When did the first super Mario game ever come out?

Answer 1

The first ever game starring Mario was Donkey Kong (1981) for the arcades, but the first Mario game with "Super" in the title was, of course, Super Mario Bros. (1985) for the NES. The girl that Jumpman had to rescue from Donkey Kong, Pauline, was named after Polly James, the wife of Don James, one of Nintendo's American staff. Mario's original name was Jumpman, until one of Nintendo of America's employees remarked that the character resembled NoA's Italian landlord, Mario Segali, and so the name stuck. The only two games in which Mario has been the bad guy, was Donkey Kong Jr. (1982), when Mario kidnapped Donkey Kong & escaped to the jungle, where it was up to DK's son, Junior, to rescue his father, and Donkey Kong II, which was the direct sequel to 1981's Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong II did appear in arcades, but as a poor imitation of Donkey Kong with incorrect colours & sounds, but a version of Donkey Kong II was produced as a Multi-Screen Game & Watch, starring Junior that was very similar in gameplay to Donkey Kong, but had elements of Donkey Kong Junior, such as Snapjaws, Nitpickers (birds) and Electric Sparks. In 1983, Mario Bros. was released in the arcades, and since both players couldn't be Mario, this being the first ever simultaneous 2 player Mario game, Luigi was "born" as Mario's brother for the second player to use. This game could be either co-operative or competitive - player's choice. Then after a couple of relatively unknown Mario games outside of Japan, along comes 1985 & the NES with its famous pack-in title, Super Mario Bros. Most information has been taken from Game Over: Nintendo's Battle to Dominate Videogames by David Sheff (1993).