Mario

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Super Mario in Kungsbacka, Sweden
Super Mario in Kungsbacka, Sweden

Mario is a video-game character. He has been in many games by Nintendo, including the Mario Bros. series, and has also appeared in a movie, played by Bob Hoskins and on a TV show, played by "Captain" Lou Albano.

Contents

[edit] Games

Mario has appeared in many games. He has been in Mario Bros. and many others. Here is a list:

  • Donkey Kong (Then known as Jumpman) (1981),
  • Mario Bros. (1983),
  • Super Mario Bros. (1985),
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988),
  • Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990),
  • Super Mario Land (1989),
  • Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (1990),
  • Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (1991),
  • Super Mario World (1991),
  • Super Mario All Stars (1993),
  • Super Mario Kart (1994),
  • Super mario World 2: Yoshi's island (1995)
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 Stars (1996) (Not released in Europe)
  • Super Mario 64 (1996),
  • Mario Kart 64 (1996),
  • Mario Golf1999)
  • Super Smash Bros. (1999),
  • Mario Tennis (2000)
  • Paper Mario (2001),
  • Super Mario Sunshine (2002),
  • Super Smash Bros. Melee (2002),
  • Mario Kart: Double Dash (2003)
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004),
  • Super Mario 64 DS (2004)
  • Mario Power Tennis (2004)
  • Mario Kart DS (2005)
  • Mario tennis: Power Tennis (2005)
  • NEW Super Mario Bros (2006)

[edit] Super Mario Bros. popularity

The original Super Mario Bros. sold about 40 million games. This places it over Tetris as the most sold game ever. It was the game that started Mario's real popularity. There are many different levels in the game.

However, people could use warps to play through the levels faster. There were warp zones on worlds 1-2, and there were 2 warp zones on world 4-2.

[edit] Television series

See also: Super Mario Bros. (TV series)

Mario in Kungsbacka, SwedenIn 1989, The Super Mario Brothers Super Show was released and aired in syndication. Each episode lasted 20 minutes, and were split into two parts: the first half starred Lou Albano and Danny Wells as Mario and Luigi in live-action segments, and the second half was either one of 52 episodes of the animated Super Mario Bros. or one of 13 episodes of The Legend of Zelda. Following this in 1990 was a 26-episode animated series named The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 which ran on NBC. And following this in 1991 was the 13-episode Super Mario World, so far being Mario's last TV production. In 1994, a composition of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World, under the name Mario All-Stars, was aired on The Family Channel. The shows can sometimes be seen in syndication, but besides this, Mario's only current TV sighting are various guest appearances in well-known TV series like The Simpsons.

Mario in television and cinema Mario was one of the first video game characters to have his adventures adapted into films and television series. Mario brought on a paradigm shift: In the 90s, children and other young people spent approximately more money on video games than they did on motion picture films.

[edit] Films

In 1986, a Mario anime film named Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (literally: Super Mario Bros.: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!) was released in Japanese cinemas, but was never published outside Japan. Mario's first appearance in American cinemas was the 1990 film The Wizard, in which his only role was the star of then-unpublished Super Mario Bros. 3, which is found in the finals of a video game competition that the main character must win. Because the title had not been published yet at the time, the game received enormous attention due to the film, thus proving The Wizard as an extremely effective Nintendo advertisement. Nintendo didn't pay a cent to the production company Universal Studios, but still received royalties for the games shown in the film. The resulting success of Super Mario Bros. 3 provided incomes at a value of approximately 500 million dollars in the USA alone.

1993 saw the release of Super Mario Bros., the first film based on a video game. Despite prominent actors such as Bob Hoskins as Mario and Dennis Hopper as Bowser, the fantasy-action film flopped at the box office. Since the rather dark setting of the film shared so little in common with the colorful cartoony world of Mario, many Mario fans and younger children shyed away from it, thus eliminating a key demographic. Critics have also criticized the confusing plot.

The films and some of the animated episodes are now available on VHS and DVD.

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