Nintendo celebrates Super Mario's 35th anniversary

Super Mario is celebrating its 35th anniversary!

The game Super Mario Bros was first released in 1985 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Japan.

Since then it's sold around 373 million copies worldwide, making it one of the bestselling video game franchises of all time, alongside Pokémon and the puzzle game Tetris.

The first level of Super Mario Bros, 1-1, is considered by some to be such a perfect example of game design that it is even taught at some universities!

To celebrate Nintendo have released a collection of Super Mario games, including a 35-player online battle in the world of the original Super Mario Bros game.

Mario's origins

Interestingly Super Mario Bros is not the first appearance of Mario in a video game.

In 1981, a groundbreaking game was developed by the Nintendo artist Shigeru Miyamoto. That game was called Donkey Kong.

The villain was a giant gorilla with an inexhaustible supply of barrels, while the hero was a man in a red boiler suit wearing a little red hat.

He was known as Jumpman, but you might recognise him better as the Italian plumber - Mario.

Jumpman was soon renamed to Mario, and the inspiration for his name came from the landlord who owned the warehouse in area where the American headquarters of Nintendo was based - Mario Segale.

Who is Princess Toadstool?

In almost all Super Mario games, Mario has to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.

But did you know that for years Princess Peach was called Princess Toadstool?

The Princess' first appearance was in the 1985 game Super Mario Bros.

In Japan her name has always been Princess Peach, however when the games manual's were translated to English, her name was changed to Princess Toadstool.

It wasn't until Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 that she became known as Princess Peach outside of Japan.