Conclusions

 

My hypothesis was correct.  Mario is one of the most iconic and popular characters and game franchises in the history of gaming.  Mario, who is now 25 years old,  first stomped his way onto the gaming scene in Super Mario Bros. way back on September 13th of 1985. He is older than most people reading this blog!

25 years later, the plumber is known worldwide, is more recognizable to kids than Mickey Mouse (according to a Q Score survey from the 90s. I’m sure it still holds true today), he has racked up sales of over 40.24 million copies of his debut title (Super Mario Bros. for NES) ALONE, which was only just recently passed by Wii Sports, he has sold over 240 million copies of videogames if you add up every game featuring Mario, and he has appeared in over 200 titles since his creation!

Now that is one EPIC plumber!

Mario has taken jobs ranging from Carpenter (as the original “Jumpman” in Donkey Kong for arcades before his name was officially changed to “Mario” after Nintendo landlord Mario Segale), to racer, to RPG adventurer to athlete in soccer, basketball, golf, Olympics and tennis, he’s even been a doctor! But while that is cool and all, very few characters in the entire gaming industry can be credited with spawning entire new genres. From perfecting the side-scroller in Super Mario Bros. to pushing the boundaries of 3D platforming with Super Mario 64; no character except Mario could’ve made the “Cart Racer” into a genre like he did with the original Super Mario Kart. The “cart-racer” is now a fun staple of videogaming. Whenever you think the cart racer has seen it’s last mascot-driven race, a game like ModNation Racers comes out and makes the Cart Racer relevant again. So the genre isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

And it’s all thanks to Mario.