Nintendo Mario Kart 8: Deluxe Edition – Nintendo Switch

Edition may refer to:

• Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies
• Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run
• Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text
• Edition Records, a British independent record label
• "Edition", a song by Rex Orange County

Mario (Japanese: マリオ; , ) is a character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the Mario franchise, a recurring character in the Donkey Kong franchise, and the mascot of the Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario is an Italian plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom with his younger twin brother, Luigi. Their adventures generally involve rescuing Princess Peach from the villain Bowser while using power-ups that give them different abilities. Mario's distinctive characteristics include his large nose and mustache, overalls, red cap, and high-pitched, exaggerated Italian accent.

Mario debuted as the player character of Donkey Kong, a 1981 platform game. Miyamoto created Mario after he was unable to obtain the license to use Popeye as the protagonist. The graphical limitations of arcade hardware influenced Mario's design, such as his nose, mustache, and overalls, and he was named after Nintendo of America's landlord, Mario Segale. After Donkey Kong, Mario starred in Mario Bros. (1983). Its 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System sequel, Super Mario Bros., began the successful Super Mario platformer series. Charles Martinet voiced Mario from 1991 to 2023, when he was succeeded by Kevin Afghani.

Mario has appeared in over 200 video games. These include puzzle games such as Dr. Mario, role-playing games such as Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, and sports games such as Mario Kart and Mario Tennis. He lacks a set personality and consistent profession, allowing him to take on many different roles across the Mario franchise. Mario is often accompanied by a large cast of supporting characters, including friends like Princess Daisy, Toad, and Yoshi and rivals like Bowser Jr., Donkey Kong, and Wario. Mario has also appeared in other Nintendo properties, such as the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games.

Mario is an established pop culture icon and is widely considered the most famous video game character in history. His likeness has been featured in merchandise, and people and places have been nicknamed after him. He inspired many video game characters, including Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, and unofficial media. The Mario franchise is the bestselling video game franchise of all time, with more than 800 million units sold worldwide. Mario has been adapted in various media; he was portrayed by Bob Hoskins in the live-action film Super Mario Bros. (1993) and voiced by Chris Pratt in the animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Koppai by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985.

Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Nintendo Switch. It has created or published numerous major franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Kirby, Star Fox, Pokémon, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Splatoon, and Nintendo's mascot, Mario, is internationally recognized, as well as other characters like Donkey Kong, Link, Samus Aran, Kirby, and Pikachu. The company has sold more than 5.592 billion video games and over 836 million hardware units globally, as of March 2023.

Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as HAL Laboratory, Intelligent Systems, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company. Nintendo and its staff have received awards including Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering, Game Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, and British Academy Games Awards. It is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market.

In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of switch is an electromechanical device consisting of one or more sets of movable electrical contacts connected to external circuits. When a pair of contacts is touching current can pass between them, while when the contacts are separated no current can flow.

Switches are made in many different configurations; they may have multiple sets of contacts controlled by the same knob or actuator, and the contacts may operate simultaneously, sequentially, or alternately. A switch may be operated manually, for example, a light switch or a keyboard button, or may function as a sensing element to sense the position of a machine part, liquid level, pressure, or temperature, such as a thermostat. Many specialized forms exist, such as the toggle switch, rotary switch, mercury switch, push-button switch, reversing switch, relay, and circuit breaker. A common use is control of lighting, where multiple switches may be wired into one circuit to allow convenient control of light fixtures. Switches in high-powered circuits must have special construction to prevent destructive arcing when they are opened.