"Itsa me! A strangely racist stereotype!" Mario, or 'Jumpman' as he was originally called, is a small Italian plumber and the main mascot for Nintendo. When and why he became Italian we're not sure, but considering the plot of most of his games consists of a plumber battling turtles and jumping over lava to save a Princess, it's doubtful there was much in the way of logical thought when it came to making the decision. Now let's be honest, nobody's favourite character from Mario is actually Mario himself. Luigi, Wario, Princess Peach, and even Toad are often found higher in the echelons of popularity, as they all have personality traits far more interesting than those of the hapless hero. In fact, unless blue-overalls or sounding maybe-possibly-racist-nobody's-quite-sure are personality traits, Mario doesn't seem have any character at all. Some may argue he's a great frontman for Nintendo, very much encapsulating the surrealist themes many of their games seem to contain. Yet, when we look at the character himself, there's really nothing that interesting about him. Unlike Sonic, for example, Mario could be replaced by almost anyone else in his games and the experience would become more fun. This is becoming apparent with the exponentially increasing popularity of brother Luigi, who got an entire year dedicated to him by Nintendo in 2013. Luigi is also appearing more frequently on the covers of Mario games recently, which is done in a very provocative 'you might get to play as the interesting brother if you buy this game,' sort of way. Mario is a great mascot for the company he represents. But as a character, he's really not all that noteworthy. Are there any other mascots you think deserve to be on our list? Let us know in the comments below.
Oldfield is a journalist, reviewer, and amateur comic-book writer (meaning he's yet to be published). He's a man who'll criticise anything, even this biog, which he thinks is a bit crap.
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