MARIO BROS. MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF JUMPINGThe story of
Mario begins in 1981, when Nintendo released
Donkey Kong, an arcade game designed by
Shigeru Miyamoto in which a small character had to dodge obstacles and jump over barrels to rescue a woman kidnapped by a giant gorilla.
Back then, he wasn't even called Mario. He was simply known as
Jumpman, and much of his appearance was born out of the huge graphical limitations of the time. With so few pixels available, Miyamoto had to come up with simple solutions to make that tiny character instantly recognizable.
The cap meant they didn't have to properly draw and animate his hair.
The mustache helped separate his nose from the rest of his face without having to draw a detailed mouth, while the overalls made it easier to visually distinguish his arms from his body when the character moved.
What we instantly recognize today as Mario was, to a large extent,
a collection of practical solutions to technical problems.
The name came shortly afterward. Nintendo of America began calling the character Mario after
Mario Segale, the landlord of the warehouse the company rented in the United States.
In 1983 came
Mario Bros., where he shared the spotlight with his brother Luigi and his profession as a plumber was firmly established. But the real leap forward came two years later.
In 1985, Nintendo released
Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System. Mario began running through huge levels, traveling through pipes, hitting blocks, collecting coins and facing Bowser to rescue Princess Peach.
The game went on to become
one of the most important and influential titles in video game history, selling more than 40 million copies.
From there came Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey and dozens more. Mario also started racing karts, playing tennis, golf and soccer, competing in the Olympic Games, throwing parties and taking on pretty much every profession Nintendo could imagine.
Over the decades,
the Mario franchise has sold hundreds of millions of video games, and its universe has expanded far beyond consoles.
TV shows, toys, clothing, comics, merchandise, theme parks and movies have turned the character into
one of the biggest icons in global pop culture.
His image has become so recognizable that you don't even need to have played one of his games to know who he is.
A red cap, a mustache, blue overalls and an M are enough.
More than four decades after his first appearance, Mario belongs to that small group of characters that have managed to escape the medium they were originally created for. The internet has adopted him, transformed him, parodied him and reimagined him in pretty much every possible way.
And to think it all started with a handful of pixels jumping over barrels.
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TIK HOT VOL248TikTok has its rules, its limits and an algorithm making sure nobody shows more than they're supposed to. But of course,
what you can post on TikTok and what you do once you leave TikTok are two very different things.
Because many of the girls who rack up followers with dances, cleavage, bikinis and strategically calculated videos also have a version of themselves that's considerably less suitable for general audiences.
And that's exactly where
Tik Hot comes in.
We keep the same protagonists, but
remove the community guidelines, the algorithm looking over their shoulders and a few inches of fabric along the way.
The result is a new selection of videos where some familiar faces from social media remind us that
what they show you on TikTok is often nothing more than the trailer.
The full movie... is right here.
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Quick reflexes.