HE is the world’s most famous plumber - oh, and he also happens to be one of the most famous characters in video games history. It’s time to say ‘Buon compleanno’ to Mario, who turns 38 today.

He’s really 38?
Yes, sort of. The plump Italian-American plumber - with his instantly recognisable blue dungarees, red hat and moustache - made his video games debut as “Jumpman” on July 9, 1981 in the arcade game Donkey Kong. He was later renamed Mario in the 1982 follow-up, Donkey Kong Junior.
And so, he turns 38 today, but in an interview in 2016, his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, said Mario was eternally just “24 or 25”.
If you take a quick look through his back catalogue, it’s clear he has not aged a day, appearing largely the same since 1981.

Mario’s not your typical type of superhero?
He doesn’t wear a cape, that’s true, and his moustache is still stuck in 1981, but he has a super legacy already, appearing in more than 200 games and maintaining his status as the mascot of Nintendo.
He also has superhero-style powers, mainly jumping and stomping, which allow him to defeat most of his enemies. And in most games, he embarks on a hero’s journey to save Princess Peach from his arch-enemy, Bowser.

He used to be a carpenter?
The first Donkey Kong was set on a building site, so Mario was a carpenter in that, but a colleague of Miyamoto thought he looked more like a plumber, so his profession changed and the setting then saw him jumping around the pipes in the sewers of New York City.

He has a brother?
His younger, taller brother, Luigi, first popped up in the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros, and is also a plumber, with the pair working together to battle creatures coming from the sewers beneath the Big Apple.
While Mario’s name was inspired by the landlord of the warehouse in Seattle, Washington, that Nintendo were renting out at the time, Luigi’s name is said to have been based on a popular pizza place near Nintendo’s American HQ, named Mario & Luigi’s.

Mario’s a cultural icon?
He certainly continues to bewitch each new generation, with a franchise that has expanded from games into TV shows, movies, comics and licensed merchandise.
Just looking at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe alone - it is the best-selling title for Nintendo’s latest platform, the Switch, with lifetime sales of 16.69 million units, figures from April show.
The most recent game in the franchise is Super Mario Maker 2, released on June 28, for the Switch, which allows players to create their own courses and then share them online.

He’s in Call of Duty?
Surprisingly yes, he makes a cameo in Modern Warfare 2 on the cover of a game titled “Italian Plumber Princess Rescue”.

He’s getting his own theme park?
Yes, Mario’s set to be the focus of a new £268million Super Nintendo park, set to open at Universal Studios in Japan next year, in time for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
In a teaser video released by Nintendo, preview images of the park reveal the attraction will include Donkey Kong and Mario Kart themed rides and the decor looks like it will be straight out of a Mario game.

How much is the little guy worth?
Conservative estimates say more than 510 million games have been sold, making Mario the best-selling video game franchise of all time and easily making him worth $20bn in new games sales at least.
So, for a plumber from Brooklyn, his wealth knows no bounds and that makes it pretty hard to know what to get him for his birthday.