Mario, This Is Your Life Trivia Quiz

Answer: "Sure, he was my creator."

Shigeru Miyamoto was born in 1952 in Sonobe near Kyoto in Japan. He graduated from an industrial arts college and hoped to pursue a career as a manga artist. He took a job at Nintendo, creating art for the arcade game "Sheriff". This earned him the position of designing a new arcade game called "Donkey Kong" in 1981. He wanted to use Popeye as Donkey Kong's sidekick but was unable to obtain a licence to use Popeye, so he drew Mario from scratch. Miyamoto's success with the "Mario Bros." and "Legend of Zelda" franchises, and his influence in the creation of "Pokemon Red", "Pokemon Blue", and "Metroid Prime" led him to become the Acting President of Nintendo when President Satoru Iwata died in 2015.

Question by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: "Mario Segale, an American real estate developer "

As confirmed by Nintendo in 2015, on the 30th anniversary of the release of "Super Mario Bros.", Mario was named after Mario Segale, an American real estate developer. The only child of two Italian immigrants, Segale was born and based in Seattle (Washington). In 1981, Segale rented one of his warehouses in Tukwila, a city south of Seattle, to the video game company Nintendo to use as their US headquarters. One day, during the development of the "Donkey Kong" game, Segale had a heated confrontation with Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa concerning back rent owed to Segale by the Japanese company. The employees who witnessed the exchange suggested giving the name of Mario to the character that had been originally named Jumpman. Mario's creator, developer Shigeru Miyamoto, had initially meant for his character to be named "Mr Video", and had planned to use him only in cameo appearances.
The character's full name was also a much-debated question. While the title of the series ("Mario Bros.") implies that his last name is also Mario - making him "Mario Mario" - Miyamoto and others often stated that he had no last name. However, in 2015 Miyamoto changed his version, and asserted that his character's full name was indeed "Mario Mario", and his brother's name was "Luigi Mario".

LadyNym of Phoenix Rising's Red Crew wrote this question despite having never played any of the "Mario" games.

Answer: (American) "Footballer"

The Japanese Nintendo website listed Mario, as well as being a plumber, as having other types of jobs. Mario was also a "doctor, racer, martial artist, professional baseball player, soccer player, and basketball player". This raised several questions as the list is not complete: The character "Mario" first appeared in Nintendo's 1981 arcade game "Donkey Kong". "Donkey Kong" was set on a construction site where the big ape kidnapped Mario's girlfriend. Mario was a carpenter and in gameplay, sometimes carried a hammer, but he could not climb the ladders with his hammer in hand. Mario and his brother were both brothers. They were plumbers fighting evil in the sewers of New York. In 1990, Mario was a physician and was seen handing out pills in the "Dr Mario" puzzle series for NES and Game Boy. In the 1995 Game Boy puzzle game, "Mario Picross", he was an archaeologist. One of the mini-games from "Super Mario Party" (2018) includes a football trial but Mario never becomes a professional footballer.

This question was by Phoenix Rising's Jaknginger who spent hundreds of hours playing the original NES "Mario" games.

Answer: "White sneakers"

Mario's appearance was governed by the graphical limitations of arcade games of the early '80s. He was given a blue shirt and red overalls to ensure contrast against the background and to make sure his movement of arms and legs was perceptible. Perhaps surprisingly his creator gave him Western features, placed him in New York City, and made him Italian. Mario got a big red cap which allowed the graphic designers to avoid drawing hairstyles, foreheads, and eyebrows. His big nose and large moustache meant facial expressions and mouth were not necessary.
As graphics and pixilation improved, he received blue eyes and white gloves. His overalls were given gold buttons. (His shirt colour and overall colours were also reversed). His cap, already big, received a big red 'M' in a white circle.

Question by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: "He was my voice."

Charles Martinet wasn't only the voice of Mario, he also used his vocal cords to provide Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi with speech.

Born in San Jose California in 1955, he was fluent in French and Spanish, but surprisingly not Italian. He auditioned for the role at a trade show and given the brief "You are an Italian plumber from Brooklyn" he talked to the audition tape using a raspy stereotypical American Italian accent. This was used as Mario's voice for "Super Mario Bros", which was Martinet's debut as Mario. He felt the accent was too harsh and softened it somewhat as time went on.
In 2019, Martinet was awarded a Guinness World Record for the most video game voiceover performances as the same character. At that point, he had spoken for Mario in 104 published video games.

Phoenix Rising Red Crew's smpdit also dreams of pasta "Night nighty. Ahhh spaghetti, ahhh ravioli, ahhh mamma mia" .

Answer: "Mario Bros."

Mario's first starring role as the eponymous hero was in the 1983 arcade game "Mario Bros". It proved so popular, that it was included as a game playable on Nintendo's Famicon console in Japan.

Later "Super Mario Bros" was released as a platform game in 1985 on the US Nintendo Entertainment System. "Super Mario Bros" had major graphic improvements in activities Mario could perform. It was a side-scrolling game where players traversed from left to right of the scrolling screen to reach the flagpole at the end of the level. The player controlled Mario or his brother Luigi (in multiplayer mode) as they raced through the Mushroom Kingdom. The goal was to rescue Princess Peach, who was kidnapped by the evil King Koopa (later renamed Bowser), while defeating King Koopa's evil minions and avoiding various hazards along the way. Mario began with a certain number of lives and could increase his health by collecting coins or selected mushrooms hidden in bricks.

In 1996, Mario moved from the 2D side-scrolling format into a 3D open world in "Super Mario 64". This open-world format became the standard for all subsequent video games.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 used to play "Super Mario Bros" with her daughters (way back when) and got beaten every time.

Answer: "Mario Is Missing!"

"Mario is Missing!" was the character's first foray into an educational game, available first for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo, and for MS-DOS on floppy disks in 1993 and then disks and CD-ROM for Macintosh in 1994. Reminiscent of "Dora the Explorer", the game has players taking Mario's twin brother Luigi through famous sites to retrieve items stolen by Bowser and his minions, the Koopas. Mario has been taken prisoner and Luigi must find him! This "point-and-click" adventure was created by an American software development company, The Software Toolworks with characters licensed to them by Nintendo. Nintendo was not involved in the development of the game.

"Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars" (1996) was the first role-playing game released in the "Mario" universe. Created by Square, the development team behind "Final Fantasy," it was the last game released for play on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Like most RPG products, gameplay involved turn-based battles with interspersed adventures. It was very well-received and outsold expectations.

Player pusdoc took a turn at writing this question, despite avoiding video games since "Space Invaders".

Answer: "Pauline, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy"

Pauline, a brunette beauty who first appeared as a damsel in distress in "Donkey Kong" in 1981, took hold of Mario's heart when he had to rescue her when his pet gorilla went rogue. I guess it was hard to rescue yourself in that dress.

Princess Peach Toadstool, to give her her full name, was probably the most iconic of Mario's 'amores'. A stunning blond in a regal pink dress with a dainty crown, she first appeared, and entered into Mario's affections, in "Super Mario Bros" in 1985.

Mario must have had a soft spot for royalty, as he became enamoured with Princess Daisy, a titian-haired tomboy with a penchant for yellow and orange. She came into Mario's life when he changed location and moved to Sarasaland in 1989 in "Super Mario Land". The relationship was short-lived and Daisy enjoyed more of a relationship with Luigi.

Princess Zelda featured in her own franchise with her sidekick Link and was seen as less of a damsel in distress, and although there have been a fair number of crossovers with Mario, love never developed.

Phoenix Rising's Red Crew's smpdit had always been in the background watching Mario's adventures through the eyes of her offspring, who aided her in writing this question. Thanks, Son.

Answer: "Yoshi"

Yoshi was Mario's dinosaur friend and first appeared in Nintendo's 1990 "Super Mario World". He was quite popular and also had his own game series. Mario could ride Yoshi, which helped him reach the heights in Mario's lands. Yoshi was also a playable character in some of the "Mario" series games.

Bowser, or King Koopa as he was sometimes called, was the number one bad guy in the Mario series of games. He was a turtle and the leader of the Koopa race. Typically, in gameplay, he tried to kidnap Mario's girlfriend and Mario intervened to save her.

Introduced in 2000 in "Mario Tennis", Waluigi was one of the bad guys. He was to Mario's brother as Wario was to Mario. "Mario Tennis" was made for Nintendo 64 and later Game Boy. He was seen in other games in the "Mario" series.

"Toad" was a member of the toadstool race in the "Mario" games. While there were a few main toads, such as Captain Toad or Toadsworth, most games had general mushroom people helping Mario and his friends get through the courses.

Phoenix Rising's Jaknginger is going to dust off the NES for some classic gameplay.

Answer: "March 10"

Of course, it's March 10th! When written as Mar10, it looked like Mario's name. It's unsure when Mario was first celebrated, but in 2016, Nintendo officially acknowledged Mario Day and began annual celebrations.

The host continued "Mario, you are arguably one of the best-known and easily recognised game characters. You first appeared in Nintendo's "Donkey Kong" (1981) before getting your own arcade game in 1983".

The games featuring Mario continued through the years, introduced new characters and enemies, but kept the old favourites for continuity. The video game franchise, expanded to include Game Boy and Wii, features many spinoffs including puzzle games, Mario and Luigi games, party games and educational games. In sports games, the most popular spinoff is the "Mario Kart" game released in 1992 with a new version released every few years.

Mario, branched into other media as well, including television cartoons, live-action and animated movies, comics, anime and concerts.

The host handed Mario the album containing his life story. He said with a flourish, "Mario, this is your life!"

This question was uploaded by Phoenix Rising's leith90 who has a soft spot for Mario and his pals.