Happy birthday Super Mario Bros! Exactly 30 years ago today, the first Super Mario Bros. video game was released in Japan along with the original NES console. Nintendo sold around 40 million copies of the game, and since then, over a quarter billion titles of the franchise were distributed throughout the world!

To celebrate this very special day, here is a video taking a look at the evolution of games featuring Super Mario starting in 1981. I’ve also included an enlightening interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario’s creator, at the bottom of the post.

In honor of Super Mario Bros.’s 30th birthday, here’s the evolution of the plumber who started it all. Check out how much he’s changed over the years, and discover a few of his more obscure titles.

For the sake of your patience and our sanity we’ve excluded games from the Mario universe’s extended cast which don’t include Mario himself (e.g., Diddy Kong Racing), unaltered ports, compilation games (Super Mario All-Stars), and Mario-inspired easter eggs.

[Digg]