Why Mario Is In So Many Darn Games... Explained!S  The story
goes that Mario was originally called "Jumpman." That's not what
Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto called the character.  "Well, I
called him 'Mr. Video'," Miyamoto said in the recent Iwata Asks
feature on Nintendo's official site. "My plan was to use the
same character in every video game I made."  Miyamoto was
confident that he had come up with a solid character. "That's
why I decided a solid, imposing name like 'Mr. Video' would work
best," he added. "But thinking back, I don't think I should have
gone with that name." Good thing someone at Nintendo of America
came up with the name Mario. "If he had been called "Mr. Video,"
he might have disappeared off the face of the earth."  The idea
to put Mario in multiple games wasn't simply clever branding on
Miyamoto's part: he was influenced by Hollywood film director
Alfred Hitchcock. "I thought the way Hitchcock cropped up in all
the films he directed was really cool!" Miyamoto was also
influenced by mang