Super Mario Characters

After nearly three decades of Mario games, our fearless hero has built up quite the stable of enemies. Some, like Donkey Kong, would become sympathetic characters with their own games. Others, like many of Bowser's minions, would remain ongoing annoyances. And of course, many of the major characters would go on to compete with Mario in other areas, such as in the Mario Kart series.

Who are the enemies that show up over and over in all the best Super Mario games? Who are Mario's allies that help him to defeat them? In this hub, we'll take a look at some fan favorites.

First up, of course, has to be the big B himself - Bowser! He's been kidnapping Princess Peach since the original NES released in 1985, and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon, even going so far as to kidnap her from her own birthday party in 2009's New Super Mario Bros Wii. Bowser is a bit of an egomaniac, who always blames the incompetence of his subordinates when things go wrong. As King of the Koopas, he has a great number of minor characters to send against Mario.

Donkey Kong, originally a simple character who rolled barrels at Mario (then called Jumpman) as he tried to rescue his girlfriend, Pauline, has since become two characters: the original DK, now known as Cranky Kong, and the new Donkey Kong, who is alternately referred to as the original or as his son or grandson.

While his primary concern is with protecting his hoard of bananas from the Kremlings, DK appears in a number of sports games with Mario, where he tends to be a bit slow but very powerful; in the Smash Bros series, he is always one of the strongest characters.

Wario, Mario's rival and a greedy anti-hero, originally tried to take over Mario Land (turning it into Wario Land). Since then he has starred in several of his own games, where his overriding motivation has been to steal as much treasure as possible.

Wario has his own series of games called WarioWare, which are collections of short, simple games (microgames) that last only a few seconds each; WarioWare is the name of wario's fictional video game company. Each microgame generally gives a short instruction such as "Eat!" and then must be completed as quickly as possible.

Who does Mario rely on to help him rescue the princess? His younger brother Luigi, of course! Originally a twin of Mario in green clothing, Luigi eventually grew taller and developed his own personality. While he (almost) always plays second fiddle to Mario (and generally is not selectable with only one player), he has a number of his own video games. He's even rescued Mario a time or two, such as in Mario is Missing! In Luigi's Mansion, he is again the main character, with Mario in a supporting role.

Luigi tends to be fairly cowardly, but also acts as a hero when the need arises.

Also known as Princess Toadstool (her full name is Peach Toadstool), Princess Peach rules the Mushroom Kingdom. She is mostly known for always dressing in pink and for being constantly kidnapped by Bowser. In spinoffs, she is usually a playable character, and has also starred in a few of her own games, such as Super Princess Peach.

Although Peach has been Mario's love interest for decades, they've yet to do more than kiss...so far as we know.

Peach's attendant, Toad accompanies her everywhere; he is generally a supporting character who tries to assist Mario's efforts to rescue the princess, although he is sometimes a playable character. While his species all look alike (much like the Yoshis), Toad is a distinct character.

Although Toad is a long-time friend of Peach, he is sometimes replaced with Toadsworth, an elderly Toad who spends his time alternately napping and worrying about the princess.