Mario (franchise)

The Mario franchise is a media series of video games, comics and television series developed by Nintendo and featuring the titular character, Mario. Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, a Japanese video game designer, the franchise first debuted in July 9, 1981 with the arcade game Donkey Kong. The franchise developed Mario Bros. in 1983, the first game in which Mario was the main character.

Mario games were developed by a multitude of developers, including Hudson Soft and AlphaDream Corporation. The main series of the franchise is Super Mario, where Mario has his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Arcade Origins
Main article: Donkey Kong