Mario and his brother Luigi have been the most iconic duo in video games since the pair entered our world in Super Mario Bros. Mario is the hero who saves the princess, and Luigi is the timid one who also finds some bravery to save the day as well.
While their journeys have been well-documented, not much is known about their pasts. Sure, fans of the series have gotten their share of the baby version of the plumbing heroes, but what is not as universally known is how they got to where they are today. Here are some things that many don't know about the pasts of the Mario Brothers.
10 Mario's Origins
For those familiar with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, players know that Mario and Luigi were being delivered to their parents by a stork when they were just babies. While being delivered, the babies were kidnapped by Kamek.
Mario fell into the trusting saddle of Yoshi while Luigi was taken away. Yoshi helped bring Mario back to his twin brother and the stork completed his delivery. Other origin stories for Mario include one from an anime called Super Mario Momotarō, where he was discovered when he was unveiled out of a peach that fell from the sky.
9 Luigi's Origins
As stated in the last entry, Luigi's early life included being kidnapped by Kamek only to be rescued by Mario and Yoshi in the original Yoshi's Island. What is not as clear to many out there is the age difference between him and Mario.
While Mario is the older of the two brothers, they are considered twins as they were both being delivered to their parents at the same time. But Luigi being younger is a talking point in many games, and an old Nintendo comic called "Family Album 'The Early Years'" implied that Luigi was several years younger than Mario.
8 Their Last Name
Now with their parents after Yoshi's heroic effort, Mario and Luigi likely got their iconic names. One question over the years that was never really answered in the game is what Mario and Luigi's last name is. It turns out that their last name is, in fact, Mario.
This was first introduced in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and while Nintendo initially denied that this was canon, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the fact that the last name was indeed Mario at the 30th-anniversary celebration of the series.
7 Their Parents
Mario and Luigi's parents are almost never seen in the series, with the sole exception being the end of Yoshi's Island when we see two sets of legs in the doorway and hands holding the babies, implying that those are the parents who have been waiting for their two baby boys.
In other media, fans get to know Mama Mario through The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, where she comes across as strict but caring. The father has not been depicted as much through media and no characteristics are really known.
6 Their Early Bond
Mario and Luigi have been through it all together, being by each other's side in many games throughout the Mario franchise. But their bond was not built overnight. Baby Mario knew how to find his brother after he was stolen.
In Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time, this bond at their earliest point is shown in full force here as they worked together with their adult counterparts to save the princess and the world. This strong bond would carry over into adulthood, especially as both brothers would do anything to save the other.
5 Childhood Friends
In Partners In Time, it also is revealed that the Mario Bros. knew Princess Peach since she was a baby too, although how the Mario family and the royal family met in the first place is still unclear to this day.
Still, a younger Toadsworth, who would seem to take care of the princess, invited the baby brothers to participate in a play date with the little royal. It is unclear if the children had any other friends that they played with, although many baby variations of Mario series characters have been made over the years.
4 Childhood Rivals
Of course, despite being just babies, Mario and Luigi still had enemies growing up. There is Baby Bowser, who orchestrated their initial kidnapping and also ruined play dates with Princess Peach. But there is also Wario.
Although he only appears as a baby in Yoshi's Island DS and works with the protagonists, it is stated in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins that Wario has always been jealous of the success of Mario and Luigi ever since they were young. He may not have expressed it then, but he has been a rival for the brothers deep into adulthood.
3 College Education
There is little to no information that has been provided to the public about Mario and Luigi's teenage years, but despite this gap of knowledge, fans of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! know a little bit about how the brothers became plumbers.
Before creating "Mario Brothers Plumbing" in Brooklyn, the two went to "the Brooklyn Plumbers Academy," a school that was created by Mario's idol, Salvador Drainado. This helped the brothers become skilled in various techniques that made their plumbing company the best in New York, according to the show.
2 The Carpenter
Many know that Mario's first appearance in video games came in Donkey Kong when the hero was only known as "Jumpman." But despite supposedly having a degree in plumbing, Mario was known as a carpenter in this first game.
After Donkey Kong came out, according to the "Game On" museum exhibit, a colleague at Nintendo pointed out that Mario looked more like a plumber than a carpenter, thus when Super Mario Bros. came out, Mario was labeled more as a plumber and pipes became one of the main game mechanics.
1 Love Interests
Mario has always been linked to Princess Peach, and the pair have often flirted with one another despite the fact Mario's supposed love for Peach seems to be unrequited. But Peach is not the only girl Mario had feelings for. In Donkey Kong, damsel-in-distress Pauline was considered Mario's girlfriend.
In later games, however, Pauline and Mario have only been referred to as friends. Mario even seemed to have a romantic connection with Princess Daisy when he rescued her in Super Mario Land, but later games also confirmed they are just friends and that Luigi is the real love interest for the princess.