From his bright red cap to his blue suspenders, Mario has influenced many lives in his video game appearances throughout the 41 years on screens of not just kids, but adults too.

Chances are, this little plumber and his brother have shown up on your screen. His first appearance was the game Donkey Kong in 1981. Back then, his name was Jump Man. His ultimate goal was to save Princess Peach from the giant ape, who shares the same name as the game. But Donkey Kong wont give up that easily, and his obsession of chucking barrels at the plumber won’t end for four levels. It was the most complex game of its age.

In Super Mario Bros, Mario is back again, and his brother Luigi also shows up. This time to save Princess Peach from Bowser. This game was released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as the NES. This was a successor to the 1983 game Mario Bros. He and his brother took the screens of many families around the world. These games established many key Mario factors, for example enemies like Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and Bowser. It also added the damsel in distress, Peach, and some power ups like the Super Mushroom. The game consists of eight different worlds. Super Mario Bros is one of the best selling video games of all time.

In 2007, Nintendo released another one of the more popular Mario games in his series, Super Mario Galaxy. In this adventure, you are stuck in outer space, where you travel through different galaxies to collect Power Stars and move on. These are rewarded when you complete a mission or defeat a boss. The hub of the game is the Comet Observatory which holds the portals and ways into the 42 possible galaxies.

Probably at some point you have played Mario Kart. Either at your friend’s house, or on your very own game console. In this game you can race your friends either online from your home, or you can play together in person. This game was revolutionary and is still popular five years later. Winning races against the Artificial Intelligence fake players or online against real players helps you unlock new carts, wheels or glides.

Newest to the Mario family, in 2017, Nintendo released Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. This time Mario teams up with Cappy, who is on a similar mission to Mario. Bowser has taken both Cappy’s sister and Princess Peach so that Bowser can marry Peach. It is Mario’s job to team up with Cappy to get her back. You go through many worlds, for example the Cap Kingdom, Cascade Kingdom, Metro Kingdom, and Moon Kingdom. But to get to each kingdom and move on, you must collect enough Power Moons to power Mario’s flying ship, the Odyssey, but also defeat the boss of the kingdom.

I asked a 6th Grade green pod student, Noah Bruno, what he liked about Mario and he said this: “I like Mario because he’s a classic. He’s been there from the very start. He’s a character that everyone loves because he’s kind and caring and will never turn his back on Luigi.”
Mario has been through many different challenges in his 41 years as a plumber on the screens of many around the world, and we can’t wait to see what Nintendo will do next.