The first princess Mario saved was Nintendo itself.In 1981, Nintendo of America was a one-year-old business already on the brink of failure.Its president, Mino Arakawa, was stuck with two thousand unsold arcade cabinets for a dud of a game (Radar Scope).So he hatched a plan. Back in Japan, a boyish, shaggy-haired staff artist named Shigeru Miyamoto designed a new game for the unsold cabinets featur-ing an angry gorilla and a small jumping man.Donkey Kong brought in $180 million in its first year alone and launched the career of a short, chubby plumber named Mario. Since then, Mario has starred in over two hundred games, gen-erating profits in the billions.He is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, yet he's little more than a mustache in bib overalls.How did a mere smear of pixels gain such huge popularity?Super Mario tells the story behind the Nintendo games millions of us grew up with, explaining how a Japanese trading card company rose to dominate the fiercely competitive video-game industry.