Real Super Mario dies aged 84

Mario Segale, a successful Italian-American property developer from the US of Washington and the man after whom video game hero Super Mario, the energetic hero of the Mushroom kingdom with 30 years, worth of games, was named has died aged 84.

In the 1980s, he leased a warehouse to Nintendo of America who decided to name the star of their new video game after him, and featured their mascot Mario in a series of fantasy platform games.

Super Mario was originally called Jumpman until Nintendo decided it wanted to give the character a proper name.

Segale said it was Minoru Arakawa, who had been tasked with setting up Nintendo of America, who told him the video game hero carried his name. Mr Segale “always ducked the notoriety and wanted to be known instead for what he accomplished in his life”.

He is survived by his wife Donna and four children and nine grandchildren.  The Mario series is often cited as the most successful video games franchise of all time.

The plumber’s latest adventure, Super Mario Odyssey, is currently the best-selling game on the new Nintendo Switch console having sold over 12 million copies.