Mario

Template:Character Mario (マリオ) is a prominent character in Nintendo games and is the long-running eponymous hero in the extensive Mario series of video games. Ubiquitously viewed as the mascot of Nintendo, Mario is the most well-known video game character in the world, having been featured as the star of dozens upon dozens of video games, and he appears as a main playable fighter in all three Super Smash Bros. games. His voice actor in all three Super Smash Bros. games is Charles Martinet.

For the fighter, see Mario (SSB), Mario (SSBM), and Mario (SSBB).

Character description

Years before video gaming exploded into mainstream popularity, prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto designed the original arcade game Donkey Kong in 1981, debuting Mario as the main playable character and Donkey Kong as his in-game nemesis. Mario's character design was heavily influenced by the extreme technical limitations of digital games at the time; as a small batch of pixels, Mario was given a moustache under his big nose because there was no other way to show he had a face, and he wore suspenders with his shirt to show a distinction between his arms and body. Mario in this game was originally "Jumpman", and he was portrayed as a carpenter whose girlfriend Pauline was held captive by the renegade ape Donkey Kong, and Jumpman must jump his way over the barrels and flames DK throws at him to rescue the girl.

After his initial appearance in this pioneering game, the sequel Donkey Kong Junior introduced Mario under his proper name and was identified as of Italian ethnicity by Nintendo's president Hiroshi Yamauchi; Mario was named as such because of his comical resemblance to Nintendo of America's landlord Mario Segale. Then Mario and his newly introduced brother Luigi starred in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros., battling shellcreepers (the eventual Koopa Troopas seen in later games) and their professions were changed from carpenters to plumbers by Miyamoto based on a peer's suggestion.

The Famicom was released that year, so Miyamoto's next game was the world-famous Super Mario Bros. for the Famicon/NES, the game that singlehandedly brought video gaming into the mainstream and made Nintendo a major company in a now major industry. Many iconic aspects of Mario and his franchise were established: Mario and Luigi now live in the Mushroom Kingdom ruled under Princess "Peach" Toadstool and her mushroom-child Toad servants, and the turtle king Bowser kidnaps the princess for Mario to rescue, and Mario must bound across side-scrolling platform stages to rescue her, jumping on the heads of common enemies like Goombas and Koopa Troopas to defeat them. He starts out tiny but can grow to double his size if he grabs a Super Mushroom powerup, gain the ability to shoot out fireballs by grabbing a Fire Flower, and can turn invincible for a short period of time by grabbing a Starman. Super Mario Bros. became a franchise with these elements, lasered into video game iconography, consistent in future games in the Mario series.

For over twenty years afterward, Mario would star in many, many games for Nintendo systems. Mario and his accompanying franchise can be viewed as Nintendo's thematic tileset with which to create games of a whimsical, colorful, and light-hearted nature. Mario himself is meant to be a character anyone can enjoy playing as, and can fit well as a protagonist figure and/or main balanced character in many genres of games; to this end he is not portrayed as a character that undergoes development like what you would see with a character in an epic RPG's story. He in fact is rarely depicted speaking coherent English sentences. In contemporary Mario games, his high-pitched Italian voice, provided by Charles Martinet, is used mainly for grunts and yells, and the occasional catchphrase ("Mama-mia!", "It's-a-me, Mario!", "Let's-a-go!"). As a semi-silent, optimistic protagonist, Mario is inherently easy for players of his various games to appreciate, and he is ideally the most balanced selectable character in any game he appears in.

Genres of games in which Mario appears in a playable role include the traditional 2D side-scrolling platformer, including various sequels to Super Mario Bros., the seminal Super NES launch platformer Super Mario World which introduced Yoshi as a mount of sorts for Mario, and the DS homage to these games in the form of New Super Mario Bros.; 3D platforming adventures such as the especially seminal Super Mario 64 3D platforming adventure game launching for the Nintendo 64, which is one of the most influential and best-reviewed games ever, followed up by Super Mario Sunshine for GameCube and Super Mario Galaxy for Wii; the Mario Kart series of power-up and obstacle course-based racing games, whose best-reviewed entry is Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for GameCube; a long-running series of multiplayer-based party games named Mario Party; various series of Mario-themed Sports titles such as Mario Golf and Mario Tennis; hands-on Role-Playing games such as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for GameCube and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for DS (which do feature involved stories like other RPGs); and a puzzle game named Dr. Mario, where Mario in the garb of a medicine man throws pills into a bottle to combat viruses (his persona in this game is also a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, see Dr. Mario). Mario made his first appearance in a fighting game in 1999's Super Smash Bros., and has appeared traditionally in all subsequent installments of that series.

Games

• Donkey Kong (1981)
• Mario Bros. (1983)
• Super Mario Bros. (1985)
• Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986) (Japan)
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (1987) (USA)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
• Super Mario Land (1989)
• Super Mario World (1990)
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992)
• Super Mario World 2 (1995)
• Super Mario 64 (1996)
• Super Mario Sunshine (2002)
• New Super Mario Bros. (2006)
• Super Mario Galaxy (2007)

In Super Smash Bros.

As a playable character

Main article: Mario (SSB)

File:MarioSSB.gif

Mario makes his first appearance in a fighting game in the original Super Smash Bros. as a starting playable character. Like in many other games, he is touted as the most balanced character with no real strengths or weaknesses, therefore, new players of the game are encouraged to play as him first. In the competitive meta-game, he can combo well but lacks a multipurpose finisher. His lack of outstanding strengths make him a middle-tier fighter. His B-move shoots a moderately fast, bouncing, low-damage Fireball in the direction he is facing, his B-Up is an uppercut third-jump called the Super Jump Punch which can hit multiple times for minor damage (and coins briefly appear with each hit), and his B-Down move is the Mario Tornado, where he whirls his body to damage foes around him, before throwing them up into the air.

In Single-player

In the game's single-player mode, you and a randomly chosen ally fight against Mario and Luigi in a team battle on Peach's Castle. Later on in the single-player mode, Metal Mario, a metallic incarnation of Mario (introduced in Super Mario 64), is featured as a "boss character" for you to duel in Metal Mario's Arena. He is not merely a heavier texture-swap of Mario as he acts differently from his organic counterpart. He can take many, many hits before being KO'ed.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

As a playable character

Main article: Mario (SSBM)

File:Mariomelee.jpg

By tradition, Mario returns as the most balanced character of the Melee roster, and new Melee players are encouraged to try out the game as him because of that. As a starting playable character in this game, he is touted as the most balanced character of the game's character roster, much like his appearances in other games, with no real strengths but no outstanding weaknesses either; therefore, new players of the game are encouraged to play as him first. His new B-Forward move is whipping out his yellow Cape from Super Mario World to turn the enemy in front of him facing the opposite direction, which is useful for diveting enemy attack and recovery. In the competitive meta-game, he can easily combo opponents, has a long wavedash, and is good at juggling opponents, but it is his lack of a reliable finisher that causes him to remain in the game's Middle Tier; his Smash attacks do not even feature all that much knockback and range, impairing his ability to fight like a character like Marth. He also has low grab range and bad recovery. It is notable that in both versions Mario has great combo potential coupled with the lack of a good finisher.

In Single-player

In the game's single-player Adventure mode, Mario teams up with Peach against you in the second part of the first stage, taking place on Princess Peach's Castle - but if you finished the previous segment, Mushroom Kingdom Adventure, with the remaining time registering 2 in the seconds digit, Luigi will take his place in a cutscene that will trigger right before this battle. Later on in the second-to-last stage of Adventure, Metal Mario will fight your character on the Battlefield stage, where he functions as simply a Mario permanently under the influence of the Metal Box item. If you unlocked Luigi, Metal Mario will be joined by Metal Luigi, and they both team up on you, making for a harder fight.

Mario is featured in the following Event Matches:

• Event 1: Trouble King: You play as Mario against Bowser on the Battlefield stage, with a 2-minute time limit and both players having 2 stock each.
• Event 10: All-Star Match 1: Mario is the first opponent you must fight in this series of staged battles. Your character battles him on the Yoshi's Island stage, and your character has 2 stock while Mario has 1. With a timer of four minutes, you must defeat him and the other four characters with the overall time and life you have: Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Peach, and Bowser.
• Event 19: Peach's Peril: As Mario teamed up with Peach with 1 stock each, you must ensure both of you survive the vicous assaults of the enemy Bowser on the Final Destination stage for one minute. Score is determined by how many times you can KO Bowser in this timeframe, as he has infinite stock.
• Event 22: Super Mario 128: This match pits your 1-stock character in a wild endurance match on the Mushroom: Kingdom II stage, where you must battle 128 tiny Marios that rain down from the sky and come at you five at a time. Each Mario is light in the extreme, so just about any attack from any character will KO a Mario.
• Event 31: Mario Bros. Madness: Your character battles a team of Mario and Luigi in a 2-minute unlimited-stock match in the Mushroom: Kingdom stage. Whoever gets the most KOs wins, much like in a standard time-match.
• Event 38: Super Mario Bros. 2: In this match, your character must battle against Mario, Luigi, and Peach in an unlimited-time 2-stock match on Mushroom: Kingdom II. The odds may seem especially stacked against the player, but the opponent team is subject to friendly fire. The character selection and stage are a direct throwback to the original Super Mario Bros. 2, an NES sequel to Super Mario Bros.

Trophies

By tradition, Mario as a playable character is featured on his personal 3 trophies. His normal trophy is acquired by beating the Classic mode with Mario on any difficulty, and his Smash Red and Smash Blue trophies are acquired the same way by beating the Adventure and All-Star modes, respectively.

Other trophies featuring Mario are Dr. Mario, Raccoon Mario, Metal Mario, Paper Mario, and Mario & Yoshi. The last trophy in particular is especially notable for being one of two "gift trophies" never findable during normal play, and in fact can only be acquired through hacking. There is also a trophy for Baby Mario, a baby version of Mario that has appeared in some Mario games.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Main article: Mario (SSBB)

File:MarioBrawl.jpg

In a maneuver both traditional and expected, Mario is a confirmed playable character in the Wii fighting game, and is ostensibly meant to be the most balanced character like before. He has undergone a visual redesign, but he is apparently essentially the same fighter as he appeared in Melee, retaining all of his moves (although his former Down B attack, the Mario Tornado, seems to have become an aerial attack, unexpectedly replaced by F.L.U.D.D.). His Fireball looks more realistic. Like all of the game's other returning characters, he comes equipped with a high-end new Final Smash attack which can be used once he collects a Smash Ball. His Final Smash is the Mario Finale, where he projects a colossal, intertwining fireball to engulf all opponents in his direction. The Mario Finale extends to both well above and well below Mario's position, so Smash Bros. DOJO!! recommends that he is standing on a moderately elevated platform for maximum effect.

Trophies

As in Super Smash Bros. Melee, there will be trophies featuring Mario available in Brawl.