The 1985 Nintendo game that introduced Mario as the central platforming protagonist was Super Mario Bros. The game was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and released in Japan for the Family Computer on September 13, 1985.
It follows Mario, and optionally Luigi, through the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser. Its timed side-scrolling stages, power-ups, secret areas, and precise jumping became a template for later platform games.
Mario had appeared earlier in Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., so Super Mario Bros. did not create the character. Instead, it established the version of Mario most associated with Nintendo’s platform adventures. Super Mario Bros. was also bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System in many markets, helping revive the home-console industry after the 1983 crash.
The original game is sometimes confused with Super Mario Bros. 2, which was released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986 but reached North America in a different form in 1988.