Miyamoto came up with the idea of a game in which the playable character has to make his way through an obstacle course consisting of sloped platforms, ladders and rolling barrels.

Points are awarded for finishing screens; leaping over obstacles; destroying objects with a hammer power-up; collecting items such as hats, parasols, and purses (presumably belonging to Pauline); and completing other tasks.

Players control Donkey Kong Jr. as he climbs vines and collects keys to save his kidnapped father from Mario.

Both sides of every phase feature a mechanism that allows the player to go off-screen to the left and appear on the right, and vice versa.

After a seven-year hiatus, in 2008, Dr. Mario Express for the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare service re-introduced the series to the portable gaming market.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker[d] is a 2014 action puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U.

A free update for the Nintendo Switch version was released on February 13, 2019, adding co-op multiplayer where another player controls a new purple Toad with white spots in the regular chapters alongside Toad/Toadette, and Toadette in the DLC Special Episode.

Additionally, the player accumulates partners as they advance into different locations, who each have a specialized skill required for progression in the game.

[17][18][19] Progression through Paper Mario depends upon interaction with the game's non-player characters (NPCs), who will often offer clues or detail the next event in the storyline.

In 2024, a new entry in the series titled Brothership was announced during a Nintendo Direct in June 2024, around nine years after the release of Paper Jam.

The series also has four spins-offs that differ in gameplay, including Mario Party Advance, Island Tour, Star Rush, and The Top 100.

These power-ups include Super Mushrooms to give players a speed boost, Koopa Troopa Shells to be thrown at opponents, and banana peels that can be laid on the track as hazards.

In 2001, Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance introduced the ability to unlock retro tracks from previous installments.

In 2008, Mario Kart Wii introduced motion controls, 12-player racing, motorbikes, and playable Mii characters,[26] as well as three new items: the POW Block, Mega Mushroom, and Thunder Cloud.

In 2017, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch was released as an enhanced port of the Wii U version, featuring an improved battle mode and several new characters.

In September 2019, Mario Kart Tour launched for mobile devices, and it received mixed reception due to the simplified controls and heavy emphasis on loot boxes and microtransactions.

Due to the limitations of the CD-i, several features could not be included in the game, such as large numbers of sprites on the screen, and many visual effects.

[32] Hotel Mario is a puzzle game developed by Fantasy Factory and published by Philips Interactive Media for the CD-i in 1994.

The primary characters of the game are Mario and Luigi, who must find Princess Peach by going through seven Koopa Hotels in the Mushroom Kingdom.

It was released in Europe and North America on August 29, 2017, and was met with generally favorable reception from critics, who praised its gameplay, depth, and graphics.

The 1993 live action film Super Mario Bros. lost a large amount of money at the box office and was widely considered to be a failure.

King Koopa's Kool Kartoons was a live action children's television show broadcast in Southern California during the holiday season of 1989–90.

Episodes of Super Mario World were later shown as part of the syndication package Captain N & The Video Game Masters.

Directed by Masami Hata and produced by Masakatsu Suzuki and Tsunemasa Hatano, it stars Mario and Luigi, who get stuck in a Famicom video game, in which they must save Princess Peach from King Koopa.

The film follows the exploits of Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) in a dystopia ruled by King Koopa (Dennis Hopper).

Produced by Illumination and Nintendo, the film stars the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco as Foreman Spike.

[42][43] The directors were Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the developers of Teen Titans Go!, while Matthew Fogel wrote the screenplay.

Another consistent manga series based on various Mario games is a work written and drawn by Hiroshi Takase[i] and published by PikkaPika Comics that is, somewhat confusedly, also called Super Mario-kun.

They are formatted like the popular Choose Your Own Adventure books, where the reader makes decisions that change the outcome of the story.

Chicago",[66] the Columbus Symphony Orchestra,[67] the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live,[citation needed] Play!