SmashWiki:Article of the Week/2007-10

The Mario universe refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from Nintendo's expansive and hugely successful Mario videogame franchise. The Mario universe is Nintendo's most lucrative franchise, and it is flat-out the most successful game franchise in global sales and in history. Mario himself is Nintendo's mascot and is considered the most well-known video game character in the world, and he and his many friends and nemeses have appeared in dozens-upon-dozens of Nintendo video games, many of them best-sellers and several of which are considered some of the greatest games ever released. Directly as a result from this, there are more Mario-themed characters, items, and properties to be found in the Smash Bros. series than any other Nintendo franchise, not the least of which are eight distinctive playable characters in Melee and Brawl: Mario, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Bowser, Peach (who has Daisy as an alternate costume), Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Wario. The Mario universe is so expansive, in fact, that the latter three characters are considered stars of their own sub-universes: The Yoshi universe, the Donkey Kong universe, and the Wario universe. (read further...)