History Awesome / SuperMarioBros

** Even better, it was a launch game for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, going in stores about eight months before [[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Mario's headlining game]] came out. Especially after Luigi hadn't appeared in any main series games within the Mario canon since VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld, it's refreshing to see a ThrowTheDogABone moment for the second banana.

* The two sports games made by Creator/SquareEnix are pretty much the reason the Mario Sports series deserves at least one TV Tropes article. For the first one, Mario Hoops 3 On 3, pretty much every playable character gets one when doing a special shot, and when you unlock [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Ninja, White Mage, and Black Mage]], [[RuleOfCool their special shots are none other than]] some ninjutsu, Holy, and Meteor. As for the game's still-made-by-Square SpiritualSuccessor, Mario Sports Mix [[EmbeddedPrecursor (which includes basketball anyway)]], there's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQmilcaBcT8 Behemoth boss battle.]] [[RuleOfCool Who cares if it has nothing to do with a sports game, it is exactly as awesome as it sounds.]]

* Mario as a character in general. He's a kind and caring hero that will stop at ''nothing'' to save and protect the world and the ones that he cares so dearly for as well as any innocent lives too. He is the [[FunPersonified living embodiment of fun]], but always manages to be a badass as well while doing so as [[OneManArmy he plows through hundreds of evil villainous factions and armies]] without breaking even a sweat. Being a [[VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS Star]] [[TheChosenMany Child]], he is quite literally a living weapon that shows absolutely zero signs of stopping anytime soon. Even with his jolly nature, [[LetsGetDangerous he still knows when to get serious when the time truly calls for it]] and will stop at nothing to save the world. That goes without saying that despite his jolly and happy demeanor, if you even dare threaten or hurt his friends and the people and world that he cares so dearly about, you're in ''deep'' trouble.
** Mario's tenacity and [[TheDeterminator determination]]. Even throughout the hundreds upon hundreds of adventures he's endured, the many challenging obstacles he's had to face, and the many villains/foes he's had to put up with, he ''always'' manages to jump back up and continue pushing on forward all with a smile on his face. No matter what obstacle that comes his way, he will ''always'' push on through no matter what.

* Mario as a character in general. He's a kind and caring hero that will stop at ''nothing'' to protect the world and the ones that he cares so dearly for. He is the [[FunPersonified living embodiment of fun]], but always manages to be a badass as well while doing so as [[OneManArmy he plows through hundreds of evil villainous factions and armies]] without breaking even a sweat. Being a [[VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS Star]] [[TheChosenMany Child]], he is quite literally a living weapon that shows absolutely zero signs of stopping anytime soon. Even with his jolly nature, [[LetsGetDangerous he still knows when to get serious when the time truly calls for it]] and will stop at nothing to save the world. That goes without saying that despite his jolly and happy demeanor, if you even dare threaten or hurt his friends and the people and world that he cares so dearly about, you're in ''deep'' trouble.

* Mario as a character in general. He's the [[FunPersonified living embodiment of fun]], but always manages to be a badass as well while doing so as [[OneManArmy he plows through hundreds of evil villainous factions and armies]] without breaking even a sweat. Being a [[VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS Star]] [[TheChosenMany Child]], he is quite literally a living weapon that shows absolutely zero signs of stopping anytime soon. Even with his jolly nature, [[LetsGetDangerous he still knows when to get serious when the time truly calls for it]] and will stop at nothing to save the world. That goes without saying that despite his jolly and happy demeanor, if you even dare threaten or hurt his friends and the people and world that he cares so dearly about, you're in ''deep'' trouble.

!! Series in general

!! General

!! ''General''

* The two sports games made by Creator/SquareEnix are pretty much the reason the Mario Sports series deserves at least one Tv Tropes article. For the first one, Mario Hoops 3 On 3, pretty much every playable character gets one when doing a special shot, and when you unlock [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Ninja, White Mage, and Black Mage]], [[RuleOfCool their special shots are none other than]] some ninjutsu, Holy, and Meteor. As for the game's still-made-by-Square SpiritualSuccessor, Mario Sports Mix [[EmbeddedPrecursor (which includes basketball anyway)]], there's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQmilcaBcT8 Behemoth boss battle.]] [[RuleOfCool Who cares if it has nothing to do with a sports game, it is exactly as awesome as it sounds.]]

* ''Awesome/SuperMarioWorld''

Mario, Luigi, their friends, and enemies have had their share of truly awesome moments, as these examples will attest to.

The cartoons have their own pages:

[[folder:The Movie]]

* Big Bertha's EstablishingCharacterMoment features her casually tossing the old woman trying to rob Mario and Luigi off a bridge, taking the meteorite piece and daring Mario and Luigi to get it back, and using her stompers to jump across the entire square before walking off.
** Mario takes her up on the challenge and essentially seduces her in a gambit to steal the meteorite back. It's so audacious and well executed that ''she isn't even mad'' afterwards.
* Faced with climbing Koopa's gargantuan tower, Mario and Luigi turn off the heating system to buy time to rescue Daisy, since reptiles are cold-blooded and it would slow them down.
* Yoshi utilizes one of his game abilities with his long tongue, tripping and biting Lena and allowing Daisy to escape.
* When Toad the Goomba is set on fire, Daisy uses a fire extinguisher to put him out, initiating his HeelFaceTurn.
* At the Boom Boom Bar, Lena successfully steals the meteorite back from Mario and Luigi, ensuring her scheme of world domination comes very close to succeeding.
* The elevator scene. Starting with the brothers donning their coveralls and ending with Luigi making the Goombas dance to stop them from noticing them.
* The mattress chase scene has Mario and the Brooklyn girls ride down a giant frozen pipe and use icicles and Mario's tools to trip up their pursuers. It's really enhanced with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTtnc38dHcE the music]].
* The Thwomp Stompers are real-life jetpack boots that emulate the jump height from the video games. Big Bertha shows them off in the beginning of the movie, and Mario and Luigi later weaponize them against Koopa and his army.
* Mario bluffing Koopa by pretending his shoelace is the meteorite necklace to buy time for Luigi to get to the real rock.
* The Bob-Omb. To quote Destructoid's [[http://www.destructoid.com/why-the-super-mario-movie-is-an-underappreciated-masterpiece-29694.phtml list]] of why the Mario movie is underappreciated:
-->Mario stands on a bridge, weaponless and defenseless. King Koopa stands across from him, armed with a flamethrower. What does Mario do? He takes out the small windup bomb given to him by the old, fungi-fied king and proceeds to wind it. Koopa squints, trying to see what he's doing. Suddenly, the realization hits him:\\
"Bob-omb."\\
At this point, everyone in the city sees what Mario has in his hands, and they proceed to FREAK THE FUCK OUT. Cars crash, people trample each other in an effort to run away, and chaos generally ensues. All based around a small black ball wearing plastic Reebok shoes (seriously, the Reebok logo is on the Bob-omb's shoes. I'm not posting a capture of it, you'll have to look for yourself). There isn't a kid alive who saw the movie and didn't want one of these.
** Then later, the bomb detonates, creating a decent explosion that launches Koopa several dozen feet into the air. Yeah, it may be cute and adorable, but a Bob-omb is still a ''bomb'', and bombs explode. The thing is basically a wind-up hand grenade. No wonder everyone panicked.
* The special effects. This film had to literally ''invent'' new technology to make much of its visual effects look as realistic as they do. Unfortunately, ''Film/JurassicPark's'' effects were a much more explicit focus, so it gets more attention for its influence on the industry.
** Daisy's face appears out of a formerly solid rock wall like it's engulfed in sand.
** Yoshi. For an animatronic puppet, it looks like it just stepped out of a time portal to the Jurassic Era. He looked so good, in fact, that the creators of ''Jurassic Park'' actually studied his puppet to get off the ground with their T-Rex.
** This also applies to the Goombas. All of them, ''including'' those only seen in the background, had multiple movements built into the heads.
** The pan over the city towards Koopa's tower. This was done by ''one man'' over a period of six months and was deemed ''impossible'' beforehand.
** The CGI Tyrannosaur looks amazing as its form morphs and solidifies before turning into slime, especially for the time.
** The King turning back into a human from his fungal form is done near-seamlessly and without cuts.
[[/folder]]

** Daisy appearing in the sand.

** The CGI Tyrannosaur looks amazing, especially for the time.
** The King turning back into a human from his fungal form.

* The final boss. At first glance, it appears to be a pretty standard "run under Bowser and hit the switch to drop him into the lava" fight. Then Kamek reveals himself to have taken Peach's place, and spreads magic around like he usually does. Except this time, it has the effect of making Bowser so large that he knocks Kamek out of the sky as he grows! Indeed, it's possible that this is [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever the second-largest height to which Bowser has ever grown]] (the largest being his Giant Bowser battles in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]''). Most of the following battle is actually the Mario Bros and company running for their lives away from Bowser and surviving long enough to hit the switch at the end that defeats him for good--and it would be entirely unremarkable, if it wasn't one of ''the'' most intense platforming sequences in the game, filled with difficult and time-sensitive jumps and enemies prowling around every corner, accompanied by the most intense orchestral pieces in ''any'' platformer. [[FinalExamBoss Practically every obstacle is being thrown against you all at once,]] making it that much more satisfying when you finally hit that final switch.]] And if that doesn't sound good enough, imagine doing it alongside three friends. Now ''that's'' NintendoHard.

* ''Awesome/BowsersFury''

* Mario Party DS has the mini game Bowser's Block Party. Bowser has a belt that turns himself into various forms using blocks, and one of them has his face on it. He mainly uses fire attacks throughout the battle. How do Mario and friends beat him? Nothing but kicks and punches (with star power), which is kind of awesome in a way for them.

!! VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros (DS)
* Here's one that takes place during gameplay that's pretty easy not to notice when you're conditioned to hop around from platform to platform, but if you see someone else play, you'll notice just how badass the game can look sometimes. In some of the fortresses and castles, Mario jumps onto a wobbly tightrope with lava below, then jumps from that tightrope over a large gap onto another tightrope.
* The [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Mega Mushroom]].
* Bowser Jr reviving his dad, and then some...
* Should you defeat Junior first in the final boss, Bowser will go ''apeshit'' and flood the boss lair with a flurry of fireballs. It's a DifficultySpike for the player, but a brilliant PapaWolf moment for Daddy Koopa.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/895de7b9_37d4_4714_8bf9_0434583a7079.jpeg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach fighting Behemoth from Final Fantasy? Yes, please!]]

* Big Bertha's EstablishingCharacterMoment features her doing, in no short order:
** Casually tossing the old woman trying to rob Mario and Luigi off a bridge.
** Takes the meteorite piece for herself.
** Tells Mario "Come and get it, big boy."
** Jumps across to the nearby platform with her stompers while casually minding anyone who might be in her way.
** Turn around to give Mario and Luigi one cold look before walking off like a total boss.
* Faced with climbing Koopa's gargantuan tower, Mario and Luigi turn off the heating system to buy time to rescue Daisy, since reptiles are cold-blooded and it would slow them down.

* At the Boom Boom Bar, Lena successfully steals the meteorite back from Mario and Luigi, ensuring her scheme of world domination comes very close to succeeding.

* Luigi, the series' {{Deuteragonist}} getting his own game, ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion''. ''VideoGame/MarioIsMissing'' was an edutainment game, and therefore doesn't count. What's the end result of this? It ends with Luigi coming out of nowhere [[TookALevelInBadass and reestablishing himself as a hero, just like his brother]]; in fact, he gets so awesome that he gets his own archenemy in the form of King Boo, as he makes the leader of the Boos hate ''him'' more than anyone else in the whole world. This deserves a lot more attention; ''Luigi'', who for ''years'' was treated down by everyone else, left out of adventures, and given no respect by anyone except for [[BigBrotherInstinct Mario]], turns into such an awesome ''hero'', so much that he makes the leader of one of the most well-known species of baddies hate ''him'' more than anyone else in the world. That's right, King Boo is the ''one'' enemy who knows just how ''dangerous'' Luigi can be--in fact, he hates him more than ''Mario!'' (Bonus points when you realize that King Boo originally viewed Mario as his main threat. But after ''Luigi's Mansion?'' After that green plumber took everything away from him? All right, that's it, Luigi's the bane of his existence.)

* The original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' game, along with ROB the robot, ''saved the entire video game industry''.
* Saving Princess Toadstool for the very first time in the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''.

* Princess Peach gets one in ''Super Mario Bros. 2''. Instead of being kidnapped, she is one of the main playable characters and kicks ass right alongside Mario and Luigi. Her second comes in VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach, where she switches roles with the Mario Bros. and does the rescuing for once.