Timeline | 1985: Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. established what has become the most profitable franchise in gaming history.

Nintendo wanted to enter the North American video game market in 1985 with the NES, they were confident that they could respark at least some of the success that the Atari 2600 had been (and lost) by marketing differently and by utilizing strict quality control. However, they needed a 'Killer App' - the game that everyone would want to buy their system for - and thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka they got that game: Super Mario Bros.

A quasi sequel to Mario Bros. (itself a spin-off of Donkey Kong), Super Mario Bros. was a revelation in gaming at the time. The game was simple to approach, with the first portion (and especially the first level) designed to teach anyone how to play it. Super Mario Bros. was a jumping platformer with great level design, several power-ups, different enemies and many levels - all of which presented in very good graphics for the time. It was no wonder that kids of all ages snapped up Super Mario Bros. and couldn't quit playing.

Super Mario Bros. for the time was a graphical powerhouse.

Super Mario Bros. established the 'Mushroom Kingdom' setting that most other Mario games are set in, as well as the basic power-ups and characters in the Super Mario games. The game would become wildly popular thanks in part to combo packaging on Nintendo's part (packaged with both the system and the Duck Hunt game for large periods of time) and very smart marketing - Mario became and largely still is almost ubiquitous especially in video game circles.

Super Mario Bros. would have two (kinds 3 in Japan) sequels on the NES and many more sequels and spin-offs on later Nintendo consoles. The main game would go on to sell over 40 million copies and become the best selling video game console title until it was surpassed by Nintendo's own 'Wii Sports' over 20 years later.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_(series)