Super Mario

In 1980, Shigeru Miyamoto began development for his first video game. Based on Popeye,
his game was supposed to be make Nintendo popular in America. However, Nintendo had
lost the rights to the Popeye. Nintendo then asked Miyamoto to design a game from his own
plans, thus the game, Donkey Kong was born.

Donkey Kong starred three characters, Donkey Kong, Pauline, and Jumpman. Jumpman was
a carpenter with the ability to jump high into the air. Donkey Kong captures Jumpman's
girlfriend, Pauline, and carries her to the top of structures. Players maneuver Jumpman up the
structures jumping over barrels and other obstacles. Later on, someone in the New York
Nintendo Office noticed Jumpman resembled their Italian landlord, Mario Segali. And that
was all it took for Jumpman to be renamed to Mario. This was an arcade success!

In Donkey Kong Jr., Jumpman's name was now Mario. And this time, Mario was the enemy.
Players maneuvered Donkey Kong Jr. through structures, dodging birds, wind up toys, and the
danger of falling to rescue his father, Donkey Kong, from Mario.

Donkey Kong Jr., like its senior, was an arcade success.

The next game Mario starred in is Mario Brothers. In this game, Mario's brother, Luigi, is
introduced.

This game is a simultaneous two-player game, which players control Mario
and/or Luigi working together or against each other to fight off a never ending hoard of
turtles, files, and crabs. This game marks a major change for Mario, it is in this game
that he is now a plumber.

In 1984, the video game market wasn't doing so well. Nintendo saw a great opportunity to
unveil there Nintendo Entertainment System. In 1985, Nintendo unleashed the Nintendo
Entertainment System and Super Mario Brother with it. Super Mario Brothers was the first
side-scrolling platform game. This game is one of greatness. Click on the link to learn more
about the game, Here. It was one of the most influential of the Mario games. This game
introduced characters like Bowser, Princess Peach Toadstool, and Toad. Bowser kidnapped
Toad and Princess Toadstool and trapped them in castles across the Mushroom Kingdom.

Super Mario Brothers 2 came out in 1988. The big secret behind it, is that it was actually a
game called Doki Doki Panic that didn't do so well in Japan.

So, Nintendo remade it by putting in Mario characters and Mario-related items. It was one
of the most unique Mario games, because Mario and company could pull items out of the ground
and hurl them at their enemies or they could hurl their enemies at their enemies.

A storm hit America in 1989, that storm was Super Mario Brothers 3. The best selling game of all-time!
It sold 15 million copies worldwide, truly record breaking. This time, Mario must traverse through over
24 levels each with secrets. Mario can also carries a number of items with him and can use new items like
the frog suit, the raccoon leaf, and many others. Bowser has a surprise for Mario too. Mario now has to
deal with Bowser's 7 children! Complete with a Mario Brothers two-player segment, Super Mario Brothers 3
is considered to be the best of the original Super Mario Brothers game.

After the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo made a game system to move into the 16-bit
generation. Their 16-bit system was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and its premiere game was Super
Mario World. Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that ever since they finished Super Mario Bros., the design staff wanted
to have Mario ride a dinosaur. It was impossible technically until the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
was developed.

That dinosaur was Yoshi! In Super Mario World, Yoshi is introduced. Yoshi was a dinosaur and had
a long tongue and a bottomless stomach and Yoshi came in an assortment of colors. Super Mario World now only has
Yoshi, but also many levels with tons of secrets. But the biggest secret is the hardest levels in the game and to access
them, players must figure out the secret of the Star Road. There were shortcuts through out the game. One shortcut
went from the second world and led to the last level! This game was a big success too. Recently it was re-released
on to the Game Boy Advance.

A few minor Mario games were released. It took awhile for a major Mario game to come out. Finally, in 1995
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island came out, and turned out to be the best Mario game of that time. In
Yoshi's Island, Yoshi is the main character through the whole game. This game takes place when Mario was a baby
and the Yoshi clan helps him rescue his twin brother, Luigi, and the stork.

The gameplay is unique and involves Yoshi swallowing his enemies and turning them into eggs. This is the first and last
Mario game to use the FX2 graphics chip. This chip allow Miyamoto to create a new programming technique,
Morphmation. Morphmation would make enemies grow, shrink, stretch, morph, and some took up the whole screen.
The level in this game are the biggest in the 2D Mario games. This game is not only the best 2D Mario game but also
the one of the best platform games.

The Nintendo 64 came off in 1996 and Super Mario 64 with it. Super Mario 64 was a new kind of animal with 3 dimensional
graphics, Mario punching, and the huge interactive levels. Clink on the link to learn more about this game, Here.

Recently, the Nintendo Gamecube came out and like always a Mario game came with the system. However, this is not an
ordinary Mario game, its Luigi's Mansion! Yes, that's right, Luigi for the first time ever is the main character. Luigi's Mansion
takes place in an old, dark mansion that Luigi has inherited and somewhere in the house, Mario is trapped. Its up to Luigi to
save his big brother. In this game, Luigi sucks up ghosts with a magic vacuum cleaner. However, this game is not a platform
game like the other Mario games, this one is has more of a puzzle element of most Mario games usually do. With a unique
gameplay and amazing textures, Luigi's Mansion is another great Mario game.

As Mario, Luigi, and company go through the years without changing their style, we can always count on Shigeru Miyamoto
to cook up another great Mario game. With Mario Sunshine on the way, we can expect it to be just as good.