Super Mario (series)

The Super Mario series, also called the main series or main games, is the biggest and most important sub-series of the Mario franchise. It started in 1985 with the creation of Super Mario Bros. on the Family Computer and subsequently the Nintendo Entertainment System. It has been followed by many sequels released in almost every Nintendo video game console to date, except the Game Boy, the Game Boy Color, and the Game Boy Advance, where only remakes, ports, or other spin-offs games were released and development was handled by other divisions and companies.

Most of these games, notably excluding Super Mario Bros. 2, follow the story of Mario and, usually, his brother Luigi and sometimes his best friend Yoshi, in their quest to search for and rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser, who wants to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, or another location, depending on the game. The Mario Brothers' adventure is not easy, however, as they must face Bowser's troops throughout, who attempt to thwart the brothers' attempts to rescue the princess.

Other games such as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island ,Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2 are sometimes considered to be part of the Super Mario series, the latter two actually being featured in Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros..

These series is developed by several Nintendo divisions. The most notable games have been developed exclusively by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (known during its early days as Nintendo Research & Development 4). Following its merge with Nintendo Software Planning & Development in September 2015, the series is now handled by Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development.

The Super Mario series stands as one of the most influential video game franchises of all time. The games have set standards that numerous video games from different game series have followed. Many games have been released to critical acclaim and have being commercially successful, in fact, games like Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario Galaxy are regarded as some of the best video games ever released in all history.

In 2010, the series celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Super Mario Bros. The celebration involved a series of videos showing various tricks throughout the series' games on the Wii's Nintendo Channel, as well as releasing a Wii port of Super Mario All-Stars, which included a history booklet of the Super Mario series and a CD containing several songs from games in the series. In 2015, the series celebrated its thirty anniversary with the commemorative game being Super Mario Maker, a game creation platform game that allows players to create their own Mario levels by choosing between four game skins based on other Super Mario games. Special amiibos based on Mario's classic and modern design were released as well.

Related games
These original games follow the basic formula established by Super Mario Bros. and even some have been given status as main game entries in recent media. These entries, however, are sometimes omitted from listings compiling the Super Mario games and are considered apart from the main series, this could be due to a series of factors like, for example, not being developed by Nintendo EPD (formerly Nintendo EAD), are available for non-Nintendo platforms, have Mario relegated to a supporting role, they paved a way to new sub-series, are complements to an existing main game or feature no actual storyline.