Mario is one of the most famous and iconic characters in video game history, and his games as a whole, have sold more than 210 million units. Many of us started our gaming career, hobby or passion with Mario. We were amazed by how this little man managed to captivate our imagination and our summer days, by making us spend countless hours trying to rescue his princess.

Of course over the years, Mario has evolved and so has his games. But the magic of who Mario is still remains in the hearts and minds of many players over the world. Mario will continue to hold a place in every gamers’ heart now and in the generations to come. That said, we bring you some of Mario’s secrets that many die-hard fans are unaware of.

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 Note: List is in random order.

Super Mario Bros 2 was the first game you could play as Princess Peach

Many people and diehard fans of Mario were unaware that in Super Mario Bros 2 you could play as Princess Peach (Toadstool), and it was the first game that featured a playable character other than Mario and Luigi.  Super Mario Bros was ahead of its time in terms of gameplay, as each character had a unique strength that causes them to be controlled differently. Princess Peach powers in particular caused her to jump the farthest.

Rayman Legends was once a Wii U exclusive. It was delayed after the completion of development simply so that it could also be released on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and eventually, also on PlayStation Vita and PC. That really pissed off the Wii U owners and fans who were awaiting this game, not least because the console was, and still is, in severe need of a good game, and Rayman Legends, sequel to the 2011 game Rayman Origins, just looks great.

This probably won’t make amends to the Wii U fans who feel betrayed, but still, it’s bound to elicit some sort of a positive reaction from them; Ubisoft announced that the Wii U version of Rayman Legends will exclusively have Mario and Luigi skins available after just twenty minutes of gameplay- effectively making it possible to play pretty much the entire game as ‘Mario’ and ‘Luigi.’

Rayman Legends is a September release on every single active platform on the market currently, except for the Nintendo 3DS. An iOS companion game will also be available.

What a surprise… Luigi will be a playable character in Super Mario 3D Land. Like in Mario Galaxy, Luigi will be able to jump higher than Mario. In a recent Iwata asks, Art Director Kenta Motokura  explained that Luigi will be playable during bonus stages which will become available after beating world 8-4 .

Thanks to Siliconera for the info.