It’s a big week for Mario, as his latest game, Super Mario Maker, is set to be released September 11 on the Wii U platform. The new game will draw on many of the past Mario adventures, allowing users to design and play their own levels, with new features unlocked the more you play.
But some of the game’s younger audience might not be privy to the long and rich history that Mario has. First appearing in 1981 when Popeye fell through as a character in Donkey Kong, Mario was an original creation of Shigeru Miyamoto, and would later get his own namesake game in 1983 with Mario Bros. Mario has gone on to appear in more than 200 video games as part of the bestselling video game franchise in history.
In honor of the new game, HalloweenCostumes.com has made a nifty infographic tracing the origins and evolution of Mario, through the words of Miyamoto himself. Among the tidbits we see of the character—originally known as Jumpman—are his ever-changing career trajectory and the improvement through the years of Miyamoto’s packaging illustrations.