GAME IMAGE

• Mario(2)

  Mario (マリオ?) is a fictional character in his eponymous video game series, created by video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Though originally only appearing in platform games, starting with Donkey Kong, Mario currently appears in varied video game genres such as racing, puzzle, role-playing, fighting, and sports.

  Mario is depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom. He repeatedly stops Bowser's numerous plans to kidnap Princess Peach and subjugate the Mushroom Kingdom. He also has other enemies and rivals, including Donkey Kong and Wario. Since 1995, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.[1]

  As Nintendo's mascot, Mario is one of the most famous characters in video game history,[2] and his image is commonly associated with video games. Mario games, as a whole, have sold more than 210 million units,[3] making the Mario series the best-selling video game series of all time. Outside platform games, he has appeared in video games of other genres, including the Mario Kart racing series, sports games, such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, and role-playing games such as Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG. He has also inspired television shows, film, comics, and a line of licensed merchandise.

  Concept and creation

  Mario was created by Shigeru Miyamoto in his attempts to produce a best-selling video game for Nintendo, after previous titles, such as Sheriff, had not achieved the same success as other titles such as Pac-Man. Originally, Miyamoto wanted to create a video game that used the characters Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl.[4] At the time, however, Miyamoto was unable to acquire a license to use the characters (and would not until 1982), and ended up making Jumpman (later known as Mario), Donkey Kong, and Pauline.[4] In the early stages of the game, Mario was unable to jump, and the focus was to escape a maze. However, Miyamoto added in that ability, saying "If you had a barrel rolling towards you, what would you do?".[5][6]

  Mario's name was originally "Mr. Video", and he was to be used in every video game Miyamoto developed.[7] This idea was inspired by manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka and Fujio Akatsuka, who feature several characters across multiple manga, as well as director Alfred Hitchcock, who appears in most of his own films. During localization of the game for American audiences, Nintendo's warehouse landlord Mario Segale confronted Nintendo's Minoru Arakawa, demanding back rent. Following a heated argument in which the Nintendo employees eventually convinced Segale he would be paid, they opted to name the character in the game Mario after him.[8] Miyamoto commenting that if he had named him Mr. Video, he likely would have "disappeared off the face of the Earth".[6] Mario's profession was chosen to be carpenter in an effort to reflect that as a character he was an ordinary hard worker; the profession was also intended to make it easier for players to identify with the character.[9] After a colleague suggested that Mario more resembled a plumber, Miyamoto changed his profession accordingly and developed Mario Bros.,[4] featuring the character in the sewers of New York City.[10]

  Due to the graphical limitations of arcade hardware at the time, Miyamoto clothed the character in bright red overalls and a blue shirt to contrast against each other and the background, adding white gloves to distinguish the character's arms on the screen as they swung back and forth. A cap was added to let Miyamoto avoid drawing the character's hairstyle, as well as to circumvent issues involved with animating his hair as he jumped.[4] To make him appear human onscreen despite his small size they gave Mario a large nose, and added a mustache to avoid drawing a mouth due to the difficulty of illustrating facial expressions at that size.[11]

  Miyamoto developed Mario with the idea of using him as a "go to" character that could be put in any title as needed, albeit in cameo appearances as at the time he was not expecting Mario to become popular.[7] To this end he originally called the character "Mr. Video", comparing his intent to have Mario appear in later games to the cameos done by Alfred Hitchcock within his films.[12] Over time, Mario's appearance has become more defined; both a red "M" in a white circle on the front of his hat and gold buttons on his overalls have been added. Miyamoto attributed this process to the different development teams and artists for each game as well as advances in technology as time has gone on.[9] Nintendo has never revealed Mario's full name, stating only that it was not "Mario Mario" despite the implication of the Mario Bros. series' title, and its use in the film.[13]