Mario

Mario (Japanese: マリオ, Hepburn: Mario, [ma.ɽi.o]) (English /ˈmɑːrioʊ/; Italian: [ˈmaːrjo]) is a fictional character in the Mario video game franchise, created by Nintendo's Japanese video game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as the company's mascot and the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who resides in the Mushroom Kingdom, his adventures generally center upon rescuing Princess Peach from the Koopa villain Bowser. His younger brother is Luigi.

The Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Over 210 million units of the overall Mario series of games have been sold. Outside of the Super Mario platform series, other Mario genres include the Mario Kart racing series, sports games such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, role-playing games such as Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, and educational games such as Mario Is Missing! and Mario's Time Machine. The franchise has branched into several mediums, including television shows, film, comics and licensed merchandise. Since 1995, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.

Super Mario

Super Mario (Japanese: スーパーマリオ, Hepburn: Sūpā Mario) is a series of platform video games created by Nintendo featuring their mascot, Mario. Alternatively called the Super Mario Bros. (スーパーマリオブラザーズ, Sūpā Mario Burazāzu) series or simply the Mario (マリオ) 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 and handheld.

The Super Mario games follow Mario's adventures in the fictional Mushroom Kingdom, usually with Mario as the player character. He is usually 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 title 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 since. These include a multitude of power-ups and items that give Mario special magic powers such as fireball-throwing and size-changing into giant and miniature sizes.

Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the long running children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases, such as "Me want cookie!" "Me eat cookie!" and "Om nom nom nom" (said through a mouth full of food). He often eats just about anything, including ice cream, hot dogs, cake, pizza, doughnuts, lettuce, apples, bananas, watermelon, as well as normally inedible objects. However, as his name suggests, his preferred food is cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are his favorite kind; oatmeal cookies are his second favorite. In a song in 2004, Cookie Monster revealed that, before he ate his first cookie, he believes his name was Sid. Despite his voracious appetite for cookies, Cookie Monster shows awareness of healthy eating habits for young children, and since 2006 he has said that cookies are "a sometime snack," and that he also enjoys fruits and eggplant.

He is known to have a mother, a younger sister, and an identically-designed cousin (who ironically does not like cookies), who all share his characteristic navy blue fur and "googly eyes." He also has a father, who appeared in a Monsterpiece Theater sketch promoting energy conservation, water conservation and environmentalism. Both Cookie Monster's mother and father share his enormous appetite and craving for cookies. He and his Sesame Street friends are popular motifs on T-shirts.

Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker (Japanese: スーパーマリオメーカー, Hepburn: Sūpā Mario Mēkā) is a side-scrolling platform game creation system and video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U game console, and released worldwide in September 2015. Players may create and play their own custom levels based on Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U, and share them online. Over time, new editing tools are unlocked, allowing players to download and play levels designed by other players.

Super Mario Maker received critical acclaim upon its release, with reviewers praising the game's user interface and level editing tools. As of February 3, 2016, players have created more than 6 million courses.

Gameplay

Super Mario Maker is a game creation and publishing tool and video game, which allows players to create their own levels from the Super Mario series using the Wii U GamePad, and then publish those levels to the Internet. Players can base their levels on the gameplay, and visual style of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U, with their corresponding styles of physics, gameplay mechanics and enemy behavior. Some elements are limited to specific game styles while others can be added to game styles that previously did not have them in the original game, such as Boos in Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. (Japanese: スーパーマリオブラザーズ, Hepburn: Sūpā Mario Burazāzu) is a 1985 platform video game internally developed by Nintendo R&D4 and published by Nintendo as a pseudo-sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. It was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer on September 13, 1985, and later that year for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe on May 15, 1987, and Australia later in 1987. It is the first of the Super Mario series of games. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario and in a two-player game, a second player controls Mario's brother Luigi as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist Bowser.

In 2005, IGN's poll named the "pioneering" and "highly influential" title as the "greatest game of all time", considering it to have aided in resurrecting the crashed American video game market of the 1980s. The game's mid-1980s release served to further popularize the side-scrolling subgenre of the already popular platform video game genre of the early 1980s. In addition to its definitive features, the game has also sold enormously well, and was the best-selling game of all time for a single platform for approximately three decades at over 40 million units, until Nintendo's Wii Sports took that title. The commercial success of Super Mario Bros. has caused it to be ported to almost every one of Nintendo's major gaming consoles. Nintendo released special red variants of the Wii and Nintendo DSi XL consoles in re-packaged, Mario-themed, limited edition bundles in late 2010 as part of the 25th anniversary of the game's release.