Nintendo has remained one of the iconic brands in the gaming industry. Previously known as ‘Nintendo Koppai’, the Japanese company started its venture with hand-drawn card illustrations known as ‘Hanafunda’ cards. From there, the company started to make a name for itself, exploring the video game industry.
Nintendo’s first video game ‘EVR Race’
The very first video game arcade released by Nintendo is the EVR Race. A two-player racing game that is set in space, made in black and white graphics. After a few years, Radar Scope and Donkey Kong(DK) was released, with the latter becoming a hit that started the run of Nintendo.
Donkey Kong
Headed by Shigeru Miyamoto, Donkey Kong is a game between a man, his pet gorilla, and his girlfriend. The main character is originally known as ‘Jump Man’, but when a landlord named ‘Mario’ came into Nintendo’s doorsteps, asking for rent, some staff started calling him ‘Jumpman Mario’, eventually becoming the character’s name.
Birth of Mario’s Success
Miyamoto and Nintendo made a big impact on the video game industry with DK, but perhaps, none bigger than the name of Mario. Two years after the successful release of DK, Mario Bros, a two-player game featuring Mario, and his brother, Luigi, was released. This is the first appearance of Mario’s brother.
Super Mario Brothers
After another two years, Super Mario Brothers was released, marking the introduction of gaming consoles. With 24 levels, Mario and Luigi need to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist Bowser. The game features Mario and Luigi growing bigger and shooting fireballs after eating a mushroom. The game easily became one of the best-selling video game of all time.
Super Mario Brothers 2 & 3
A sequel titled Super Mario Bros 2 was released but met with disappointment due to its different concept compared to the original. Super Mario Bros 3 was able to pick up, becoming one of the greatest games of all time. Various versions of Super Mario games were released and continues to cater to loyal fans of the game in different gaming platform, including mobile gaming.
Super Mario Run
Super Mario Run, the latest and most accessible Mario game that you can get is currently available on iOS for $10 while the Android release is scheduled in 2017 and available for pre-register on Google Play. No doubt that this game is a success hitting 50million downloads alone on App Store.
Through the years, Mario became the pillar of support of Nintendo and up to this day, Mario is still as fun as ever to play with.
Pre-register link(Android)
Download link(iOS)
