergust G-00), and a high-definition Switch port of the second game titled Luigi's Mansion 2 HD in June 2024.
In 2005, Princess Peach starred as the main protagonist of the Nintendo DS side-scrolling platformer Super Princess Peach, developed by TOSE, in which she uses a talking parasol named Perry and emotion-based powers called "Vibes" to rescue Mario, Luigi, and several Toads from Bowser on Vibe Island. Peach returned as the sole protagonist in the 2024 Nintendo Switch action-adventure game Princess Peach: Showtime!, developed by Good-Feel, in which she partners with the sentient ribbon Stella and uses role-based costume transformations to save the Sparkle Theater from the sorceress Grape and the Sour Bunch.
After Wario gained popularity from his debut as the antagonist of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992), he became the lead character of the third Super Mario Land installment, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), which launched the Wario Land platforming series. Centered on Wario's treasure-hunting exploits, the series spawned three numbered handheld sequels, Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995), Wario Land: Shake It! (2008) on the Wii, the 3D platformer Wario World (2003) on the GameCube, and Wario: Master of Disguise (2007) on the DS. In 2003, Nintendo launched a second Wario subseries with WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! on the Game Boy Advance, in which Wario forms a game development company with his friends to produce rapid-fire microgames across subsequent Nintendo consoles and handhelds.
This section covers games developed and published by other companies under license without significant Nintendo involvement.
Hudson Soft
In 1984, Hudson Soft released two licensed computer games based on Mario Bros. for the Japanese NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801, FM-7, and Sharp X1 computers: Mario Bros. Special, featuring new stages and mechanics, and Punch Ball Mario Bros., which added "punch balls" that Mario and Luigi kick to stun enemies. In 1986, Hudson Soft released Super Mario Bros. Special for the PC-8801 and Sharp X1, featuring original levels, flip-screen room transitions rather than smooth scrolling, and altered physics.
Philips
Three games were planned for development by Philips Interactive Media for its CD-i machine due to Philips' involvement in developing an unreleased Super NES CD-ROM add-on: Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, Hotel Mario, and Mario Takes America. Only Hotel Mario (1994), a puzzle game developed by Fantasy Factory in which Mario and Luigi close doors across seven Koopa Hotels to rescue Peach, was released; it was widely panned for its animated cutscenes and repetitive gameplay. Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, developed by NovaLogic to replicate Super Mario World using Earth-based locations, and Mario Takes America, developed by Cigam, were both canceled.
Other third-party licensed releases include the 1991 MS-DOS digital coloring book Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up, Presage Software and Interplay's 1995 Windows tabletop game compilation Mario's Game Gallery (reissued in 1998 as Mario's FUNdamentals, and notable as one of the earliest games featuring Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario), and Jaguar's 2001 Game Boy Color embroidery software Mario Family, which linked to Jaguar's JN-100 sewing machine.
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, DIC's second animated series (co-produced with Reteitalia S.P.A. and animated by Sei Young Animation), aired on NBC from September 8 to December 1, 1990, depicting Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad fighting Bowser and his seven Koopalings. In the United Kingdom, Super Mario Challenge aired on The Children's Channel from 1990 to 1991, hosted by John Lenahan dressed as Mario as guest contestants competed in speed and coin challenges in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3.
Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! is a Japanese anime film released on July 20, 1986. Directed by Masami Hata and produced by Masakatsu Suzuki and Tsunemasa Hatano, it stars Mario and Luigi after they are pulled into a Famicom video game to save Princess Peach from King Koopa, making it one of the first feature-length films based on a video game.
A three-episode OVA series titled Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros., casting the Mario characters in retellings of Momotarō, Issun-bōshi, and Snow White, was released on August 3, 1989. In 1989, Toei Animation also produced two educational public-safety anime shorts distributed to Japanese schools: Super Mario no Shōbōtai (fire safety) and Super Mario no Kōtsū Anzen (traffic safety). Subsequent Japanese educational videos included Bandai's interactive Terebikko anime Super Mario World: Mario to Yoshi no Bōken Land (1991) and Shogakukan's 1993 VHS releases Mario Kirby Meisaku Video (teaching kanji) and Super Mario: ABC no Uta Video (teaching English).
The film grossed $38.9million against a $48million budget and was panned by critics, including receiving two thumbs down on Siskel & Ebert, though it received two Saturn Award nominations (for Best Costume and Best Make-up) and later gained a cult following.
A sequel inspired by the Super Mario Galaxy games, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, was released theatrically on April 1, 2026. Joining the returning cast were Donald Glover as Yoshi, Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr., and Brie Larson as Rosalina, following Mario, Luigi, and their allies into outer space after Bowser Jr. kidnaps Rosalina. Despite mixed critical reviews, the sequel grossed over $1billion worldwide.
Comics, manga, and print media
Super Mario-kun is a manga series written and illustrated by Yukio Sawada (who began publishing Super Mario manga with a 1986 one-shot) and serialized monthly by Shogakukan in CoroCoro Comic since 1990. Retelling storylines from Mario games such as Super Mario World and Paper Mario, it has surpassed 60 tankōbon volumes as the longest-running Mario manga series; selected chapters were localized in France by Soleil Manga (2014), in Spain by Planeta Cómic (2016), and in English by Viz Media in late 2020 under the title Super Mario Manga Mania. Another long-running manga series was written and illustrated by Kazuki Motoyama and published across 43 volumes under Kodansha's KC Deluxe banner in Comic BomBom magazine from 1988 to 1998.
The Nintendo Comics System was a series of comic books published by Valiant Comics in 1990 and 1991 under a licensing agreement with Nintendo, adapting the NES Super Mario games and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! while introducing recurring original characters such as the Mushroom King and his adviser Wooster, alongside a four-issue Game Boy miniseries based on Super Mario Land. Beginning in April 1991, Nintendo's official German magazine Club Nintendo also published 37 Super Mario comics.
Super Mario Adventures, a twelve-issue comic anthology written by Kentaro Takekuma and illustrated by Charlie Nozawa loosely based on Super Mario World, was serialized monthly in Nintendo Power throughout 1992, followed by a ten-page Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins story titled Mario vs. Wario in January 1993 (and a sequel, Mario vs. Wario: The Birthday Bash, in January 1994). It was collected into a graphic novel in 1993 and reprinted by Viz Media in October 2016. Archie Comics later pitched a Super Mario comic series to Nintendo, which was declined.
In children's books, Western Publishing released three Super Mario Bros. picture books written by Jack C. Harris under its Golden Look-Look Book line in 1989 and 1990 (Trapped in the Perilous Pit, Happy Birthday, Princess Toadstool!, and The Secret Bridge). The twelve-book Nintendo Adventure Books series was published from 1991 to 1992 by Archway Books in the United States and Mammoth Books in the United Kingdom, featuring ten Mario interactive gamebooks formatted like Choose Your Own Adventure. Scholastic Corporation later published a Super Mario Advance gamebook in 2001 and a Super Mario RPG-inspired chapter book, Mario and the Incredible Rescue, in 2006.
From 1995 to 1996, Nintendo broadcast Shitamachi Ninjō Gekijō, a Japanese Satellaview "virtual magazine" created by Lily Franky that paired narrated slideshows of Super Mario plush toys with adult-oriented humor. For the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. in 2015, Nintendo and Shogakukan published the Super Mario Memorial Book and the 256-page Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia in Japan; the encyclopedia was published in English by Dark Horse Comics on October 23, 2018.
Mario has appeared on lunch boxes, T-shirts, jeans, magazines, commercials (notably in a Got Milk? commercial), in candy form, on Pez dispensers, shampoo bottles, cereal, badges, and as plush toys. In 1992, Gottlieb produced a Super Mario Bros.pinball machine. Licensed board games released by USAopoly and Hasbro include Donkey Kong Jenga, Super Mario Chess, Monopoly: Super Mario Bros. Collector's Edition, Super Mario Level Up! (2017), and Monopoly Gamer (2017). Nintendo also released Mario Clock and Mario Calculator on DSiWare in 2009, and launched interactive Lego Super Mario sets with The Lego Group in August 2020.
The Mario series has received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, with numerous entries in the core Super Mario series—including Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario Odyssey—ranked among the greatest video games ever made. Prior to the closure of review aggregator GameRankings in 2019, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario Odyssey each held aggregate scores of 97%, placing all three in the site's top five highest-rated games of all time, with Super Mario Galaxy ranked first overall. A February 1996 article in Next Generation declared that "The evolution of the Mario series led the rest of gaming by the hand, blazing a trail, and teaching lessons in game mechanics, structure, and sheer playability to any who would study its secrets". Game designer Hideo Kojima similarly called Super Mario Bros. "equivalent to the Big Bang of our gaming universe", stating that without it, "digital entertainment as we know it today would not exist".
Legacy
Mario has been featured in over 250 games of various genres, and the Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. The series had sold 130million copies worldwide by 1997, and has since sold over 900million copies overall. At least 31 different Mario games have sold more than a million copies each since 1995. This includes the core Super Mario series, which alone has sold over 430million units worldwide, as well as the Mario Kart series, which has sold 189.85million units; the Mario Party series, which has sold over 84 million copies; Donkey Kong, which has sold over 125,000 arcade machines and six million Colecocartridges; and Mario Bros., which has sold 1.72million Famicom cartridges. By 1999, Mario as a character had generated more than $5billion in sales for Nintendo, and by 2002, the Super Mario series had grossed more than $7billion in software sales. At its peak, the franchise sold over $200million in merchandise annually.
In popular culture, an early 1990s national survey showed that Mario was more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse. Mario became the first video game character honored with a wax figure at the Hollywood Wax Museum in December 2003, was an inaugural inductee into San Francisco's Walk of Game in 2005, and was awarded seven records in the 2008 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition (including "Best-Selling Video Game Series of All Time" and "Most Prolific Video Game Character"). The 1989 film The Wizard prominently featured Super Mario Bros. 3 in its climactic tournament, giving North American audiences their first preview of the game, while Bowser later made a cameo appearance in the 2012 Walt Disney Animation Studios film Wreck-It Ralph. The franchise is celebrated annually on March 10 ("Mario Day"), as the abbreviated date "MAR 10" visually resembles the name Mario. To promote the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo during the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe appeared dressed as Mario emerging from an oversized green Warp Pipe.
Notes
↑Although Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong (1981), Mario Bros. was the first game to feature the Mario branding.
↑"マリオ映画公開記念！宮本茂さんインタビュー 制作の始まりから驚きの設定まで"[Commemorating the release of the Mario movie! Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto From the beginning of production to the surprising setting]. Nintendo Dream (in Japanese). April 25, 2023. Archived from the original on April 25, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2024. もともと『マリオブラザーズ』は、土管がいっぱいあるニューヨークの地下で活躍する兄弟、ニューヨークのなかでもたぶんブルックリン、というところまで勝手に決めていて。『ドンキーコング』は舞台がニューヨークですし。[Miyamoto: Originally, Mario Bros. was arbitrarily decided as brothers who are active in the underground of New York, where there are many clay pipes, and probably Brooklyn in New York. Donkey Kong is set in New York.]
↑Robbins, M. Brandon (September 15, 2017), "Diversity in Gaming", Library Journal, vol.142, p.51
↑Owens, Cassie (September 25, 2018), "Temple prof co-curates first exhibit on LGBTQ video game history", Philadelphia Inquirer
↑Shaw, Adrienne; Friesem, Elizaveta (2016), "Where is the Queerness in Games? Types of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content in Digital Games", International Journal of Communication, vol.10, pp.3877–3889
↑"10 Mario Fun Facts!". September 22, 2007. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved September 29, 2007.
↑Kohler, Chris (February 17, 2012). "Game Life Podcast: When Jay Mohr Met Tomonobu Itagaki". Wired. Archived from the original on April 17, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2024. And so we thought, 'This guy [Segale] is a recluse. No one's ever actually met him.' So we thought, 'Wouldn't it be a great joke if we named this character Mario?' And so we said, 'That's great,' and we sent a telex to Japan, and that's how Mario got his name.
↑"Nintendo Treehouse Live - E3 2018 - Arcade Archives Donkey Kong, Sky Skipper". YouTube. Nintendo Everything. June 14, 2018. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2024. Mr. Arakawa, who was the president, and myself looked at the character, and we had a landlord that happened to be named Mario as well, and we'd never met the guy, so we thought it'd be funny to name this main character Mario after our landlord in Southcenter. And that's actually how Mario got his name.
↑Wolf, Mark J. P., ed. (2008). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond. Greenwood Press. pp.210–215. ISBN978-0-313-33868-7.
↑Bell, Lowell (February 25, 2023). "Best JRPGs Of All Time". Time Extension. Hookshot Media. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
↑Cornelius, Dylan (April 21, 2020). "Baseball (Famicom, 1983)". Retro Gaming Archive. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
↑Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp.530–531. ISBN978-1-5381-0373-9.
123Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nded.). McFarland & Company. pp.803–805. ISBN978-0-7864-2099-5.
↑Sheff, David (2011). Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World. Vintage Books. ISBN978-0-307-80074-9.
↑Wiskerchen, Jeffrey P. H. (2014). "Saturday Morning Television and the Licensing Boom". America Toons In: A History of Television Animation. McFarland & Company. ISBN978-0-7864-7650-3.
Japan: 65,000 (Ashcraft, Brian; Snow, Jean (2008). "sixty-five+thousand" Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers (1sted.). Tokyo: Kodansha International. ISBN978-4-7700-3078-8. Archived from the original on May 1, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2012. Jumpman hopped over barrels, climbed ladders, and jumped from suspended platform to suspended platform as he tried to rescue a damsel from his pissed-off pet gorilla. The game was a smash, and sixty-five thousand cabinets were sold in Japan, propping up the then-struggling Nintendo and laying the groundwork for Nintendo and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto to dominate gaming throughout the 1980s and beyond.)
"And we received from Coleco an agreement that they would pay us three percent of the net sales price [of all the "Donkey Kong" cartridges Coleco sold]." It turned out to be an impressive number of cartridges, 6 million, which translated into $4.6million.
↑"Nintendojofr". Nintendojo. September 26, 2006. Archived from the original on July 30, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
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