Super Mario Bros.

Now considered one of the most iconic games of all time, Super Mario Bros. was first released in Japan on September 13, 1985. It debuted in the U.S. later that year. The character of Mario — one of Nintendo’s most enduring — was created by the legendary video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Interestingly, Miyamoto first created Mario for Donkey Kong, the 1981 arcade game. In the game, Mario was a carpenter called Jumpman, but when the game was released in the U.S., Nintendo executives wanted the character to have a better name. Miyamoto discovered that workers at Nintendo’s Washington warehouse had begun calling the character “Mario” because he looked a lot like the property’s landlord, Mario Segale. He liked the name and decided to use it for the character. A few years later, Nintendo asked Miyamoto to create a game starring the character Mario. Miyamoto created a brother for Mario named Luigi and unveiled Mario Bros., an arcade game that was mostly limited to Japan. Then two years later, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. as the centerpiece game for its new home gaming console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The release was a success and the company soon began bundling the game with the console, adding to its popularity. In 1991, Nintendo rolled out the Super Nintendo console to replace the NES, but continued to feature Mario in its flagship games as well as in other themed media. Today, Super Mario Bros. remains one of the most beloved video games ever made and new Mario-themed Nintendo games are still released regularly.