Spilverdenens mest kendte og populære figur er naturligvis Mario, og det er der mange grunde til hvis man spørger Keiji Inafune (skaberen af blandt andre Mega Man, Onimusha og Dead Rising). Faktisk mener han at blikkenslagerens eventyr fungerer som en slags bibel for mediet, og at man bør kende til serien for at forstå hvordan det hele hænger sammen, skriver VG247.
"If any creator has not played Mario, then they're probably not a good creator. That's something I can say with 100% confidence". siger Inafune.
Han uddyber yderligere: "Mario is, for game creators, the development bible. There are so many hints about good design, about cute characters, about innovation in using an existing gameplay system. It's something you have to constantly look at and examine and take hints from as a game creator. It's the anchor that grounds almost all games."