The games have simple plots, typically with Mario and Luigi having to rescue the kidnapped Princess Peach from the primary antagonist, Bowser.

In the 2D games, the player character (usually Mario) jumps on platforms and enemies while avoiding their attacks and moving to the right of the scrolling screen.

[5] Levels in the open world games, 64, Sunshine and Odyssey, allow the player to freely explore multiple enclosed environments in 360-degree movement.

In Land and Maker 2, the Superball is a bouncing ball obtained from a Super Flower, which the character can use to defeat enemies and collect coins.

Variations include those that are invisible until hit, advice dispensers, produce another block, move, frozen, contingent on a switch, bouncy, etc.

The 1-Up mushroom was introduced in Super Mario Bros., with the term 1-up subsequently being used generically in other video game series to refer to extra lives.

The player character flickers a variety of colors – and in some games, moves with increased speed and enhanced jumping ability – while under the Star's influence.

The Mega Mushroom provides temporary invincibility with the addition of giant size and environment destruction (see Power-ups and transformations).

Most Super Mario games award the player an extra life once a certain amount of gold coins are collected, commonly 50 or 100.

In the Galaxy series, after finishing each game once, stages unlock where Mario or Luigi can collect 100 purple coins to earn a Power Star.

Warp Pipes can also contain enemies, usually Piranha Plants, and sometimes launch the player into the air (most commonly seen in the New Super Mario Bros. series).

[25][26]: 94, 103  Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi appointed Shigeru Miyamoto to repurpose unused Radar Scope arcade cabinets into a new game.

It later introduced more side-scrolling elements to make it more like Super Mario Bros., however it starred characters from the Yume Kōjō expo as a tie-in.

The game also introduces the Carrot power-up, which gives Mario large rabbit ears that let him glide when falling for a limited time.

Yoshi's Island received "instant" and "universal acclaim", according to IGN and review aggregator Metacritic, and sold over four million copies.

"[47] In the early 1990s, director and producer Shigeru Miyamoto had conceived a 3D Mario design during development of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game Star Fox (1993).

[57] After Sunshine, their focus shifted to more accessible, casual games, leading them to develop Super Mario Galaxy with more progression-oriented paths.

It is set in outer space, where Mario or Luigi travel between "galaxies" to collect Power Stars, earned by completing quests or defeating enemies.

The game's physics system gives each celestial object its own gravitational force, which lets the character circumnavigate rounded or irregular planetoids by walking sideways or upside down.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii, released in 2009, features 4-player co-op and new power-ups: the Propeller Mushroom, the Ice Flower, and the Penguin Suit.

New power-ups include the Cloud Flower, which allows Mario or Luigi to create platforms in mid-air and the Rock Mushroom, which turns the character into a rolling boulder.

Mario and Luigi must once again save Princess Peach from Bowser and the Koopalings, with the game's secondary goal to collect as many coins as possible.

It introduces both a Flying Squirrel suit that lets the characters glide through the air, and asymmetric gameplay that allows the player holding the GamePad to influence the environment.

[61] Super Mario 3D World, the sequel to 3D Land, was released for the Wii U on November 22, 2013, in North America, and used the same gameplay mechanics as its predecessor.

Super Mario Run is a side-scrolling and auto-scrolling video game released in December 2016 on the iOS platform, then in March 2017 on Android.

Success in this mode earns the player access to in-game money to spend on customizing the Mushroom Kingdom map, using mechanics similar to FarmVille.

[76][77] It is the first game to feature Kevin Afghani as the new voice of Mario and Luigi, following the announcement of previous actor Charles Martinet's departure from the roles in August 2023.

[146] Super Mario Bros. popularized side-scrolling video games and provided the basic concept and mechanics that persisted throughout the rest of the series.

[154][110] Super Mario is one of the best-selling video game franchises, having sold more than 430 million units worldwide as of 2023[update].

In the United Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. is the most famous video game brand, recognized by 91% of the UK adult population as of 2021[update].