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.

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 The Fairly OddParents.

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 other theatrical productions.