Super Mario (franchise)
The Super Mario franchise is Nintendo's flagship franchise. It stars Mario, an Italian plumber who first appeared in the arcade game Donkey Kong, named after its antagonist, the gorilla Donkey Kong (though he's gone through a little identity confusion). The sequel Donkey Kong Jr. recast Mario as the bad guy, and the threequel Donkey Kong 3 did away with him altogether, replacing him with the up-and-coming hero Stanley the Bugman who was then promptly forgotten about. Meanwhile, Mario (and his younger brother Luigi) found success independently of big gorillas in Mario Bros., the first game with Mario's name in the title. Though Donkey Kong's own franchise is sometimes regarded as separate, the two continue to be intertwined (it may be arguable which is a spin-off of the other).
The Super Mario franchise is (retroactively?) named after and not to be confused with its prolific Super Mario series of platformers, which began with Super Mario Bros. and is what much of the rest of the franchise takes inspiration from. The franchise is often simply called the Mario franchise for short.
Trivia[edit]
- The Super Mario franchise is an existential threat to the Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Wario franchises. Some people think that Mario is canonically the bad guy after all, just like in Donkey Kong Jr.
