VITAL VERSATILITY
MARIO’S PLATFORM GAMES ARE THE CORE OF THE SERIES, BUT THE STAR HAS DONE EVERYTHING FROM RACING HIS RIVALS TO THROWING FISTS WITH ICONS LIKE SONIC AND PAC-MAN. THAT ADAPTABILITY HAS HELPED TO ENSURE THAT THE PLUMBER’S NEXT OUTING IS NEVER FAR AWAY
They say that all the world’s a stage, and Mario has certainly played a lot of roles over the years. After all, he wasn’t even a plumber to begin with – he was a carpenter in Donkey Kong, and worked in factories in his Game & Watch years. In the 2012 Game Informer interview mentioned earlier in this feature, Shigeru Miyamoto explained that he sees the star and his supporting cast as akin to a troupe of actors. “If you’re familiar with things like Popeye and some of the old comic characters, you would oftentimes see this cast of characters that takes on different roles depending on the comic or cartoon,” he explained. “They might be a businessman in one [cartoon] or a pirate in another.