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Mario is a video game character created by Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo, supposedly named after the Italian warehouse manager at the Nintendo's US operation. He first appeared in the video game Donkey Kong as Jumpman. After his rise to glory starring in the classic Super Mario Brothers game, he took on role of mascot of Nintendo and has been extensively merchandized. Mario appeared on television, in comic books, and in feature film where he was played by Bob Hoskins. Mario's supporting characters include Luigi, Princess Peach Toadstool, Toad, Yoshi, and King Bowser Koopa among others.

The original Super Mario Brother series pioneered many concepts in modern video games, such as 1-ups and warp zones.

Over the years Mario and his brother, Luigi have appeared in a series of popular video games, both their own and others, here is a brief chronological list:

• Donkey Kong - The first game to feature Mario, although at this point he is named Jumpman.
• Donkey Kong Junior - Mario is the bad guy in this one.
• Mario Brothers - Introduced Luigi, it featured 2-player simultaneous play.
• Super Mario Brothers - First scrolling platformer. 32 KB of program; 8 KB of graphics.
• Super Mario Brothers 2: The Lost Levels - Released initially in Japan on the Famicom Disk System, this used a slightly modified version of the original SMB engine with much harder levels.
• Vs. Super Mario Brothers - A mixture of the original SMB and The Lost Levels that ran on the arcade VS Unisystem. Powerups and solution to mazes (e.g. 4-4) have been moved, and more enemies have been added thanks to new flicker-reduction programming, along with other bugfixes.
• Super Mario Brothers 2: Mario Madness - Released initially in markets outside of Japan, this is a hack of a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic with some of the graphics replaced by Mario-themed graphics. This game is sadly overlooked by most Mario fans as being the runt.
• Tetris - Mario appeared in some cut-scenes in the NES and Game Boy versions.
• Tennis - Mario was the referee.
• Wrecking Crew - Mario is the protagonist, but gameplay is unrelated to other Mario games. Many NES games featured Mario as a character, even though they game doesn't fit the theme of the series.
• Super Mario Land - Game Boy game with tiny graphics; gameplay quite similar to SMB1.
• Qix - Mario appeared in cut-scenes.
• Super Mario Bros 3
• Dr. Mario - Puzzle game with mechanics similar to Tetris and Columns.
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario Kart - go-kart racing
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
• Mario Is Missing! - Luigi must fight his way through 15 geography lessons to save Mario.
• Mario's Time Machine - Mario must fight his way through 15 history lessons.
• Super Mario USA - Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 2: Mario Madness.
• Super Mario All Stars (in Japan, Super Mario Collection) - collection of original SMB, both SMB2 games, and SMB3, with a facelift. Surprisingly, Nintendo didn't compress the graphics.
• Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - Mario appeared only in the ending cut-scene.
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
• Mario's Tennis - pack-in for Virtual Boy
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario 64 - First Mario platform game for the Nintendo 64
• Mario Kart 64
• Super Mario Brothers DX - Game Boy Color port of original SMB; contains extra goals, Game Boy Printer pictures, and a hidden SMB2:LL.
• Mario Party - noted for lawsuit over "roto-torture" levels that caused damage to players' hands; Nintendo had to provide free padded gloves.
• Mario Golf
• Mario Tennis - for N64 and GBC; not related to VB game
• Super Smash Brothers
• Mario Party 2
• Paper Mario
• Mario Party 3 - noted for confusion between Mario Party 3's box art and that of the original Mario Party; the original had a die showing a number 3 below the word "PARTY" on the box. Also noted for same initials as MPEG audio layer 3, as the press release points out.
• Donkey Kong 64 - Mario (AKA Jumpman)appears in the original Donkey Kong standup arcade console in the area called Frantic Factory.
• Super Mario Advance - pixel-perfect port of SMB2:MM from SMA*S, plus an upgrade of the original Mario Brothers.
• Luigi's Mansion - Mario is the man you must save in this "ghostbusteresque" title.
• Super Smash Brothers Melee - largely a facelift of SSB with a new Final Fight-style side-scrolling brawler
• Super Mario Sunshine - First Mario platform game for Nintendo's Gamecube

In Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario is the standard character. He reflects the actual skills of the player. His trademark move is the fireball. His fireballs are affected by gravity, compared to Luigi's fireballs. Another of his special attacks is the Mario cyclone. The Mario cyclone hits the enemy several times then hits up.