Mario (/mɑːrioʊ/, /mærioʊ/) is a character from the Mario franchise. Created by the Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, he is the mascot of the video game company Nintendo. Mario is an Italian plumber who resides in the Mushroom Kingdom with his younger twin brother, Luigi. Their adventures generally center on rescuing Princess Peach from the villain Bowser while using power-ups that give them different abilities.
Mario first appeared as the player character of Donkey Kong (1981), a platformer game. Miyamoto wanted to use Popeye as the protagonist, but he created Mario instead when he could not gain the licensing rights. The graphical limitations of arcade hardware influenced Mario's design, such as his large nose, mustache, and overalls. Miyamoto expected the character to be unpopular and planned to use him for cameo appearances. Originally called "Mr. Video" and "Jumpman", he was renamed Mario after Nintendo of America's landlord, Mario Segale. Following his appearance in Donkey Kong, he was added in other video games before making his appearance in Super Mario Bros. (1985), a Nintendo Entertainment System game that started the Super Mario series. Charles Martinet voiced Mario from 1991 to 2023, before being succeeded by Kevin Afghani.
An established pop culture icon, Mario holds multiple Guinness World Records titles, such as "Most Prolific Video Game Character", "Longest-running Computer Game Character", and "Godfather of gaming". He has appeared in a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectible items, and people and places have been nicknamed after him. He has inspired a considerable amount of unofficial media.
^"Donkey Kong Cereal". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on May 30, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
^ abcdefghijklmn"Mario Voices (Super Mario Bros.)". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Super Mario Bros Ice Capades". YouTube. Game Informer. Retrieved February 21, 2021. Mario's voiced by Henry Corden, who took over voicing Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed passed away.
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