The History and Development of Juegos de Mario Games

Mario is one of the most popular and globally recognized characters in pop media. His trademark appearance evolved along with the technological advancement of video game technology.The Mario games published by Nintendo are one of the most successful gaming series franchises in the history of video games. Mario is an internationally recognized character that has become nearly synonymous with video gaming itself. For example juegos de Mario (or Mario games in Spanish) are the top searched for Spanish language game. Any illustration depicting family friendly gaming usually has Mario right in the middle of it all, one fist raised in triumph and joyous smile beneath his floppy mustache. But have you ever wonder why he has become so popular? Or why he is a plumber for that matter?

Well part of his popularity is the sheer number of games Mario has been featured in. Every new system Nintendo puts out has some of his games included, often times with some new variation or a completely new version. The number of people therefore exposed to Mario and his adventures makes him popular by default. Nintendo has never been interested in retiring his characters so he has had games in constant publication and availability since he was first conceived. This huge and continuous supply of adventures has made him popular for generations of gamers.

Mario owes his trademark physical appearance to the graphical limitations imposed by the gaming systems when his character was designed. He was originally designed way back in 1981. To make him easier to recognize on the primitive systems of the day Nintendo decided to give him bright blue overalls and a bright red shirt. Depicting hair in a satisfactory manner was beyond the technical capabilities of the time. His red hat was added to make it easier to animate him while running and jumping.

To make him appear more human like they added a large nose to his face. While this did make Mario look sort of humanoid the designers were not able to add a mouth under the nose with the limited pixels available. So, instead they added a large, bushy mustache. This resulted in an overall Italian archetype looking character for the game Super Mario. To make him more accessible to the average gamer Nintendo choose to assign him a working class occupation. That also fit in nicely with the decision to make him wear blue workman?s overalls.

The first game he appeared in, Donkey Kong, he was cast as a carpenter. Donkey Kong was set in a construction site so it made sense that the workman protagonist would be builder. In his next in game appearance for Mario Bros the game was set in an underground sewer like environment. At this point his occupation was changed to a hard working and industrious plumber. Mario Bros was also deep beneath the streets of New York, so Mario and his brother Luigi became of Italian American heritage.

As gaming graphics technology improved so did the details of Mario?s appearance. He eventually sported golden buttons to hold up the suspender straps of his workman?s blue overalls. His cap was emblazoned with the letter M. His appearance in contemporary juegos de Mario includes details like eyebrows and blue eyes.

There seems to be no end to the exciting adventures of this resourceful video game hero. Mario is destined to continue to be one of the most beloved and recognized international icons for the rest of the 21st century.

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