Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog says that he was inspired by trying to play Mario’s first level over and over again as fast as he could and wondered what a game with a faster character would play like.

The mushrooms in Super Mario Bros. are inspired by the Amanita Muscaria, (commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita). Yes, it gets you high as f**k.

Mario went through a series of renaming. He began as Ossan, which was Japanese for middle-aged man. Then Mr. Video. Jumpman, and finally, Mario.

“Ground Theme” (the song played on the first level of the game) was written by Koji Kondo and is one of the most recognized pieces of music in the world. It spent 125 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts for ringtones.

Super Mario Bros. 3 has an island that resembles the shape of Japan with the castle located in the same spot as Kyoto, Nintendo’s headquarters.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s creator is also responsable for a number of other Nintendo franchises. He was designing both The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. at the same time and swapped elements from the two games. For instance the fire bar found in the castles was originally meant for The Legend of Zelda.

Mario was named after a cranky warehouse manager and Luigi was named after a pizza place in Redmond, Washington. Redmond was the home of Nintendo of America’s headquarters and the pizza joint was called “Mario & Luigi’s Pizza”

In 2000, a lawsuit was filed against Nintendo for a injuries caused by a joystick spinning game in Mario Party. $80 million was spent by Nintendo on distributing gloves to owners of the game.

In Super Mario Bros. 3 the Chain Chomp will eventually break free if your wait long enough.

Most people know about the minus world, a secret level in Super Mario Bros. but there are actually 257 secret levels in the game. Not just World -1.

According to a Q survey done in the 90’s Mario was more recognizable to american children than Mickey Mouse.

Bowser has appeared in Mario games as a good guy, specifically in 1996’s Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

A lot of the flags at the end of the levels can be jumped over though it requires a lot of skill and a turtle being nearby first.

Mario was a carpenter originally. He has held many jobs since then. All in all more than 25 different careers throughout the franchise.

The Chain Chomp was based on neighborhood dog the series creator Shigeru Miyamoto was afraid of as a child.

Mario’s first game was not Super Mario Bros. but rather Donkey Kong in 1981, he was not a plumber nor was he named Mario.

The Super Mario franchise has sold more than 300 Million copies worldwide making it the worlds best selling game series.

Enemy types Bullet Bill and Torpedo Ted who first appears in Super Mario World, is in reference to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Mario was originally supposed to have beam guns, rifles and could ride rockets.

Part of the reason it’s able to be so small is that the game repeats objects often, famously recoloring clouds as bushes. A less well known example is that when Mario gets hurt he shrinks and the game makes a sound effect identical to when he goes down a pipe.

Mario wore read overalls with a blue shirt until the Super Nintendo was released in 1990 and he changed into Blue overalls in Super Mario World (Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan).

Super Mario Bros. was 256 kilobits. That’s kilobits, not kilobytes. For comparison, this photo is 880 kilobits.