Mario (series)

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The Mario series is a series of highly popular and acclaimed^[1] platform games by Nintendo, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in most of the games, his brother Luigi. Most gameplay in the games centers mainly around jumping and defeating enemies. The games usually feature simple storylines; the most common plot theme in the series being Bowser, the main antagonist, kidnapping Princess Peach, whom the Mario brothers must save.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Recurring gameplay elements 2 Mushroom Kingdom 3 Games 3.1 Other genres and spin-offs 3.2 Remakes and re-releases 4 Reception 5 Super Mario in other media 6 References

[edit] Gameplay

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Mario games are platformers. In the games, the player usually kills enemies by jumping on them. In most 2-D games the levels are linear; usually divided into different worlds, each with a certain number of stages. In all 3-D of the series, the game is a non-linear, free-roaming layout; levels are unlocked as the game progress, most require a task to be accomplished such a certain number of Stars or Shines or clearing a certain mission in a level. The games have undergone considerable change as the series has progressed, most notably in Super Mario World on the SNES with the inclusion of levels with multiple exits, and in Super Mario 64, with the introduction of 3D gameplay on the Nintendo 64.

[edit] Recurring gameplay elements

Question blocks originated as a digital artifact from the game Super Mario Bros.. In that game and many of its sequels, question blocks contain either coins or power-ups which can aid the player's progress.

The Super Mushroom is a power-up from the series. It is, traditionally, about the size of Mario, and has an ivory stalk below a red and white (originally red and orange) spotted cap. Originally, it was shaped after a common mushroom, but since Super Mario Bros. 2 it gained a more cartoonish shape, with an almost-spherical cap and a stubby stalk. Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview that the Super Mushroom was created by chance. The first sketches of Mario turned out to be too big, and they were forced to shrink them. Then the development team thought it would be interesting to have Mario grow and shrink by eating a magic mushroom.^[2]

1-up Mushrooms are common items that appear in the games, introduced in Super Mario Bros.. These mushrooms have green caps with white spots (originally orange caps with green spots). When Mario picks up one of these mushrooms, he will be given an extra life. In Super Mario Bros., 1-up Mushrooms as hidden in invisible ? blocks in some levels. Similarly in 3-D along with stationary 1-up Mushrooms, they also include mushrooms that will only appear in Mario walks over a certain spot.

A Fire Flower, introduced in Super Mario Bros. transforms Mario into Fire Mario. Fire Mario has the ability to throw bouncing fireballs at enemies, defeating most enemies. Fire Mario's distinction is his white hat and overalls in many of the Mario games, in all 2-D Fire Mario no height difference from Mario with a Mushroom. Super Mario Galaxy was the first 3-D game to include this power-up.

The Starman is a flashing star in 2-D games and Super Mario Galaxy, introduced in Super Mario Bros.. When the player touches it, it grants the player invincibility from enemies for a short amount time.

[edit] Mushroom Kingdom

The Mushroom Kingdom (キノコ王国, Kinoko Ōkoku^?) is a setting in the Mario series where most of the games take place. It is a monarchy and its heir is Princess Peach. The Chancellor of the kingdom is its head of government in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, however, he has not appeared since. Its capital, as in Paper Mario, is Toad Town. Though Princess Peach and the Mario Brothers are human, the citizens of this area are the mushroom-like Toads, called "Kinopios" in Japan. Super Mario Bros. 3 takes place in the Mushroom World, a collection of eight different kingdoms. Seven of these are "Mushroom Kingdoms", and are ruled by independent Mushroom World kings. (The eighth world is referred to as "Dark Land", and is ruled by Bowser, King of the Koopas). The instruction manual for the game states that Bowser had taken over the Mushroom Kingdom, and that the Mushroom Kingdom is a gateway to the Mushroom World, but this is never elaborated upon in Super Mario Bros. 3 or in any other game.

[edit] Games

After the commercial failure of Radar Scope, Nintendo's company president refered to Shigeru Miyamoto to create an arcade game to save the company. Miyamoto came up with the idea of a game in in which the playable character has make his way through an obstacle course consisting of sloped platforms, ladders and rolling barrels. Miyamoto named the game Donkey Kong, and its main hero "Jumpman". The game was surprisingly successful.^[3] "Jumpman" was called "Mario" in certain promotional materials for the game's release overseas;^[4][5] his namesake was Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America's office/warehouse, who barged in on a meeting to demand an overdue rent payment.^[6][7] Eventually Jumpman's name was internationally and permanently changed to Mario. The later arcade game called Mario Bros. also introduced Mario's brother, Luigi.

Super Mario Bros. for the NES was the first of Mario's traditional linear 2-D platform games, where gameplay consists of a sidescrolling level. In this game, it is established Mario and Luigi live in the Mushroom Kingdom, where they must rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser.

The brothers later returned in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. In Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario and his companions are out to stop the evil frog Wart in the dream land of SubCon. It should be noted that in Japan, Super Mario Bros. 2 was orginally made as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, and later converted into a Mario game for the rest of the world. In Super Mario Bros. 3, he and Luigi track down Bowser and the Koopalings to save the magic wands for each of the seven kingdoms and Princess Peach once again. Like Super Mario Bros., these games follow traditional linear 2D platform games, however these games introduced new gamplay elements such as new power-ups and doors.

In Super Mario Land on the Gameboy, Mario has to rescue a different princess named Daisy in Sarasaland from Tatanga the Alien. The sequel, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, introduced Mario's rival Wario, who takes over Mario's castle during the events of Super Mario Land and forces Mario to collect the six golden coins to reclaim his castle. These are also traditional linear 2-D platform games.

In Super Mario World on the SNES, Mario and Luigi must save the princess from Bowser once again. They receive the help of Yoshi, who serves as a dinosaur for Mario and Luigi to ride on and who needs his own unborn children to be rescued from Bowser's children. This was the first game in the series to have levels with multiple exits, an element that would later become important in 3-dimensional Mario games.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island shows Mario's beginnings. As a child, he is being brought by a stork to his parents' home, along with Luigi. Kamek, foreseeing that the babies will cause Bowser trouble in the future, tries to kidnap them. He only manages to capture Luigi, forcing the stork to drop Mario towards Yoshi's Island. Mario is found by a group of Yoshi; they keep Mario safe from harm, rescue Luigi from Bowser, and return the two home.

A Mario game also accompanied the publication of Nintendo's next home console, the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 advanced the plumber into the third dimension and defined the term "3-D platform game". The game was not as linear as the previous installments, and the new analog stick made an extensive repertoire of precise movements in all directions possible. Mario could now not only run, jump, swim, and carry certain objects, but he could also punch, perform a Triple Jump, use a Wing Cap, and more. It is also the first game in the main Mario series to feature the voice acting of Charles Martinet for Mario. Mario must once again save Princess Peach from Bowser, and collect up to 120 Power Stars from the paintings and return them to her castle. Each level has several different stars that can be obtained.

In Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube, Mario and Peach travel to Isle Delfino for a vacation. However, a Mario doppelgänger, appears and vandalizes the entire island. It is up to Mario to clean up the island. From Delfino Plaza, Mario enters different worlds, in which he must master different tasks in order to receive a Shine Sprite. In this game is the FLUDD; by using different nozzles, Mario can not only spray water forward, but can also spray downward, rocket up into the air, and receive a boost of speed. Its gamplay is similar to Super Mario 64, with several levels and multiple Shines to be obtained in each.

In New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS, Mario and Luigi have to save Peach from Bowser's youngest child, Bowser Jr.. This reuses elements and power-ups from almost all other platformers in the series, such as the Super Mushroom, while adding new ones like the Mega Mushroom. This was the latest 2-D mario game, like Super Mario World, some levels have multiple exits.

In Super Mario Galaxy on Wii, Mario must once again rescue the kidnapped princess, this time in the reaches of space. He ends up helping a woman named Rosalina, "The Watcher of the Stars", in her mission to stop Bowser from creating his own galaxy founded on stolen "grand stars". Because of the low gravity in space, it is now possible for Mario to jump higher than ever before, experiment with physics and explore new locations. Stars return from Super Mario 64, again each level has multiple stars.

[edit] Other genres and spin-offs

Further information: List of Mario games by year, List of Mario games by system and List of Mario games by genre

Apart from the platform games, the series has launched other games. After the relatively unknown Game & Watch title Mario Bombs Away, Mario's first non-platformer game was released in 1990. Dr. Mario's gameplay was similar to Tetris, which was later ported to nearly all of Nintendo's consoles. Mario later explored other genres. Two examples include the educational game Mario Paint, which appeared in 1992 for the SNES, and Mario Pinball Land for the Game Boy Advance. 1996's Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the SNES marked Mario's first role-playing game. Since then, five role-playing games have followed: Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo GameCube, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS, and Super Paper Mario for the Wii.

The Mario Kart franchise began with 1992's Super Mario Kart for the SNES, and still continues to be the most successful and longest-running kart-racing franchise today, having sold over 30 million copies worldwide.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Also notable are sports games such as Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. In 1999, the Hudson game Mario Party was released for the Nintendo 64, a set of minigames for up to four players, with the most recent incarnation being Mario Party DS, which was released in November 2007 in the US for the Nintendo DS. 2005 saw the release of Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix by Konami, the soccer game Super Mario Strikers by Next Level Games, and the baseball game Mario Superstar Baseball by Namco. The basketball game Mario Hoops 3-on-3, published by Square-Enix, was released in 2006. Mario and Luigi appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 as playable characters, as well as in its sequels. Additional Mario characters also appeared in later games of the series.

[edit] Remakes and re-releases

Main article: Super Mario remake series

The Super Mario Bros. series is also noted for having many of its games remade. All four NES games of the series were remade in a 4-in-1 package entitled Super Mario All-Stars, later a Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World package was released. Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island have all been remade separately onto the Gameboy Advance, all four also include the game Mario Bros.. Super Mario 64 has also been remade for the DS. Some games have also been remade in the Classic NES series. In addition, the games of the series have seen re-releases unchanged through Virtual Console.

[edit] Reception

The Mario series is one of the most popular and enduring series of all time. The game also holds the top spot on EGM's greatest 200 games of their time list^[13] and IGN's top 100 games of all time list twice (2005, 2007).^[14]

Super Mario Bros. popularized the side scrolling genre of video games and led to the many sequels in the series that built upon the same basic premise. Super Mario Bros. sold 40.24 million copies, making it the best selling video game of the series.^[15]
Super Mario Bros. 3 is often regarded as one of the Nintendo Entertainment System's greatest games, Nintendo Power rated the game #6 on their 200 Greatest Nintendo Games list and was #14 on Electronic Gaming Monthly. Super Mario World also received very positive scores, with a 97% average from GameRankings^[16] and rated the 8th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.^[17] Super Mario 64, as the first 3D platform game in the Mario series, established a new archetype for the genre, much as Super Mario Bros. did for 2D sidescrolling platformers. It is acclaimed by many critics and fans as one of the greatest and most revolutionary video games of all time.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23]} Guinness World Records reported sales of 11.8 million copies for Super Mario 64 at the end of 2007. As of September 25, 2007, it is the seventh best-selling video game in the United States with six million copies sold. Super Mario Sunshine also received critical acclaim by game reviewers. IGN praised the addition of the water backpack for improving the gameplay,^[24] and GameSpy commented on the "wide variety of moves and the beautifully constructed environments".^[25] Also Super Mario Galaxy gained wide commercial and critical success. As of March 31, 2008, Galaxy has sold 6.1 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling unbundled Wii game. GamePro stated that the title "raises the bar in terms of what can be achieved on the Wii."^[26]

[edit] Super Mario in other media

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The Mario franchise has launched a number of comics, manga, and TV series based on the games of the series. Most were resealed in the late 1980s to early 1990s, and today are obscure. The series also launched two films, the anime Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen resealed in 1986 and the live-action film Super Mario Bros. in 1993. The latter was widely considered to be a flop; it lost a large amount of money at the box office.^[27]

[edit] References

v • d • e Mario series Early Mario games Donkey Kong • Mario Bros. Main series Super Mario Bros. • The Lost Levels • Super Mario Bros. 2 • Super Mario Bros. 3 • Super Mario Land • Super Mario World • Super Mario Land 2 • Super Mario World 2 • Super Mario 64 • Super Mario Sunshine • New Super Mario Bros. • Super Mario Galaxy Characters Mario • Luigi • Peach • Toad • Bowser • Wario • Yoshi • Donkey Kong Related series Remakes • RPGs • Mario Party • Sports series • Puzzle games Related articles Super Mario 128 • Mario Clash • TV Series • Enemies  • Film Games by year • Games by system • Games by genre