Nintendo celebrates Mario's 30 years of being super

Super Mario, the hyperactive little plumber who has become one of the best-known characters in video game history, celebrates his 30th birthday today and Japanese giant Nintendo is marking the event with the release of a creative new format.

With his blue overalls, red cap and fulsome moustache, Mario is instantly recognisable, a rare quality in the games market, matched only by a handful of characters such as Lara Croft, Sonic the Hedgehog and Pac-Man.

So beloved is Mario that Nintendo has sold more than 310 million units featuring him since he first hit the screens under his own name in 1985, the year that Ronald Reagan began a second term as US president and the Live Aid concerts for the Ethiopian famine relief took place.

"Mario now has a status in popular culture equal to Mickey Mouse," said Florent Gorges, the French author of a book on Nintendo's history.

"He is likely to be around for some time yet because we notice that it's often parents who introduce him to their children."

Even before the first Super Mario Bros game was released on September 13, 1985, in Japan on the Famicom console, the character had already made an appearance in the Nintendo arcade game Donkey Kong, but under the name Jumpman.