super mario

Super Mario is a platform game series created by Nintendo, featuring their mascot, Mario. Alternatively called the Super Mario Bros. series or simply the Mario series, it is the central series of the greater Mario franchise. At least one Super Mario game has been released for every major Nintendo video game console. There have also been a number of Super Mario video games released on non-Nintendo gaming platforms. How many Super Mario games there are has been debated. There are currently twenty-one similar games and one cross-series game that may or may not be included as part of the series.

The Super Mario games follow Mario's adventures, typically in the fictional Mushroom Kingdom with Mario as the player character. He is often joined by his brother, Luigi, and occasionally by other members of the Mario cast. As in platform video games, the player runs and jumps across platforms and atop enemies in themed levels. The games have simple plots, typically with Mario rescuing the kidnapped Princess Peach from the primary antagonist, Bowser. The first game in the series, Super Mario Bros., released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, established gameplay concepts and elements prevalent in nearly every Super Mario game released since. These include a multitude of power-ups and items that give Mario special powers such as fireball-throwing and size-changing into both giant and miniature sizes.

The Super Mario series is part of the greater Mario franchise, which includes other video game genres and media such as film, television, printed media, and merchandise. Over 330 million Super Mario games have been sold worldwide, making it the third-bestselling video game series, behind the larger Mario series, Nintendo's Pokémon series and the puzzle series Tetris