Super Mario Bros. recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, and the series continues to be extremely popular to this day. The character of Mario is particularly iconic--30 years ago, a poll outside of Japan found that the character was more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, the head Disney mascot.

Nintendo has just published their Q & A summary from Nintendo's corporate management policy briefing for the current fiscal year, and Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, has reflected on this poll. His reaction to having made such a popular character is surprising--but he also details how the character's popularity galvanized him.

Asked about 35 years of Mario, Miyamoto notes how much each major platformer in the series differs. "We often hear our consumers saying that each title in the Super Mario Bros. series feels like a meaningfully different game," Miyamoto says. He then reflects on the Mickey Mouse poll, and how he felt about it. "I felt bad that Mickey Mouse, who had been hugely popular among fans, including myself, for 60 years at that point, was even being compared to Mario, who had just been around for a few years back then."