It is NOT Mario's 25th Anniversary

Exactly what it says.

I'd like to get something off my chest that's been there for a while now. Back in November-December of 2010, Nintendo released the Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition. It was basically a port of the SNES 1993 Super Mario All-Stars with very slim bonus such as a soundtrack CD with 20 tracks and an very small art book with tidbits about Super Mario Bros. series history. Yeah, it was a shoddy effort for the 25th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. line. But many people wondered why Nintendo didn't cover other Mario games like Super Mario Kart and such. Simple reason but it escaped just about everyone. It's not Mario's 25th anniversary.


That's right, Mario is not 25 years old. Super Mario Bros. is 25 years old and thus the Super Mario Bros. series is 25 years old, but Mario himself? Nope, sorry, not 25 years old. In fact, Mario himself is beyond 25 years in age. He'll actually be turning 30 this year.

Donkey Kong (1981), the first Mario game.

The other misconception seems to be that Super Mario Bros. was Mario's first game. It wasn't. Now I realize most gamers know what Mario's first game was but seeing as how Super Mario Bros. was bigger than the plumber's debut game and Nintendo treats it as such, it's not too difficult to see why they associate Super Mario Bros. with the anniversary of Mario.

Donkey Kong was Mario's very first game. It hit arcades in 1981. It may not have had the same impact as Super Mario Bros. but if there were no Donkey Kong, there would be no Mario. So does Nintendo have anything planned for Mario's 30th anniversary? I doubt it. As I already stated, Nintendo itself treats Super Mario Bros. with more importance than Donkey Kong. In 2005 the company celebrated Super Mario Bros. 20th anniversary in Japan by releasing a soundtrack CD with a much better selection of tracks in Nintendo Dream magazine vol. 139, among other things.

Super Mario Bros. (1985) is 25 years old,
not the entire Mario series like most think.

Is Super Mario Bros. a big deal? Of course it is. The American video game market would have stayed six feet under had it not been released. Could Nintendo have done a better job of celebrating the game's 25th anniversary? Absolutely, but that is not the point I'm trying to make. It sucks that Donkey Kong, the game that gave birth to Mario hardly even gets so much as a blip on the radar. I mean, it's only the whole reason we even have Mario to begin with. Mario has often been compared to Mickey Mouse in terms of popularity but the two are similar in other respects. Steamboat Willie was not the mouse's first cartoon (that would be Plane Crazy), but most people think it is, so it's gets far more recognition for what it did for Disney and cartoons in general, much the same way Super Mario Bros. does over Donkey Kong. I suppose it's one of those things where a great game is destined to live in the shadow of even greater game.