the series started out in 1981 with the arcade video game, "donkey kong", and has since then taken off into its own series. it was created by shigeru miyamoto. mario, going under the name jumpman when "donkey kong" was first released, is the main protagonist throughout most of the series. the main antagonist of the series is bowser, the king of all koopas. most of the games have something to do with jumping and defeating enemies. the games usually feature simple storylines. the most common theme in the series is bowser, the main villain, taking away princess peach, who the mario brothers try to save during the games.