==History==
Mario was created by Shigeru Miyamoto as one of his attempts to create a best-selling video game for Nintendo. Mario began as "Jumpman" in the video game ''Donkey Kong'' in 1981. He then appeared in ''Donkey Kong Jr.'' ,as the villain and Mario Bros. in 1983, which began Mario and Luigi's portrayal as Italian-American plumbers. Since then, Mario has then appeared in many other games for Nintendo consoles and handhelds. The first Mario console game was ''Mario Bros'' for the Atari and other consoles, followed by ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' for the [[NES]].
==Games==
===Super Mario Bros.===
''Super Mario Bros.'' ([[ESRB]] ratings: E) is one of the most well known [[video games]] in the industry. It is a platform game created by [[Nintendo]] for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]], first released in 1985. It features the intrepid [[Mario]] in his adventures through Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess Peach from [[Bowser]]'s hands. It is the game that has sold the most copies worldwide and numerous ports, sequels and other merchandise has been made out of it.
It lacks any kind of realistic [[violence]] and can be enjoyed safely by the whole family.
The player controls Mario (or possibly [[Luigi]] in two-player mode) and must reach the goal in each side-scrolling level which is populated by numerous obstacles such as enemies, pitfalls and other hazzards. The player may obtain a red [[mushroom]] (increasing Mario's side and allowing him to be hit twice before losing a life), a fire flower (allowing Mario to throw bouncing [[fire]] [[ball]]s to eliminate some enemies), a bouncing [[star]]called Starman (making Mario invisible and eliminating enemies he comes in contact with), a green mushroom (giving Mario an extra life) or coins (collecting 100 of these will grant Mario an extra life). Most enemies are defeated by jumping on them directly and by throwing fire balls or [[shell]]s (obtained by jumping on Koopa Troopas, turtle-like enemies and Buzzy Beetles, a beetle-like equivalent) at them or The player travels through eight worlds, each consisting of four levels, the last one being a castle where an impersonation of Bowser dwells and must be defeated by reaching an [[axe]] and destroying the bridge he is standing on or by throwing enough fire balls at him, when he does, the player encounters a humanoid mushroom who tells him that the princess is in another castle (with the exception being the last one, where he finds the princess). The player may encounter warp [[pipe]]s that allow him to skip levels or even whole worlds.
Super Mario Bros. was the first original Mario game for the NES (previous Mario games on the NES such as ''Donkey Kong'' and ''Mario Bros.'' were ports of pre-existing arcade games), and was bundled in with the NES in a cart with ''Duck Hunt''. Along with ''[[Pac-Man]]'', it is one of the few games to be constantly republished. The game spawned numerous sequels including ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' and ''Super Mario World'', which are regarded by many as two of the greatest games of all time. The game is generally regarded as the most innovative video game of all time.
[[Category:Mario Brothers]]