Super Mario at 35. Olympics will go on without 'Super Mario' Abe

Olympics will go on without 'Super Mario' Abe - Financial Review
www.afr.com › Companies › Sport

2020/08/30 - While the abrupt departure from the country's top job of Mr Abe - who memorably dressed up as Super Mario in the closing ceremony of Rio 2016 - meant the loss of a champion of the country's preparations, Japan was ...


A Morning Surprise for Japan: Shinzo Abe as Super Mario ...
www.nytimes.com › ... › Asia Pacific

2016/08/22 - A Morning Surprise for Japan: Shinzo Abe as Super Mario. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, whose capital, Tokyo, will host the 2020 Summer Games, appeared as Super Mario during the Olympic closing ceremony in Rio ...

Super Mario at 35

Nintendo

Almost exactly 35 years ago, Super Mario Bros., the iconic video game from Nintendo, debuted — making a high-jumping plumber named Mario the Japanese video game company’s equivalent of Mickey Mouse. We’ve compiled 35 things to consider about the overachieving plumber. Here are a few.

1. First, it’s the game that is 35, not Mario. He’s 39. Mario debuted in 1981 in another famous Nintendo game, Donkey Kong, in which he runs up a series of girders, jumps over barrels and climbs ladders to rescue a woman kidnapped by a giant ape.

2. In the early years of video games, characters were defined less by who they were than by what they could do. Pac-Man gobbled dots and chased — or was chased by — ghosts. Sonic ran fast. Mario jumped. In fact, before the creators of Donkey Kong called him Mario, they called him “Jumpman.”

3. Mario is so famous that even his brother, Luigi — who was playable in Super Mario Bros. in two-player mode — is a superstar. Luigi has more personality; he’s a nervous worrier and an underdog in the shadow of his famous sibling. Nintendo marketed 2013 as the Year of Luigi. Did you celebrate?

4. It’s unclear what Mario’s last name is. Sometimes Nintendo officials have said it is Mario (hence Mario and Luigi being the “Mario Bros.”), which would make him Mario Mario. Other times, they’ve said he doesn’t have one.

5. There’s also Wario, a sort of evil Mario, relation unknown. He has starred in over a dozen games, like Wario Land and WarioWare.