Super Mario (franchise)

The Mario series is a long-running video game series published by the popular gaming company, Nintendo. The Mario series has been running for more than a quarter of a century, and in its lifespan has released more than two hundred video games. The series started out in 1981, with the arcade video game, Donkey Kong, and has since then took off into it's own huge franchise. Originally created by Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario is the main protagonist throughout most of the series; the main antagonist of the series is Bowser, the King of all Koopas. The Mario series has contained many different genres of games, from platformers to role-playing games, and from puzzle games to party games. The most popular games in the series consist of what is known as the "main" series or the "Super Mario" series which consists of 2D and 3D platformers, at least one per home console and one per handheld (bar the Gameboy Advance and Virtual Console). The Mario series has been released on a large array of systems, including home consoles, handheld game systems, and even personal and Macintosh computers. Originally starting out with an 8-Bit game, the Mario series has gone through many graphical changes throughout the years. The series has spawned numerous sub-series, including the Mario Kart and Mario Party series; it has also taken a large part in the story line to it's partner series, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Wario. The concept of having a platform game spin-off into a sports, racing, or party series has been imitated by the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and the Crash Bandicoot series.

2000-2009
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!''Luigi's Mansion
 * After another two years had passed, Nintendo released another Mario game &mdash; Paper Mario. It was the first Mario role-playing game since the release of Super Mario RPG for the Super Nintendo. Paper Mario brought up a whole new concept for graphics in the Mario series, as everything in the game was made to look as if it were made out of paper. Once again, Mario had to set out on a long mission to save Princess Peach from Bowser. As Mario set out on his adventure, he met citizens of various villages that wanted to assist him on his journey, the first of which was Goombario. At the end of each chapter, Mario and his partners would fight a boss, eventually leading to the freedom of a Star Spirit. When Mario and his partners had freed all of the Star Spirits, they were prepared to fight Bowser. After an epic two-part battle with Bowser, Mario eventually rescued Princess Peach from her current fate. Paper Mario is the only Mario role-playing game to date in which Bowser acts as the main antagonist; in all other Mario role-playing games, Bowser has either taken the role of an ally, or as a somewhat minor antagonist. Paper Mario has inspired two sequels to date &mdash; Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorand Super Paper Mario.
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 * Nintendo 64
 * IGN – 9.0: Outstanding • Gamespot – 9.5: Superb

!''Super Mario Sunshine
 * In 2001, Nintendo released the GameCube, their first 128-bit System. The first Mario game to be released on the GameCube was Luigi's Mansion; it was one its few launch titles. The game was the first ever to star Luigi as the main protagonist in the game; all other games prior to this one had Luigi portrayed as a sidekick or some sort, or off on his own mission. At the beginning of the game, Luigi is shown walking up to the large mansion that he won in a contest. Inside the mansion, Luigi encounters a few unfriendly beings, only to be saved by Professor Elvin Gadd. The Professor tells Luigi that the mansion is haunted with hundreds of ghost, and sends him in to stop them in hopes of rescuing Mario. As Luigi passes through the various rooms of the house, eliminating ghosts with the Poltergust 3000, he eventually runs across some of Mario items: His hat, his shoe, his glove, and his star. After taking them to a ghostly fortune teller, Luigi discovers that Mario is indeed still alive and is being held captive by the Boos. Thus, Luigi travels forth more, ridding the mansion of any Boos along the way. Eventually, he finds King Boo's lair, finding Mario trapped within a painting frame. Luigi is whisked away to the mansion's roof, where he battles King Boo and its huge Bowser suit. After defeating King Boo, Luigi takes the framed Mario back to E. Gadd's lab, where he is soon thereafter freed.
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 * GameCube
 * IGN – 7.0: Decent • Gamespot – 7.9: Good

!''Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * In 2002, Mario was back in action in his own three-dimensional platformer once again. While on his way to a vacation with Princess Peach and her loyal steward, Toadsworth, they find a large glob of graffiti in the shape of Peach's head on their landing strip. Mario then finds an interesting machine, called F.L.U.D.D., that helps him rid the island of graffiti. After he collects a total of ten Shine Sprites, an impostor bearing a striking resemblance to Mario kidnaps Princess Peach. Mario then must redeem his identity (because of Shadow Mario), by ridding the entire island of graffiti, all the while having to rescue Princess Peach. Towards the end of his adventure, he discovers that Shadow Mario is actually Bowser Jr. in disguise. After fighting Bowser and his son, Mario rescues Princess Peach, finally allowing them to finish their vacation.
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 * GameCube
 * IGN – 9.4: Outstanding • Gamespot – 8.0: Great

!''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
 * Towards the end of 2003, Nintendo released a huge Mario hit for the Game Boy Advance &mdash; Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The game was the first Mario role-playing game to ever be released on a handheld system. The game featured Mario and Luigi, both being playable at the same time. After the evil Cackletta and her henchman Fawful infiltrated Princess Peach's Castle, they stole Princess Peach's voice in order to help dominate the world. Soon thereafter, the Mario Bros. head off for the Beanbean Kingdom. After much traversing, through the borders and Hoohoo Village, they eventually reached Beanbean Castle Town. When they enter the borders of the city, they find it in ruins. As they reach Beanbean Castle, they find that it too had been terrorized, and that Queen Bean was not herself. After battling her, the Bros. set out on an additional mission to find all of the pieces of the Beanstar. After a long journey through the Mushroom World, they eventually reached Bowser's Castle, where Cackletta's Spirit was hiding out; her. It was a tiresome and fierce battle, but the Bros. prevailed as always. The Princess was saved, and the Beanstar had been retrieved. All was back to normal once again...or at least as normal as things got for Mario and his friends. This game eventually had a sequel for the Nintendo DS, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. A third installment is currently under production under the title, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
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 * Game Boy Advance
 * IGN – 9.0: Outstanding • Gamespot 9.2: Superb

!''Mario vs. Donkey Kong
 * In 2004, Nintendo released the indirect sequel to Paper Mario &mdash;Paper Mario:The Thousand-Year Door. The game was a huge hit, reaching Player's Choice status. The story starts out with Princess Peach in a mysterious town, called Rogueport, looking through someone's rummage sale. She vanishes soon thereafter. After receiving a letter from Princess Peach &mdash; mailed before she went missing &mdash; Mario sets off on a trip to Rogueport. After arriving there, he finds Toadsworth. To his dismay, Princess Peach mysteriously vanished from Rogueport. So, Mario and his current partner set out on a journey to save Princess Peach, and retrieve the seven Crystal Stars. After a long journey, Mario and his partners set the final Crystal Star in the Thousand-Year Door, they finally unlocked the entrance to the Palace of Shadow &mdash; a dark place locked away for an entire millennium. After fighting Sir Grodus, leader of the Secret Society of the X-Nauts, they fought the demonic Shadow Queen. After possessing Peach, the Shadow Queen revealed her true form and battle Mario and his partners. The battle was enormous, and required the motivation of people from across the Mushroom Kingdom to win. The Shadow Queen was defeated, and Rogueport and all surrounding areas were able to relax and return to their lives. Two years later, Super Paper Mario was released for the Wii. It wasn't the direct sequel to this game, but it continued the adventures of Mario in his paper form.
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 * GameCube
 * IGN – 9.1: Outstanding • Gamespot – 9.2: Superb

!''Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
 * Released in 2004, Mario vs. Donkey Kong was a game for the Game Boy Advance. As its name would imply, it revolves around the concept of Mario fighting Donkey Kong. The game had a similar concept to that of Donkey Kong. After Donkey Kong had seen an advertisement on television for miniature Mario toys, he went to the store to purchase some. Since the store was out of stock, Donkey Kong raided the toy factory and stole all of their Mini Mario toys. Because of a hole in the bag in which he was storing the toys, the toys all fell out. Mario, the three Toad factory employees, and all the toys began to mock Donkey Kong. Thus, Donkey Kong kidnapped the three Toads and climbs atop the factory. It is then up to Mario to rescue the Toads.
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 * Game Boy Advance
 * IGN – 8.5: Great • Gamespot – 8.0: Great

!''Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * In 2005, Nintendo released the first and only Mario rhythm game: Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. The game was a Mario edition of the popular Dance Dance Revolution series produced by Konami. The game featured Waluigi as the main antagonist, who had stolen all of the Music Keys from Truffle Tower. Toad then informs Mario of Waluigi's mischief; Mario then sets out on a mission to retrieve the Music Keys back from him. Mario must then visit various locations, dancing to remixes of Mario themes in order to proceed to the next location. The game had five levels of difficulty; the hardest of which contained more than 200 steps in each song.
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 * GameCube
 * IGN – 8.0: Impressive • Gamespot – 7.0: Good

!''Super Princess Peach
 * In 2005, Nintendo released the sequel to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga; it was titled Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The game once again allowed Mario and Luigi to be playable at the same time, but it also allowed newcomers to the Mario & Luigi series &mdash; Baby Mario and Baby Luigi &mdash; to be playable as well. The story revolved around the invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom by a group of extraterrestrial terrorists, known as the Shroobs. The Shroobs had invaded the past and was quickly taking over all of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi, after teaming up with their infant selves, were eventually able to stop this catastrophe after defeating Princess Shroob and Elder Princess Shroob. The invasion immediately went into retreat and the Mushroom Kingdom returned to its normal self, thanks once again to the Mario Bros.
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 * Nintendo DS
 * IGN – 9.0: Outstanding • Gamespot – 8.9: Great

!''New Super Mario Bros.
 * Released in 2005, Super Princess Peach is a platformer for the Nintendo DS. As its title would imply, Princess Peach is the main protagonist. The story is of Bowser sending a large army of his minions to infiltrate Princess Peach's Castle. Because she is not there at the time of the attack, Mario, Luigi, and several of the castle's Toads are kidnapped. Princess Peach must then set out on a long journey &mdash; along with her helpful parasol, Perry &mdash; in order to rescue those who had been kidnapped and stop Bowser from using his ultimate weapon: the Vibe Scepter, which is capable of making creatures feel emotions and transforming them to fit their feelings. Super Princess Peach featured many extras; among them were three mini-games in which the player had to use the stylus to control Toad. There were also puzzles &mdash; only unlocked after all the Puzzle Pieces had been retrieved. Lastly, there were several songs from the game that Princess Peach could collect; these songs would later be played by Peach's band, the Peach Hit Five.
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 * DS
 * IGN – 7.8: Good • Gamespot – 7.2: Good

!''Super Paper Mario
 * This newest installment of the Super Mario Bros. sub-series was released for the Nintendo DS in 2006. New Super Mario Bros. was the first 3-dimensional sidescroller ever in the Super Mario Bros. series. The story revolves around Mario and Luigi, who, once again, are out to rescue Princess Peach; this time from Bowser Jr. The Mario Bros. had to travel through several worlds full of Bowser's minions in order to finally rescue the Princess. This game marked the debut of Bowser's skeletal form, Dry Bowser. The game featured a two-player wi-fi mode, in which the Mario Bros. would endure races through various levels.
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 * DS
 * IGN – 9.5: Incredible • Gamespot – '''9.0: Superb

!''Super Mario Galaxy
 * Nintendo released yet another installment in the Paper Mario series in 2007, with the release of Super Paper Mario. The game introduced a whole other dimension to the series with Mario having the ability to flip between the second and third dimensions. This new feature was commonly required to pass up various road blocks or to defeat enemies throughout it's eight chapters. The story revolves around Count Bleck, an evil mastermind that plans to destroy not only the Mushroom World, but all worlds and dimensions in existence. After reading a prophecy in the Dark Prognosticus, he had already devised a plan on how to do so. Thus, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and even Bowser teamed up, (with the help of many Pixls), to help stop Count Bleck and his vile plans. However, to do so, Mario and his friends had to collect all eight Pure Hearts in order to even have a chance to stop Count Bleck.
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 * Wii
 * IGN – 8.9: Great • Gamespot – 8.8: Great

''Mario Super Sluggers
 * The latest main installment into the Mario platformer series was released by Nintendo in the end of 2007. Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii was an adventure on galactic proportions. The story is told that every hundred years, a comet soars over the Mushroom Kingdom, raining stars down upon the land. Princess Peach invites Mario to her castle to join in on the festivities, only to have Bowser and Bowser Jr. his son crash the party. Bowser once again kidnaps Peach, but orders a Magikoopa to send Mario into a small planetoid. Mario then has to bounce from galaxy to galaxy, collecting Power Stars along his way. After encountering Rosalina and her Lumas, Mario learns that he needs to collect the Grand Stars in order to stop Bowser from completing his plan – creating a new galaxy. The game introduces many new items to help Mario along his journey, including the Boo Mushroom, Bee Mushroom, Ice Flower and many more. Super Mario Galaxy has a few similarities to Super Mario 64, including the fact that Mario must travel to various locations &mdash; this time galaxies instead of painting worlds &mdash; in order to defeat Bowser.
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 * Wii
 * IGN – 9.7: Outstanding • Gamespot – 9.5: Superb



Film
The Super Mario Bros. film was a movie that was loosely based on the Super Mario Bros. series of video games; it was released in 1993. The movie is often considered to be very poor. The estimated production of the film was $42 million; however, the gross revenue wasn't even $21 million &mdash; thus, the movie took a huge financial loss. The movie starred Bob Hoskins, (as Mario), John Leguizamo, (as Luigi), and Dennis Hopper, (as King Koopa). In the movie, Mario and Luigi must rescue Daisy, the princess of Dinohatten, from King Koopa's cousins &mdash;Spike and Iggy.

Critical Reception
The Mario series is the largest video game franchise in existence, and has had a lifespan of almost thirty years. It is often considered to be the greatest video game series of all time, receiving many high-scoring reviews on their various games. In the series, many games have been considered to be the best of their time by players. However, the series has been considered to have some games of lower quality. An example is the Mario Party sub-series; after the release of Mario Party 2, the series is considered to have lost its flair, as the games often contain the same mechanics. Super Mario Bros. was declared to be the greatest video game of all time twice: once by IGN in 2003, and the other time by GamesRadar in 2000.

The Mario cartoons also were shown to have received good reviews. Though each of the series were very short-lived, they were considered to be highly popular, attracting an audience of children to each episode.

Even with the success of the games and cartoons in the series, there was still a large production that attracted a lot of negative reviews. The Super Mario Bros. film is often considered to be a great failure. The film took over a $20 million gross loss in profits. Bob Hoskins, who played the role of Mario in the film, was recorded saying that the movie was a "nightmare". In the May 2006 issue of Nintendo Power, an interviewee from the magazine had said, "Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it."

Cultural Impact
The Mario series has been referenced many ways throughout the years. From animation to music, and from the internet to other video games, the Mario series has culturally impacted many people.

In animation, Mario characters and elements have appeared in such shows as The Simpsons, The Ren and Stimpy Show, and even SpongeBob SquarePants.

In films, the Mario series has been referenced in such titles as Billy Madison and Ghostbusters II.

Not many references have been made to the Mario series in music, but some songs have been dedicated to the popular series, such as the song "Birdo" as performed by Horse the Band.

The Mario series is highly popular on the internet. Many websites have dedicated themselves to the series in some way, while others poke fun at the series. The popular website, Newgrounds, has many fan-made games that are Mario-themed in some way.

Many comics and books have also referenced the Mario series, or are completely centered around them.

In television, the Mario series has been referenced in such shows as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and My Name is Earl.

The Mario series has been referenced more times in video games than in any other form of publication. Many games created by Nintendo, such as Animal Crossing make very notable references to the Mario series. Even games on non-Nintendo consoles, such as Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, have referenced the Mario series in some way.

The Mario series has also been referenced in commercials as well as in theaters.