Mario Bros (Canon)/Insertasuperoriginalusernamehere

"Super Mario is equivalent to the Big Bang of our gaming universe. If it were not for this blindingly spectacular creation, digital entertainment as we know it today would not exist."

- Hideo Kojima, Nintendo Power Volume 230, November 2010

The Mario series is an extremely popular franchise that holds some of the most iconic acclaimed video games by Nintendo  within its constraints, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario  and, in many games, his brother Luigi, who have to defeat Bowser , the main antagonist, kidnapping Princess Peach , whom Mario saves. One of the oldest video games Nintendo has as well, Mario being one of the very first characters they made, even before other massively popular Nintendo characters such as Link, Kirby and even Samus Aran. Technically, the series began in 1981 in the arcade game "Donkey Kong" where Mario (then known as "Jumpman") has to beat an ape known as Donkey Kong, who, in present day, became Cranky Kong, and save his girlfriend, who, at the time, was Pauline. As time went by, they became some of the world's most well-known video game characters since 1985 (the actual start to the franchise) after the release of "Super Mario Bros." on the NES, being the singular game to save the video game industry after its crash in 1982 with E.T. on the Atari. It has basic plots often revolving around Mario rescuing Princess Peach from the evil clutches of Bowser and saving the Mushroom Kingdom, and occasionally the universe. And that's just the basic plot. Some more complex ones come from their RPG games, featuring some stories so great, they become renowned as masterpieces. There's a lot of diversity between the games with the series spawning multiple genres such as racing, partying, and role-playing games. The canon is a bit confusing, but producer Shigeru Miyamoto had cleared it up in an interview, revealing the series to have no canon at all, as well as no consistency and loose continuity. Therefore, the franchise is one of few that sources can be picked and chosen to the author's liking.