If you are the person who grows up with video games, you will surely remember Mario as that Italian Plumber who jumps over obstacles and enemies. Of course, we used to see him as a side-scrolling adventure game which, as a child, gave us countless exciting hours. Of course as technologies, and new consoles hit the market, Mario also evolved and aged well like an exquisite wine. The great thing about Mario is that although there are different iterations of him, he still retains his character. So, let us go on an adventure into the life of our favorite jolly mustachioed character.
First Appearance
Here’s a fun trivia; Mario started as a different character bearing a different name in the arcade game Donkey Kong back on July 9, 1981. He debuted as “Jumpman,” and for those who are familiar with the game, he is the guy who tries to climb an obstacle to rescue a princess from Kong. On that game too he is depicted as a carpenter instead of a plumber, and has a pet ape confusingly named Donkey Kong, because why not.
The next year, Jumpman was named Mario in the game Donkey Kong Junior, and since then he is called by that name. Also, in 1983, Luigi was introduced to the Game Mario Bros as, you guessed it, Mario’s a green and white brother. Since then, Various versions, iterations, and games all spawned up to different consoles, predominantly on Nintendo hard wares.
Evolution of Super Mario
Mario evolved from the classic 16-bit 2D graphics sprite into a fully fleshed-out 3D character in Super Mario 64. Also, Mario did not stay on a side-scrolling platformer game. He too also have different genres of games under his name. There is an adventure game, semi-RPG game and also fighting games, all of which involves Mario in one way or another.
As newer consoles with much better capabilities were introduced, Mario also rode the flow and ported his games on them. Also, there are Mario games with much better graphic design and gameplay which is designed to run on the next generation consoles too, both offline and online. With this, Mario becomes so famous that he is frequently featured in other games like Super Smash Bros and even in Legend of Zelda. Heck, he also got a live action movie, featured in major sporting events, and theme park.
Conclusion
Mario has been synonymous to the entire gaming world for most of us avid gamer. Most of us even have Mario as their very first video game when we are a kid. Of course, for over 30 years, Mario will remain in the hearts of every gamer. Inevitably, each of us has that one particular place in our hearts where all the fun memories of Mario was kept. Some players missed the classic Mario games so much that they even port Mario games on modern hardware to play them again. With emulators, it is possible to play Super Mario games for Xbox 360, Play Station, PC, and even mobile phones. Mario will always be a part of our lives, and like us, gamers heralded him as the guy who opened up the gaming world to our lives.