is a Japanese media franchise created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for the video game company Nintendo. Starring Mario, the franchise began as a video game and has extended to other forms of media, including a television series, comic books, the films Super Mario Bros. (1993), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), and the theme park area Super Nintendo World. Mario made his first video game appearance in the arcade game Donkey Kong (1981) and was featured in multiple Donkey Kong games prior to Mario Bros. (1983), the first game with "Mario" in the title. Mario video games have been developed by a variety of developers, with the vast majority produced and published by Nintendo and released on Nintendo's video game consoles.
The flagship Mario subseries is the Super Mario series of platform games starting with 1985's Super Mario Bros., which mostly follows Mario's adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom and typically relies on Mario's jumping ability to allow him to progress through levels. The franchise has spawned over 200 games of various genres and several subseries, including Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi; several characters introduced in the Mario franchise, such as Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi, sparked successful franchises of their own.
The Mario series is one of gaming's most successful and renowned franchises, with many of its games, in particular within the Super Mario subseries, considered some of the greatest video games ever made. It is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, with more than 900 million copies of games sold, including more than 430 million for the Super Mario games alone, and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Mario is Nintendo's flagship franchise.
Premise Media in the Mario franchise usually makes use of episodic instead of serialized plot lines, with the events of one entry bearing little impact on the others. Instead, narrative elements (such as a damsel in distress having to be rescued from a monstrous villain by the protagonist after an ambush or military incursion) are often reused as a backdrop to contextualize more specific scenarios; a measure intended to maximize the franchise's appeal to new audiences.
The roles in this recurring narrative premise are usually filled by the fictional protagonist Mario, an Italian plumber with a jumping superpower, who, along with a rotating cast of allies and ability-granting power-ups, traverses a fantastical environment to rescue Princess Peach from the antagonist King Bowser. This framework, reflecting elements of Western fairy tale traditions, primarily functions as a secondary structure to support gameplay in the franchise's video games, which centers on navigation through a sequence of themed environments populated by cartoonish obstacles, enemies, and interactive objects. The visual and spatial design of the Mario universe reflects Japanese aesthetic tendencies, including an emphasis on expressive environments and the primacy of space over character.
While early Mario video games and adaptations were often described in supplementary material to be set in or linked to real-world locations (such as New York City), this has largely been retconned, with subsequent material having since been adjusted to take place in fictional fantasy locations. These often consist of distinct kingdoms or islands (such as the Mushroom Kingdom, Metro Kingdom or Yoshi's Island) featuring areas designated for levels of specific biotopes or themes, each filled with common characteristics such as warp pipes, anthropomorphic environmental elements, floating blocks, coins and recognizable species.
Spinoff material set in the same universe, but not featuring the titular protagonist and instead depicting stories exclusively involving secondary characters has been produced as well, notably for Donkey Kong, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Captain Toad and Princess Peach.
Major characters
Mario The protagonist of the Mario franchise, Mario is a plumber and older twin brother of Luigi. Originating in the arcade game Donkey Kong, Mario has since appeared in every title in the franchise.
Luigi Luigi is the younger twin brother of Mario, though is notably taller. Luigi was introduced in the game Mario Bros., and often appears alongside his brother in various games throughout the franchise.
Princess Peach Princess Peach is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. First introduced in Super Mario Bros., she is frequently kidnapped, often by Bowser. The plot of many games in the series revolve around Mario and Luigi setting off to rescue her.
Toad and Toadette Toad is a short-statured anthropomorphic mushroom-like race of characters that first appeared in Super Mario Bros as support characters, though have later made playable appearances starting with the game Wario's Woods. Specific notable Toads in the franchise include Toadsworth, an aide to Princess Peach, and Captain Toad, an adventurer and star of his own video game. A female variation of Toad named Toadette was later introduced in the game Mario Kart: Double Dash, and transforms into an analogue of Princess Peach dubbed Peachette upon acquiring a Super Crown power-up.
Yoshi Yoshi is a green anthropomorphic dinosaur. He first appeared in Super Mario World where he served as a mount for Mario and Luigi, and later starred in the Yoshi series.
Donkey Kong Donkey Kong is an anthropomorphic gorilla that first appeared in the arcade game of the same name. The leader of the Kong Family, he acts as the antagonist of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, while also the star of the Donkey Kong franchise.
Pauline Pauline was first introduced in Donkey Kong, where she is kidnapped by the titular character with Mario having to rescue her. She subsequently appears in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, as well as other titles in the franchise such as Super Mario Odyssey.
Princess Daisy Princess Daisy was introduced as the princess of Sarasaland in Super Mario Land, where Mario rescues her from the villain Tatanga. In contrast to Peach, she is often depicted as having a tomboyish demeanor.
Wario Wario is an obese but muscular character appearing similar to Mario and Luigi. Originally introduced as an antagonist in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, he eventually became an anti-hero in the franchise, and is the star of the Wario series of games.
Waluigi Waluigi is tall but scrawny character appearing similar to Wario. He was introduced in Mario Tennis, and throughout the franchise is often portrayed as Wario's partner of inconsistently defined relation.
Rosalina Rosalina is a princess introduced in Super Mario Galaxy, acting as the adoptive mother of creatures known as Lumas, and resides in a starship called the Comet Observatory.
Birdo Birdo is a pink, anthropomorphic dinosaur who wears a red bow on her head, and has a round mouth that can fire eggs as projectiles, first appearing in Super Mario Bros. 2 as a recurring boss. Early material referred to her as a "man who thinks of himself as female", leading her to some considering her an early example of a transgender video game character.
Nabbit Nabbit is a rabbit-like character introduced in New Super Mario Bros. U who steals items from the player, though became a playable character himself in later titles in the franchise.
Bowser Bowser is the king of the Koopas, a race of turtle-like creatures in the Mario franchise. Very large and able to breathe fire, he was introduced in Super Mario Bros.. Frequently serving as the antagonist for games and media within the Mario franchise, he often kidnaps Princess Peach only to be defeated by Mario and Luigi.
Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. is the son of Bowser, introduced in Super Mario Sunshine. He looks up to his father, and shares his ambition to defeat Mario and take over the world and the Mushroom Kingdom.
Koopalings The Koopalings are relatives of Bowser introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3. Consisting of six boys and one girl, they are each unique koopas armed with magic wands that occasionally appear to aid Bowser in his plans to take over the Mushroom Kingdom.
Kamek is a member of the fictional Magikoopa species who is Bowser's childhood caretaker, and later in life one of his high-ranking minions. Kamek is the main antagonist of the Yoshi series, and first appeared in the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. He uses magic, including self-duplication, teleportation, magical blasts, and size manipulation. He differs from other Magikoopas by riding a broom. In Japan, his species is also named Kamek.
King Boo is the king of the ghost-like Boos, and is the main antagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series, acting as the final boss of the first game.
Video games
Origin games
Donkey Kong
After the commercial failure of Radar Scope, Nintendo's company president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, referred to designer Shigeru Miyamoto to create an arcade game to save the company. Miyamoto came up with the idea of a game in which the playable character has to make his way through an obstacle course consisting of sloped platforms, ladders and rolling barrels. Miyamoto named the game Donkey Kong, and its main protagonist "Jumpman". Donkey Kong is an early example of the platform genre. In addition to presenting the goal of saving Pauline, the game gives the player a score. Points are awarded for finishing screens; leaping over obstacles; destroying objects with a hammer power-up; collecting items such as hats, parasols, and purses (presumably belonging to Pauline); and completing other tasks. The game was surprisingly successful. "Jumpman" was called "Mario" in certain promotional materials for the game's release overseas; his namesake was Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America (NOA)'s office/warehouse, who, according to one version of events, barged in on a meeting to demand an overdue rent payment. This story is contradicted by former NOA warehouse manager Don James, who stated in 2012 that he and then-NOA president Minoru Arakawa named the character after Segale as a joke because Segale was so reclusive that none of the employees had ever met him. Interview with Don James starts at 51:16. Quotation occurs at 52:00. James repeated this account in 2018. Quotation occurs at 2:25.
Donkey Kong Jr.
Mario next appeared in 1982's Donkey Kong Jr. as the game's antagonist. Players control Donkey Kong Jr. as he climbs vines and collects keys to save his kidnapped father from Mario.Steven L. Kent. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon and Beyond (Prima Publishing, 2001), pp. 187–189. The game was later ported to several platforms including the Famicom, NES, and several Atari home consoles. Additionally, a Game & Watch port and sequel were later produced.David Sheff. Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World (Vintage, 2011), pp. 48–52. Like the first game, it is an early example of the platform genre.Tristan Donovan. Replay: The History of Video Games (Yellow Ant, 2010), pp. 76–79.
Mario Bros.
Mario Bros. is the first game to feature "Mario" in the title and to feature Luigi. The objective of Mario Bros is to defeat all of the enemies in each phase. Each phase is a series of platforms with four pipes at each corner of the screen, and an object called a "POW" block in the center. The mechanics of Mario Bros. involve only running and jumping. Unlike future Mario titles, players cannot jump on enemies until they are flipped over; this can be accomplished by jumping under the platform they are on or by using the "POW" block. Both sides of every phase feature a mechanism that allows the player to go off-screen to the left and appear on the right, and vice versa. The game has since reappeared in various forms, including as a minigame in Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Mario Advance series, and reimagined as Mario Clash.
Game and Watch