Franchise: Mario

Charles Martinet (the voice for Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi from 1990 to 2023) was actually not invited to the auditions to be the new voice of Mario. He crashed the auditions and was just asked to do an Italian accent until he ran out of things to say. He knew nothing about Mario going into the audition, and since he was told that he was going to talk to children throughout the game, he started to do a more playful and gentle voice instead of the traditional gruff Italian accent that Mario had before. Martinet left so much of an impression at the recording that his tape was the only one sent to Nintendo.

Luigi's name comes from a pun on the Japanese word ルイージ¸ or ruiji meaning "similar". Since all of his sprites in earlier games were just recolors of his brother's sprites, and his name was Italian like Mario's was, it seemed to fit him.

Bowser's Japanese name, Kuppa (pronounced Koopa), was named by Shigeru Miyamoto after the Korean dish Gukbap, roughly known in Japan as 'Kuppa'. Other dishes considered were Yukke ('Yukhoe' in Korean) and Bibinba ('Bibimbap' in Korean).

Mario's hair is brown, while his mustache is black. This was because around the time of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario's creators wanted him to have a definite hair color in game, while it was easier to draw his mustache by extending the black outline of his nose.

According to Nintendo via a Nintendo Direct "Year of Luigi" announcement, Mario and Luigi are twins. It's also been stated that Luigi is the youngest.

A tech demo developed by Shigeru Miyamoto over a number of years titled "Mario 128" was shown off at Nintendo's Spaceworld 2000 trade show and was designed to showcase the GameCube's ability to utilize multiple AIs. The demo featured 128 Marios dismantling a pseudo-8 bit Mario sprite composed of several blocks by picking up and carrying them away. This project had a tumultuous development cycle with little to no details coming out over the years until 2007 when he revealed at a GDC Keynote that some parts of the project were utilized in two games he produced in the 2000s. The general concept and some other parts of Mario 128 were developed into Pikmin after Miyamoto asked his team to create an entirely new game that would be nothing like a sequel to a Mario game. As for the second game, the ability to warp the terrain seen in the tech demo as well as "different sizes of spherical items" influenced the free-form gravity and ability to walk around entire planets in Super Mario Galaxy.

A street in Spain, in the suburb of Zargoza, was named "Avenida de Super Mario Bros." as a tribute to the Mario series. The name was chosen via an online poll for the newly built neighbourhood with plans to name more streets after other video game series.

An issue of Nintendo Power revealed that Shigeru Miyamoto got the idea for Boos from the wife of his co-worker and close friend Takashi Tezuka, as she is shy but one day got very angry at him for coming home late from work. Boos were also originally named "Boo Diddleys" after the late blues singer and guitarist "Bo Diddley".

According to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario's appearance was the result of graphical limitations in the original Donkey Kong: his overalls allowed his arms to be visible against his body (as there was no room for outlines), his hat substituted for hair and eyebrows (and did not need to be animated when he jumped), and the large nose and mustache made up for the lack of space to depict a mouth.

Miyamoto additionally stated that the design was influenced by the decision to make Mario Italian-American, identifying his large nose in particular as a distinctly western feature.

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the Koopalings aren't actually Bowser's children, despite the Super Mario Bros. 3 manual stating that they were.

Shigeru Miyamoto wanted Mario to have a dinosaur companion ever since Super Mario Bros. but it wasn't thought possible at the time due to the limitations of the NES. He wanted to implement Yoshi in Super Mario Bros. 3 but again could not. Two power-ups were created to fill the gap - raccoon and frog Mario. Co-worker Takashi Tezuka once speculated that Miyamoto's love of horse riding had influenced Yoshi's creation.

According to Mario Bros. developer Takashi Tezuka, there was a stage in Super Mario World's development when Yoshi was a Koopa. A relic of this idea is Yoshi's shell-like saddle.

Shigeru Miyamoto had originally intended for Bowser to be an ox, and based him on the main antagonist from the animation "Alakazam The Great". This is likely why his modern design has horns and a defined muzzle, despite him being a turtle.

There is a pornographic parody film released in two parts based on Mario called "Super Hornio Brothers". Nintendo purchased the rights to the movies following their release to make sure they would never be released again.

After the launch of Mario Strikers Charged, Next Level Games had pitched to Nintendo a Mario volleyball game titled Super Mario Spikers. Referred to during development as simply Mario Volleyball, it was to be a mix of volleyball and wrestling mechanics, and was presented with hints of a TV game show. It was intended for the Wii and work began on it around the end of 2006. Development was canceled in 2007 after the pitch had failed with Nintendo. The game was financed as a reward from the studio's previous work on the Strikers games, and the volleyball mechanic was thought to have been reused for Mario Sports Mix.

Koopa troopas' Japanese name, “Noko-noko” (ノコノコ), is the Japanese term for doing something without much care.

Mario was not Mario's original name, and nor was Jumpman. When Miyamoto created the prototype of Mario, he called him "Mr. Video" and planned to put the character into many games (possibly as cameos, as he did with Mario). But even before then Mario was called "Ossan" which means middle-aged guy.

Before Super Mario World, Koopa Troopas walked on all four legs.

According to the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii official guides, the character Daisy is Princess Peach's cousin. However, there are no official sources or in-game evidence that confirms this.

According to a Nintendo documentary, Wario is Mario's childhood friend who grew up with the same plumbing skills.