Mario Di Bonaventura

is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the '' Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who resides in the Mushroom Kingdom, his adventures generally center on rescuing Princess Peach from the Koopa villain Bowser. Mario has access to a variety of power-ups that give him different abilities. Mario's fraternal twin brother is Luigi.

Mario first appeared as the player character of '' Donkey Kong'' (1981), a platform game. Miyamoto wanted to use Popeye as the protagonist, but when he could not achieve the licensing rights, he created Mario instead. Miyamoto expected the character to be unpopular and planned to use him for cameo appearances; originally called "Mr. Video", he was renamed to Mario after Mario Segale. Mario's clothing and characteristics were themed after the setting of ''Donkey Kong''. He then began to star in the ''Super Mario'' series of platform games, beginning with the critically acclaimed '' Super Mario Bros.'' in 1985. Since 1992, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.

After ''Super Mario Bros.'', Mario began to branch off to different genres. These include puzzle games such as ''Dr. Mario'', role-playing games such as '' Paper Mario'' and '' Mario & Luigi'', and sports games such as ''Mario Kart'' and '' Mario Tennis''. He has appeared in other Nintendo properties, such as in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series of crossover fighting games. Mario has also appeared in various animations, including three series produced by DIC Entertainment (voiced by Lou Albano and later Walker Boone), and was portrayed by Bob Hoskins in the 1993 '' Super Mario Bros.'' film. He will be voiced by Chris Pratt in the upcoming 2023 film adaptation.

Mario is near-unanimously considered to be the most famous character in the video game industry and an established pop culture icon. Mario's likeness has appeared in a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectible items, and people and places have been nicknamed after him. He has also inspired a considerable amount of unofficial media. With more than 750 million units sold worldwide, the overall ''Mario'' franchise is the bestselling video game franchise of all time.

Concept and creation

Shigeru Miyamoto created Mario while developing '' Donkey Kong'' in an attempt to produce a best-selling video game for Nintendo; previous games, such as ''Sheriff,'' had not achieved the success of games such as Namco's ''Pac-Man''. Originally, Miyamoto wanted to create a game that used the characters Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl. At the time, however, as Miyamoto was unable to acquire a license to use the characters (and would not until 1982 with '' Popeye''), he would end up creating an unnamed player character, along with Donkey Kong, and Lady (later known as Pauline).

In the early stages of ''Donkey Kong'', the focus of the game was to escape a maze, while Mario did not have the ability to jump. However, Miyamoto soon introduced jumping capabilities for the player character, reasoning that " you had a barrel rolling towards you, what would you do?"

Name

Though the protagonist was unnamed in the Japanese release of ''Donkey Kong'', he was named "Jumpman" in the game's English instructions and "little Mario" in the sales brochure. Miyamoto envisioned a character to be used in every game developed by Miyamoto; a "go-to" character who could be placed into any game if needed, albeit in cameo appearances as Miyamoto did not, at the time, expect the character to become singularly popular. To this end, he originally named the character "Mr. Video", comparing what he intended for the character's appearances in later games to the cameos that Alfred Hitchcock had done within his films. In retrospect, Miyamoto commented that if he had named Mario "Mr. Video", Mario likely would have "disappeared off the face of the Earth."

According to a widely circulated story, during the localization of ''Donkey Kong'' for American audiences, Nintendo of America's warehouse landlord Mario Segale confronted then-president 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.

While it is implied by the title of the ''Mario Bros.'' series, in a 1989 interview his full name was stated not to be "Mario Mario". The first notable use of "Mario Mario" was in the 1993 live-action film adaptation of the ''Super Mario'' series, and was further used in Prima's official video game strategy guides, in 2000 for '' Mario Party 2'' and in 2003 for '' Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga''. In 2012, after Charles Martinet voiced Mario declaring himself "Mario Mario" at the San Diego Comic-Con, the next month, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said he had no last name, with which Miyamoto agreed the month after. Two months after Iwata's death in July 2015, Miyamoto changed his stance, asserting at the Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary festival that Mario's full name was indeed "Mario Mario".

Appearance and profession

By Miyamoto's own account, Mario's profession was chosen to fit with the game design: since ''Donkey Kong'' takes place on a construction site, Mario was made into a carpenter; an