Nintendo · Shigeru Miyamoto · Kyoto, 1985
The plumber who became a legend. The game that saved the industry.
From World 1-1 to the 64th dimension - the greatest platform series ever made.
Super Mario Bros. arrived in 1985 and reset every expectation of what a video game could be. Forty years later, it still does.
A hat to avoid animating hair. A moustache instead of a mouth. Overalls to read at low resolution. Mario was designed by constraints.
Super Mario Bros. launched in September 1985 in Japan and reached North America packaged with the Nintendo Entertainment System, tasked with reviving a video game market still reeling from the 1983 crash. It succeeded beyond any reasonable prediction. The game sold over 40 million copies, established Nintendo as the dominant force in home gaming, and introduced a set of design principles - implicit teaching through level layout, responsive physics, escalating challenge - that the entire platform genre still follows.
Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka designed the game at Nintendo R&D4. Miyamoto had already created Donkey Kong (1981), which introduced Mario as Jumpman, and Mario Bros. (1983), which gave him his name and his brother Luigi. Super Mario Bros. was something different: a continuous side-scrolling world, a physics system that made jumping feel like thought made physical, and a structure that rewarded exploration as much as completion. Koji Kondo composed the soundtrack working within the NES’s three-voice limitation - and produced the most recognisable piece of game music ever written. Full profiles of Miyamoto, Tezuka, and Kondo are in the People section.
Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock and roll. - Shigeru Miyamoto
Eight platform games across NES, Game Boy, SNES, and N64 - each one redefined what a platform game could be.
Over eleven years, the series produced eight mainline platform games - from the original Super Mario Bros. on NES through Super Mario 64 on N64. Each entry reinvented the genre rather than repeating it. Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) introduced themed worlds and an overworld map. Super Mario World (1990) added Yoshi, dual-exit stages, and a connected geography. Yoshi's Island (1995) replaced Mario as protagonist and rewrote the game's visual language entirely. Super Mario 64 (1996) stepped into three dimensions and invented the conventions that every 3D platformer since has used.
Every game in the series is documented with box art, platform data, power-up lists, and key facts in the full games catalogue. For editorial deep-dives on the four most significant titles - including development stories, design analysis, and reception - see the Flagship section.
The series at its best - longplay and design analysis.
Game Maker’s Toolkit’s landmark analysis of Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 - how Miyamoto’s team embedded a tutorial into the first stage without a single word of instruction. The definitive explanation of the “obstacles that teach” philosophy.
Watch the most optimised run through Super Mario Bros. - utilising the warp zones, flagpole glitches, and movement tech that has been refined by the world’s fastest Mario players over 40 years.
A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad. - Shigeru Miyamoto
From Donkey Kong (1981) to Super Mario 64 (1996) - the complete timeline of the series and its cultural impact.
All 8 mainline platform games profiled with box art, power-ups, and key details. NES to N64.
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Koji Kondo - the trio who built the series from the ground up.
Deep-dive editorial on four landmark titles - SMB, SMB3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64.
12+ curated videos - speedruns, OSTs, all main games longplayed, and Miyamoto talks.
Full image gallery - box art, portraits, and screenshots across every platform.