Super Mario

Nintendo built its most iconic franchise around the character of Mario, a mustachioed plumber who lives various and varied adventures with his brother, the plumber Luigi.

The adventure begins in 1985 with the title Super Mario Bros. on Famicom (NES), which revolutionized the video game industry, notably by righting the Western market after the crash of 1983. Launched in Japan on September 13, 1985, this first installment introduced level design in a horizontal axis, storytelling through gameplay, and intuitive mechanics of jumping, power-ups (mushrooms and stars), and combat against Goomba enemies or Bowser, king of the Koopas who kidnaps Princess Peach in the Mushroom Kingdom.

It propelled the NES to the rank of best console of its generation and sold millions of copies. This saga diversified with episodes as memorable as Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) and Super Mario World (1990) on Super NES, then with the move to 3D offered by Super Mario 64 (1996) on N64, recognized as a pioneer of three-dimensional platformers, and often referred to as one of the best games in history, and finally the two contemporary references that are Super Mario Galaxy (2007) and Super Mario Odyssey (2017). Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023) on Switch introduced new transformations that pushed the boundaries of creativity.

Super Mario is the best-selling franchise across all Nintendo consoles, with 452 million units sold as of the end of March 2025. Two of the franchise's titles have even been adapted into films (The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023 surpassed a billion dollars in box office revenue) or turned into toys and theme parks.