History Of Mario

The birth
In 1980, Nintendo of America (NOA) released Radar Scope, an arcade game they hoped would kickstart a long reign of success. It flopped, leaving Nintendo stuck with 2,000 unsold Radar Scope units. To stay afloat, NOA desperately needed a smash-hit game—and fast. Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president and CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd. at the time, asked staff artist Shigeru Miyamoto to design a new game based on his own ideas. The result was a game entitled Donkey Kong, starring "Jumpman," a portly carpenter clad in red and blue. "Jumpman" did not have his name for very long, however. NOA had to prepare the game for American release, which included naming the characters. As the story goes, they were mulling over what to name Jumpman when the landlord, Mario Segali, arrived at the warehouse, demanding the overdue rent payment. When he left, the staff had a new name for Jumpman: "Mario."

The look
For the most part, Mario looks the way he does today because of 1981's immature graphics technology.

Hat
To avoid the difficulty of having Mario's hair move realistically, Miyamoto gave Mario a hat. Also, in Game Over, Miyamoto admits, "I cannot come up with hairstyles so good."

Moustache
Miyamoto gave Mario a moustache and oversized nose to make Mario's nose more noticeable.

Overalls
Mario's overalls make his arms and arm movements more visible. Mario started out with a blue shirt and red overalls outfit in Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., but the color scheme was switched to a red shirt and blue overalls when Mario Bros. hit the arcades. When Super Mario Bros. came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mario had his original red overalls, but a brownish shirt. In Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario went back to his second color scheme—red shirt, blue overalls—and has not changed since.

Mario’s Timeline

1981:Mario is created by the legendary video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and appears in his first game, the arcade game Donkey Kong, in which he is known simply as “Jumpman.”
1982:For the arcade release of Donkey Kong Jr., the Jumpman character is renamed “Mario” because of his resemblance to the owner of Nintendo of America’s first warehouse, Mario Segali.
1983:The arcade game Mario Bros. becomes the first game to feature Mario as a title character and also marks the first appearance of Mario’s brother, Luigi.
1983:Mario becomes a TV star by appearing as a circus trainer in the CBS cartoon series Saturday Supercade, which runs through 1985.
1985:Mario stars in Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo’s first U.S. home video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The world is introduced to the Mushroom Kingdom, the setting for many future Mario adventures.
1989:Mario becomes one of the first video game characters to appear in a motion picture. He debuts on the silver screen in The Wizard, which gives eager players their first glimpse of Super Mario Bros. 3.
1989:Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES launches and goes on to sell more than 17.3 million games worldwide, making it the most successful individually sold video game of all time, a record that still stands.
1989:Mario jumps into every kid’s hand with the launch of Super Mario Land for Nintendo’s original Game Boy.
1991:Mario appears with Yoshi for the first time in Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
1992:Mario and his pals hit the racetrack in the frantic and fun-filled Super Mario Kart for the SNES.
1993:Mario’s adventures inspire a major motion picture: Super Mario Bros. – The Movie. The film stars Bob Hoskins as Mario, John Leguizamo as Luigi and Dennis Hopper as King Koopa.
1995:The Super NES game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island features Mario as a baby – and he still saves the princess!
1996:Mario becomes the first video game character to have complete movement in a 360-degree, 3-D home video game environment in Super Mario 64 for Nintendo 64.
2001:The top-selling Super Mario® Advance marks Mario’s debut on the new Game Boy Advance hand-held system.
2001:Mario’s first appears on the Nintendo GameCube in Luigi’s Mansion. Mario’s little brother and sidekick, Luigi, has to rescue Mario when he is held captive by ghosts in a haunted mansion.
2005:The Walk of Game in San Francisco honors both Mario and Shigeru Miyamoto as two of its first inductees.
2006:The tables are turned on Mario when longtime kidnap victim Princess Peach has to rescue him in Super Princess Peach for Nintendo DS.
2006:Mario’s 25 years of popularity continue, as New Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo DS emerges as one of the top-selling games in the United States for the year, with nearly 2 million units sold.
2007:The first Mario game for Nintendo’s Wii system is Super Paper Mario, a remarkable game that shifts Mario between 2-D and 3-D environments. Other hot Wii games on the way that feature Mario include Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
2007:Mario will appear with Sonic the Hedgehog for the first time in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

The names
Virtually all Mario fans know how Mario got his name (see The birth), but what about some of the other characters? Fortunately, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed more name origins during a few interviews.

Donkey Kong
Simply put, "Donkey Kong" means "stupid monkey," so forget the silly rumors. Miyamoto got "donkey" from looking up manuke (Japanese for "stupid") in an English dictionary, while "Kong" comes from King Kong, obviously.

Luigi
The American team provided the name "Luigi" as something to go along with "Mario." Afterwards, the Japanese team noticed a happy coincidence: Ruigi means "analogous."

Koopas
The "Koopa" clan comes from "Kuppa," Bowser's Japanese name. Miyamoto revealed that they were considering naming Bowser either Kuppa, Yukke (Yukka), or Bibinba (Bi Bim Bap), all Korean dishes.

Wario
Wario's name is a combination of Mario and warui, which means "bad" in Japanese.

Waluigi
Nintendo Power magazine Vol. 135 (August 2000 issue) enlightened us with the fact that Waluigi's name "comes from a rearrangement of the word [ijiwaru]—Japanese for 'someone who's bad.'"