Mario is depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom. In the Mario series, he repeatedly stops the plans of Bowser to kidnap Princess Peach and subjugate the Mushroom Kingdom. He also has other enemies and rivals, including Donkey Kong and Wario. Mario is currently voiced by Charles Martinet.

As Nintendo's mascot, Mario is one of the most famous characters in video game history, and his image has become synonymous with video games. Mario games, as a whole, have sold more than 201 million units, making the Mario series the best-selling video game series of all time. Outside platform games, he has appeared in video games of other genres, including the Mario Kart racing series, sports games, such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, and role-playing games. Outside the original games, television shows, film and comics, he spawned a line of licensed merchandise.

Conception and creation

The character first appeared in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong as a carpenter named "Jumpman", more commonly called "Mr. Video Game" in Japan. During localization of the game for American audiences, Nintendo's warehouse landlord Mario Segale confronted Nintendo's Minoru Arakawa, demanding back rent. After a heated argument and convincing Segale he would be paid, the Nintendo employees opted to name the character in the game Mario after him. Mario's profession as a carpenter was intended to reflect that as a character as an ordinary hard worker as well as to make it easier for players to identify with the character.Arakawa, Minoru (1991). Mario Mania. Nintendo. pp. 30-32. ASIN B000BPL42C. After a colleague suggested that Mario more resembled a plumber, Miyamoto changed his profession accordingly and developed Mario Bros., featuring the character in the sewers of New York City.

Due to graphical limitations of arcade hardware at the time, Miyamoto clothed the character in bright red overalls and a blue shirt to contrast against each other and the background, adding white gloves to distinguish the character's arms on the screen as they swung back and forth. A cap was added to let Miyamoto avoid drawing the character's hairstyle, while preventing issues of animating his hair as he jumped. To make him appear human onscreen despite his small size they gave Mario a large nose, and added a mustache to avoid drawing a mouth due to the difficulty of illustrating facial expressions at that size.

Miyamoto developed Mario with the idea of using him as a "go to" character for games that could be put in any title as needed, albeit as cameos as at the time he was not expecting Mario to become popular. As years have passed Mario's appearance has become more defined over time, adding a red "M" in a white circle to the front of his hat and gold buttons to his overalls. Miyamoto attributed to the different development teams and artists for each game as well as advances in technology as time has gone on.