Super Mario Bros is the best selling game series of all time, clocking over 200 million sales.
When the game was in development, Mario wasn’t the hero; instead they used a blank box as filler.
Mario was originally supposed to carry a rifle and a laser gun, ride rockets, and generally be a lot more badass.
The original game is stored on only 32 kilobytes, which is about 1/125th of an average MP3’s file size.
The sound of Mario going down a pipe is the same sound as when he gets shrunk down by a hit.
Mario is actually using his fist to bust blocks, not his head.
The 99 1-Up trick where you perfectly land on a shell on the stairs was actually put into the game on purpose and was not a glitch.
Mario was named for the landlord of the Nintendo Company’s warehouse.
The cover art features a Mario that is about to die in a lava pit.
PETA went after Mario for wearing the raccoon suit. They don’t seem to care too much about him stepping on turtles or riding dinosaurs though.
The clouds and the bushes are the same shape, just colored differently.
The developers gave Mario the hat and mustache so they wouldn’t have to animate his face at all.
When Mario was first featured in Donkey Kong (as Jumpman) he was a carpenter, not a plumber.
Super Mario 2 (which ended as a dream) is actually the American adaptation of a game called Doki Doki Panic. The real sequel is the game known as “The Lost Levels.”
The developers wanted Mario to ride Yoshi in the NES days, but didn’t have the technology to make it happen until years later.
The chain chomps will eventually break free and chase you, as will the hammer-throwing turtles.
Bowser was original designed as an ox, but the design was changed when they thought he looked more like a turtle.
It’s possible to jump over the flagpole in the original game.