Two years after the success of Donkey Kong and one year after its first sequel, creator Shigeru Miyamoto and collaborator Gunpei Yokoi returned to that cast of characters to look for another new game. They found one, but not with the famous big ape. Mario would appear without Donkey Kong this time, they decided, but first he would need a few tweaks. Those tweaks eventually lead to the Mario known and loved by gamers everywhere.
When he appeared in Donkey Kong, Mario was simply called Jumpman. With that game's import into the United States, Nintendo of America christined him Mario, after Mario Segale, a landlord in charge of the warehouse used to hold Donkey Kong arcade machines. The name stuck, and by the time of Donkey Kong Junior, the character was known as Mario in both Japan and America. But he didn't yet have his current job. After originally making him a carpenter, Miyamoto decided Mario should be a plumber in the new game, after figuring plumber was a better match for the character's thick mustache and red overalls. With plumbing came the idea of a game based on pipes, and with pipes came the idea of a game set in the sewers of New York. Then, the developers decided the game should allow two players to play simultaneously, like Joust. For that, Mario needed a partner. And so, Mario's brother Luigi was born.
With his name, occupation and family ties established, Mario headlined his new game, Mario Bros. While only a minor success in Japan, Mario Bros. did quite well in the U.S., seemingly unphased by the downturn affecting the entire video game industry at the time. Mario Bros. then appeared on the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as several other game systems and computers. Perhaps it most important contribution, however, was paving the way for a certain sequel with "Super" in the title. The rest truly is history.