Mario

Mario (Japanese: ???, Mario), also known as Super Mario and originally Jumpman (??????) in Japan, is a video game character created by Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. He is one of Nintendo's best-known characters, and is considered by many to be the most well-known video game character in history, appearing in hundreds of games, many of them bestsellers. Mario first appeared in the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game, while Mario's brother Luigi first appeared in Mario Bros., the arcade game. The Mario franchise has, as of 11 August 2005, sold 180,000,000 games (making it by far the biggest selling franchise in the history of video games).

Other appearances

Mario has appeared on television in several cartoons, in comic books, and in a feature film where he was played by Bob Hoskins. He has also appeared on lunchboxes, t-shirts, in candy form, and as a plush toy. There was even a book series, the Nintendo Adventure Books.

Related Topics:
Television - Cartoon - Comic book - Feature film - Bob Hoskins - Lunchbox - T-shirt - Candy - Plush toy - Nintendo Adventure Books

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In the earlier days of the NES and Game Boy, Mario did several cameos, usually in the early sports-titles on both systems. Often he was depicted as the referee, such as in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! or the Game Boy version of Tennis, but was also the playable character in both versions of Nintendo's early Golf-title. However some of his other cameos were more bizarre, such as the one in the Breakout-clone Alleyway which featured Mario on the game's box-art and also at the beginning of each stage where Mario jumps "in to" the paddle. He was also featured on the Game Over screen for the Game Boy version of Qix dressed in Mexican clothes, playing a guitar in the desert next to a cactus with a vulture perched on it.

Related Topics:
NES - Game Boy - Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - Breakout - Alleyway - Game Over - Qix - Mexican - Cactus - Vulture

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In 1999, Mario was included in the cast for Nintendo's popular fighting game, Super Smash Bros., for the Nintendo 64. He returned with the cast from the original in the 2001 GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee. He is considered to be a good middle-of-the-road character, seeing as how he is very balanced. He has a good mix of speed, power, and weight, making him ideal to a beginner. His brother Luigi appears in both games as a secret character.

Related Topics:
Super Smash Bros. - Nintendo 64 - GameCube - Super Smash Bros. Melee

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Mario is the official video game mascot for Nintendo, and is almost synonymous with the Nintendo brand. Because of this, Mario only appears in Nintendo games on Nintendo systems. There are a few small exceptions; he has appeared in several PC educational titles in the United States, some very early games for non-Nintendo systems such as the Atari 2600, and on the Philips CD-i (Philips made several games featuring Nintendo characters for their Philips CD-i, which was the result of a compromise with Nintendo over failing to release a joint CD-ROM product)

Related Topics:
Mascot - Nintendo - Brand - United States - Atari 2600 - Philips CD-i - CD-ROM

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