User:Myselfalso/Mario Characters
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[edit] Major Characters
[edit] Mario
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 the best-known video game icon 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 September 2005, sold 184 million games, making it by far the biggest selling franchise in the history of video games.
[edit] Luigi
Luigi is Mario's younger brother from Nintendo video games. He first appeared in Mario Bros. as the character controlled by the second player, and his role as the second player's character continued in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. His full name likely is Luigi Mario. Luigi's name was inspired by a pizza parlor near Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, called Mario & Luigi's. His name also serves as a pun on the Japanese word ruiji, meaning "similar".
[edit] Toad
Toad is a humanoid mushroom in games of the Super Mario Bros. series by Nintendo. Like many characters in Nintendo games related to Mario, Toad is both a unique character called "Toad" and a specimen of an entire, homonymous race. For instance, in Paper Mario, there is an entire race of Toads who live in Toad Town. Toads, the general collective name of the "Mushroom People" found in the Mushroom Kingdom, are a sapient, anthropomorphic mushroom race, with a peaceful, human-following monarchistic culture. Toad as a species is officially established in the English games as of Paper Mario. Prior to this, manuals called them "Mushroom People". He and others like him made their debut in Super Mario Bros. Called merely "Mushroom Retainers" at the time, Toad didn't get his personal name until Super Mario Bros. 2. It is believed that his name originated from the word "toadstool." A folk etymology attests that Toad is simply a variation of the word "toadie", or loyal follower: Toad is viewed as a sort of son by Princess Peach and always her constant companion. He lives with the princess in her huge castle.
[edit] Princess Peach
Princess Peach is a fictional character in Nintendo's Mario video games series. Formerly called Princess Toadstool in the early English translations of the games, Peach is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom with a multitude of Toad servants, and is Mario's apparent love interest. In North America, Peach is no longer regularly referred to as Princess Toadstool since Yoshi's Safari for the Super NES, although most players first discovered the change in Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64. The text in the Nintendo DS remake, Super Mario 64 DS, did occasionally use the retro moniker. Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and has since appeared in many subsequent games, where she is usually kidnapped by Bowser. She has also shown her fighting abilities in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario RPG, Super Princess Peach and Super Smash Bros. Melee. She also stars in her own game for the Nintendo DS entitled Super Princess Peach; the game has been released in Japan, and North American version is now available.
[edit] Bowser
Bowser, known in full as King Bowser Koopa, and known in Japan as Koopa or Kuppa, is a fictional turtle-like creature from Nintendo's Mario series, and is Mario and Luigi's arch-nemesis. Although Bowser has joined forces with the good guys in a few games, he never ceases to attempt to kidnap Peach and conquer the Mushroom Kingdom since his first appearance in Super Mario Bros. His first name may be Morton and his last name Bowser as one of his Koopa Kids' name is Morton Koopa Jr., but this is just a rumor. As the central villain of one of the world's most popular video game franchises, Bowser is one of the most recognizable video game villains ever. In all of his various incarnations throughout the Super Mario Bros. series, he has been depicted as obsessed with Peach. Though he has repeatedly tried to kidnap her, Bowser has never declared what he plans to do with her once she's in his grasp, although the most likely theory is that Bowser is in love with Peach and wants to make her his wife. According to Mario Party Advance he "has the hots for Peach", and in Paper Mario, he talks affectionately to her in several scenes. Bower is depicted fairly consistently as nasty, brutish, and not particularly bright, though still a bit of a sarcastic wit.
[edit] Yoshi
Yoshi is a species of fictional dinosaur from various Nintendo video games and, more commonly, the name of a specific member of that species. Yoshis have very long, sticky tongues, and can swallow almost anything, even things that are much larger than they are. Almost everything they swallow is transformed into an egg, which they can throw as a weapon. They prefer fruit, although they can and usually will eat other things, including living creatures. Even though they have teeth, these are rarely seen or used. While Yoshi himself is depicted as green, other Yoshis in general come in a variety of colors, much like how Birdo is usually portrayed pink, but is also shown in many other colors. Like Donkey kong, Yoshi has gone and become the protagonist of his own series and franchise.
[edit] Wario
Wario is a fictional Nintendo video-game character who was created as an antagonist to Mario and has since become the protagonist of his own games. He first appeared in the 1992 video game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main villain and final boss. He is voiced by Charles Martinet, who also voices the Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi characters. The name "Wario" is Mario's name blended with the Japanese adjective warui meaning "bad"; hence, a "bad Mario". In English-speaking countries, the name is a play on the word "war" and on the fact that the letter W resembles an upside-down M. As Wario is Mario's evil counterpart, his personality, self-aggrandizing and narcissistic, are the inverse of Mario's, just as the first letter in Wario is the inverse of that in Mario.
[edit] Minor Characters
[edit] Waluigi
Waluigi is a fictional character from the Mario series who appears in the spin-off games. He is Luigi's "evil" counterpart, Wario's possible brother and one of Wario's few friends. He first appeared in Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64. He was created by Camelot's Fumihide Aoki and is voiced by Charles Martinet, the same voice actor for Mario, Luigi, and Wario.
[edit] Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is a gorilla character from Nintendo that appeared in many video games since 1981. Like many Nintendo franchises, Donkey Kong was created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
