News: Mario's Original Name was Ossan - Middle Aged Man Page 1

Mario's Original Name was Ossan - Middle Aged Man

In a new Iwata asks roundtable Nintendo discuss the history of the NES and Mario's original name before Jumpman and Mr. Video.

Super Mario Bros. turns a youthful 25 this year in Japan, and despite being one of the biggest, if not the biggest, selling video game franchise to date Mario and co had a fair few obstacles to overcome in the early days of the NES.

In the early days NES catridges were produced and sold by different developers and manufactuers, causing consistency issues and complaints to Nintendo.

This caused Nintendo to launch its renowned Seal of Quality to ensure all software running on the NES was approved and hopefully fault-proof.

As the console grew in popularity Nintendo suffered stock issues, faults in the controller buttons, TV cables and weird game glitches.

This prompted Nintendo to up the quality and take more care in future products.

With the release of Super Mario Bros on the NES the system finally took off and saw the series span many generations of new games, spin-offs and a tonne of merchandise.

Aside from Jumpman and Mr. Video, two original names for Mario, Nintendo's plumber mascot was also known as "Ossan" which translates to "middle-aged guy/man".

Decided to give him a hat, moustache and overalls due to technical limitations with the NES's pallete and to make it functional to easily see where Mario is going, which way he's facing.

That's the way it was at first, but even as games' visual capacities have increased, those basic lines have never changed. I think that may be why, even after 25 years, everyone still loves Mario.

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Julia Tamworth (guest) 07.10.2010#1

Really? You sure this isn't bull? Ossan?! WTF is Ossan? Sounds like some Dragonball Z character Smilie

Sonic_13 07.10.2010#2

Julia Tamworth (guest) said:
Really? You sure this isn't bull? Ossan?! WTF is Ossan? Sounds like some Dragonball Z character

As stated in the article, "Ossan" translates to "middle-aged guy/man".

Squidboy 07.10.2010#3

Miyamoto has mentioned this name in the past.

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JoshSL 07.10.2010#4

That would have been pretty funny, but I can't imagine it would have been as well received by western audiences. :\

Actually it's really funny how Mario is middle ages yet ridiculously popular.
Most game heroes nowadays have to be teenagers or in their early 20s to sell.

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Scorp 07.10.2010#5

Point one: Ossan Mario is a stupid name, glad he ended up Mario Mario.
Point two: How bad is it that I remember the Seal of Quality coming in?
Point three: Mario will be around forever. FACT