‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ is a certified hit. Forty five years on, why is Mario still relevant?
Gaming’s most famous plumber has transcended generational boundaries to become one of the most iconic fixtures of pop culture. Nintendo’s genius game design is only partly responsible.
Mario is here to save the movies.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” the follow-up to 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” has quickly become one of the biggest hits of the year, with a colossal global box office take of $372 million in just five days. That’s huge for Hollywood, which, thanks in part to Mario, is now seeing its biggest numbers since the industry-shattering COVID-19 pandemic.
But the movie’s success is just as significant for Mario, the iconic moustachioed plumber who, after 45 years, is more relevant than ever. Mario remains the mascot for his creators at Nintendo and a character so popular that he has escaped the virtual world and entered our own. Apart from a wide range of products featuring the character, Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom are the centerpiece of Universal Studios’ Super Nintendo World theme park, which opened in 2023. The music from the Mario games is regularly performed by orchestras worldwide.
“There’s no platformer that ever surpassed the Mario franchise” in terms of creativity and playability, said Bob De Schutter, a professor of game design at Northeastern.
But how has Mario managed to capture generations of fans and cling to cultural dominance?
It all comes back to the video games that kickstarted Mario nearly half a century ago. Even as the games evolved, from his first 2D appearance as Jumpman, introduced in the 1981 game “Donkey Kong,” to the 3D versions that began appearing in 1996 or the character’s forays into different genres, the appeal has been the same: fun.
That simplicity is key, said Brandon Sichling, an associate teaching professor of game design at Northeastern University. The Mario games are “about big, simple ideas that never wear out.”
That’s because Mario has always been more of an avatar than a character. Mario will run and jump more than he talks. Mario will save the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario will never give up.
Most Mario games also come down to two things: running and jumping. Nintendo has never wavered in how those actions feel for players holding a controller.
“Hitting the beat will always feel good and jumping over fire will always be dramatic,” Sichling said.
Those simple motivations and character traits haven’t made Mario a deep character, but they have made him flexible enough to support an ever-expanding franchise.
“No matter how much Mario has going on, like the gravity wells in [‘Super Mario] Galaxy’ or the shapeshifting in [‘Super Mario] Odyssey,’ getting the timing [of a jump] right will always hit.”
But Nintendo has consistently taken those simple actions and added new game mechanics that have pushed the entire medium forward and appealed to new generations of players, De Schutter explained.The 2D and initial 3D games had players making Mario run and jump to the end of a level but the series later pitted Mario against other characters in fighting and racing games and even made him a sports star in tennis, baseball and golf games.
“Like Looney Tunes and superheroes, the Super Mario characters are outlines of characterization that fit just about anything creators need them to,” Sichling said.
It also helps that the games themselves, particularly the mainline titles that remain platformers, are designed to be immediately engaging but also to steadily reveal layers of design depth.
And once “Super Mario 64” expanded the action into 3D in 1996, it gave players a world they could freely explore.
“Part of what makes the games so much fun is how they convey the joys of movement and exploration, but mostly it’s fun to imagine life in the Mushroom Kingdom,” Sichling said.
The innovations kept coming. In 2007, “Super Mario Galaxy,” the inspiration for the 2026 movie, a second player could use motion controls to point around the screen, scooping up precious collectible stars and shooting them at enemies to help their fellow player.
“That really opened up everything for someone who didn’t play games whatsoever … to play along with their kid and share the adventure,” De Schutter said.
Nintendo has continued to give Mario more new abilities, like being able to transform into an enemy-bashing elephantine version of himself in 2023’s “Super Mario Bros. Wonder.”
Another key part of Mario’s long-lasting appeal is that, unlike many major game franchises, the people behind the series have largely remained the same. Shigeru Miyamoto, game designer and Mario’s creator, is still a creative lead on the series, as well as an executive producer on the movies.
In an industry known for burnout and constant turnover, it’s rare and valuable to have someone with decades of institutional knowledge who “has been sure of what Mario should be,” Sichling said.
That Mario has retained a core element that defies generational boundaries — a joyful sense of play — despite his evolution is central to the franchise’s lasting value.
“As you grow older, getting permission to play is harder,” De Schutter said. “It’s always been something Nintendo did really well, with having these little innovations that are just opening it up for everybody to be part of a playful lifestyle.”
