Super Mario to the rescue!

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear Super Mario? Maybe you’ve played the video game before. Maybe it’s just the memorable music and sound effects. Either way, did you know that Mario not only saved Princess Peach from Bowser, but also the entire video game industry from eternal ruin? Let’s explore.Know your Mario charactersLet us introduce you to some key Mario characters.Mario: A plumber in overalls and a red outfit, the titular character of the franchiseLuigi: Mario’s brother, also a plumber, wears greenBowser: The main antagonist in the gamePrincess Peach: The princess who is frequently the target of Bowser’s kidnappings.Toad: Princess Peach’s mushroom-headed friend and attendantMarket crashBetween 1983 to 1985, the video game market went into a big time economic recession in the United States. Some of the reasons included market saturation (occurs when a product is so widely available that a company can no longer find new customers to buy it) in video games and video game consoles. There were also too many competitors in the industry and a lot of low-quality video games. To top it off, the arrival of personal computers contributed to the waning interest in console games. The arcade era of video games subsequently came to an end. Revenue had crashed from $3.2 billion in 1983 (equivalent to $10.34 billion in 2025) to around $100 million in 1985 (equivalent to $299.35 million in 2025). That’s a whopping $3.1 billion loss! A Super Mario gameplay still. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Enter NintendoNintendo is a Japanese gaming company, and is much older than you think. It started out in 1889 with the production and distribution of gaming cards, like karuta (traditional Japanese card sets used in fast-paced matching and reflex games) and hanafuda (cards with pictures of flowers, animals, and nature instead of numbers). They came to America and established themselves there in 1980. A year later, they released a game called Donkey Kong, which became a hit with the public. Back in Japan, they released a product called Famicom (short for Family Computer) in 1983, which was already a hit in Japan. Now given the failing console game industry, they had to repackage it to an already skeptical industry. So, they called it the Nintendo Entertainment Switch (NES). They made it a boxy, VCR-like shell with detachable controllers. Sure enough, it was a hit with the market.Nintendo would also take quality control into their hands, ensuring nothing but top-quality games. They also designed the “Official Nintendo Seal”, which certified games, consoles, and accessories which they would sponsor. The seal wasn’t just branding, it was the answer to what caused the market crash in the first place: too many low-quality games in the industry. The strategy would end up becoming the blueprint for the modern console industry — every major gaming platform since, from PlayStation to Xbox, still uses some version of the approval system Nintendo pioneered.Game-changing gameNow, Mario had already made his debut in 1983 in an arcade game simply called ‘Mario Bros.’ The game involved players controlling Mario, and his brother Luigi as they exterminate turtle-like creatures, giant flies, and crabs emerging from the sewers of New York City. Interestingly, it was a spin-off of ‘Donkey Kong’. A still from Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023). | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Eventually on September 13, 1985, ‘Super Mario Bros.’ was released for NES. It came with tight controls, colourful graphics, fun levels, and a soundtrack by composer and Nintendo senior executive Koji Kondo, which we’re pretty sure is playing through your heads as we speak. Super Mario proved that games could have adventures and not just mundane score-chasing.The numbers should be enough to shock you. 40 million copies were sold worldwide, bundled with the console. The game subsequently established the NES as a household name.All the Super Mario power-ups: Super Mushrooms increases Mario’s heightSuper Star gives super speedFire Flower gives power to activate fireballsThe 1-Up Mushroom grants Mario an extra lifeExpanding the Mario-verseWith the game becoming a huge hit, more and more sequels and editions were developed. Sometimes, they introduced new upgrades to the game universe. For example, ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ introduced the overworld, a map of nonlinear levels that branches according to the player’s choice. Super Mario World saw levels with secret exits.In 1992, ‘Mario Kart’ was released, and it carried a very different gameplay and concept. Instead of rescuing princesses and averting turtles and other obstacles, Mario was now competing with other characters in a go-kart race. Some editions also included characters from other video games like ‘Pac-Man’, ‘The Legend of Zelda’, and ‘Animal Crossing’.By 1996, the game makers were experimenting with 3D graphics and open worlds (virtual worlds in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay). And so came editions like ‘Super Mario 64’ (1996), ‘Super Mario Sunshine’ (2002), ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ (2007), and ‘Super Mario Odyssey’ (2017).The Mario-verse would also constantly expand not just with new graphics and updates, but also with new characters. Yoshi, Mario’s dinosaur friend, was introduced in ‘Super Mario World’ (1990) and was a companion that Mario and Luigi could ride on. Wario was introduced in ‘Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins’ (1992) as an antithesis to Mario and the final boss of the game. With these same characteristics, Waluigi was introduced in Mario Tennis (2000) as Luigi’s antithesis.And it wasn’t just games. The Mario mania spawned other goodies like TV shows, films, manga, comic books, theme parks, and so much more. Interestingly, Lego released their own Mario-themed sets in August 2020. Elsewhere, Japan has a theme park called Super Nintendo World which features immersive areas based on their video games, primarily ‘Mario’ and ‘Donkey Kong’. This theme park opened in 2020 in Japan, and in 2023 in Universal Studios Hollywood. A still from ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ (2023) | Photo Credit: special arrangement And if that wasn’t enough, the music was so catchy, even big-time orchestras were hooked on playing it. It has been covered by many orchestras, like the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. The expansion goes on and on and on.So, the next time you get on your PC to play the game, remember — Mario didn’t just save a princess, he saved the entire video game industry.