Mario (series)

The Mario^[a] series is a series of popular^[1] platform games by Nintendo. They feature Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in most of the games, his brother Luigi. The Mario series has been running for more than 40 years. More than 200 video games have been released in the series. The series has been named the best-selling video game series in history, with over 262 million combined units sold.^[2]

The series started out in 1981 with the arcade video game, Donkey Kong, and has since then taken off into its own series. It was created by Shigeru Miyamoto. Mario, going under the name Jumpman when Donkey Kong was first released, is the main protagonist throughout most of the series. The main antagonist of the series is Bowser, the King of all Koopas. Most of the games have something to do with jumping and defeating enemies. The games usually feature simple storylines. The most common theme in the series is Bowser, the main villain, taking away Princess Peach, who the Mario brothers try to save during the games.