By Barbara Ortutay/Associated Press

NEW YORK: You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He's reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He's also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him.

Mario, the pot-bellied Italian plumber with a penchant for rescuing princesses, collecting golden coins and gobbling magic mushrooms, has been around for nearly three decades. And even though he hasn't changed much, the latest game he stars in, the newly released "The New Super Mario Bros. Wii" ($50), is one of the holiday season's top titles.

Created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario is a recognizable character even to people who don't play video games. He pops up in Halloween costumes — blue overalls, red hat, gut and all — as does his brother Luigi. Mario has been in cartoons and movies (though some were best forgotten), and he graces oodles of official and unofficial Mario merchandise.

"I like him. I like him a lot. He has a cool mustache," says Colin Gaul, 9, from Portland, Ore. "He is awesome because he is brave and he's been on a lot of adventures. And his favorite color is red and mine is too."

Colin first played a Mario game when he was 5, on Nintendo Co.'s handheld Game Boy system. On the Wii, Colin has played "Super Paper Mario" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," which features a cavalcade of Nintendo characters duking it out.

But Colin wasn't even born when Super Mario emerged.

First called Jumpman, the character debuted in 1981 in the arcade game "Donkey Kong," in which Jumpman had to save a damsel from a big ape. His first job was carpentry, but later he became a plumber, and in many games he travels up and down in a world of underground pipes.

In the mid-1980s, Nintendo and Mario helped save the U.S. video game industry, which was on the verge of imploding after early popularity. Terrible games — most infamously "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" — had flooded the market, and "people didn't realize that video games were a burgeoning industry," says Scott Steinberg, lead video game analyst at Digitaltrends.com. "They thought it was a fad."

It wasn't. With the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, which in the U.S. came bundled with "Super Mario Bros.," video games became a household phenomenon. Nintendo sold 60 million of the consoles, often called the NES.

In 2008, Americans spent more than $21 billion on video game systems, software and accessories, according to the NPD Group. Even with a recession and industry slump this year, the number will likely be close to that, with a good chunk of the money going to Nintendo. The company has been able to stay profitable, thanks largely to its Wii and the handheld DS being the world's top-selling gaming systems.

In all, Nintendo has sold more than 222 million games in its Super Mario franchise. There are more than 100 games, for various gaming systems, in which Mario is the primary character, and many more in which he makes appearances.

The Japanese company's creation of an Italian character is now video game folklore. In his book "Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World," David Sheff wrote that Mario was named after Nintendo's U.S. landlord, who was demanding back rent from the company's fledgling U.S. arm. Nintendo now won't confirm or deny the story.

Perhaps more important is that many of the features that define Mario came about from shortcuts that were needed in the early days of video game design, when arcade units had puny computing power and displayed few colors. He wears a hat, for example, so that his creators didn't have to render hair. His super-sized mustache easily hides facial expressions — which even now remain difficult to program into video games.

"The reason he continues to be so popular is that Mario is basically an everyman," Steinberg says. "Behind those bushy eyebrows, jolly belly, is gamers themselves. Short, balding, goofy — how many gamers does that describe?"

Miyamoto has called Mario a "convenient tool" who can be used with a range of games, whether they're racing titles such as "Mario Kart" or take place in the magical world of the Mushroom Kingdom where Mario fights to save Princess Peach.

The new game is a throwback to Mario games of the 1980s and '90s, played out in two dimensions rather than three. The characters mostly move left to right — jumping on platforms, stomping enemies and ducking through pipes into hidden areas.

Reviews have been mixed. The Associated Press, for example, found the game may disappoint fans looking for innovation but would probably "deliver plenty of newcomers to the cult of Mario."

Miyamoto says he hopes the latest installment attracts both Mario experts and people new to the game. It has a multiplayer option, a first for a Mario game, that lets four people play alongside one another, with better players helping less experienced ones.

Ian Bogost, a professor who studies video games at Georgia Tech, says Mario's enduring popularity is not merely about nostalgia for the 1980s.

"Mario is more like a brand," he says. "You drink Coke or buy a Chevrolet not simply because of nostalgia, but because it continues to represent something to you that you value."

And in Mario's case, the brand stands for good, clean fun. Colin's mother, Ninou Gaul, 33, who played Mario games as a kid, still occasionally picks up the Wii controller.

"It's timeless," she says, "and the level of violence is nothing I would object to."

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NEW YORK: Nintendo on Sunday will cut the price of its popular Wii console by $50, in a bid to broaden its appeal among potential new customers as it prepares to release the Wii Fit-Plus and New Super Mario Bros. games.

The Wii, whose game control senses motions without having relying solely on buttons and levers, is the top selling console worldwide. The new $199.99 Wii will include the Wii Remote controller, Nunchuk controller and Wii Sports software.

"Our research shows there are 50 million Americans thinking about becoming gamers, and this more affordable price point and our vast array of new software mean many of them can now make the leap and find experiences that appeal to them," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing, in a statement late Wednesday.

Speculation about a price cut had grown after the other two console makers, Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp., reduced prices on their systems in August. And video game blog Kotaku has posted what it said were images of flyers from major retailers advertising a coming price cut.

Console price cuts are customary for the video game industry after the systems have celebrated a birthday or two, because they help lure in mass audiences who don't want to spend large chunks of cash on them.

The recession, however, has made them even more important, especially as game companies gear up for the holiday shopping season, when the video game industry makes most of its money. Without the price cuts, it would be difficult to entice budget-conscious shoppers to buy the machines.

Nintendo had been the only one of the three console makers to forgo a price cut so far. But it also started off at a lower price point when it launched in 2006. With a $50 price cut, the Wii will be tied with Microsoft's low-end Xbox 360 Arcade as the cheapest. Following $100 price cuts in August, Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite and Sony's basic PlayStation 3 now cost about $300.

The price cut is coming just ahead of big game releases for the company‚ Wii Fit-Plus on Oct. 4 and the multiplayer New Super Mario Bros-Wii on Nov. 15. Nintendo also is kicking off a sampling tour next month to introduce its games and hardware to new players. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, told The Associated Press that the sampling series is expected to give about one million game enthusiasts the chance to try out any of Nintendo's titles.

Together, the new Wii price, game releases and sampling series are designed to position Nintendo for a strong holiday season, Fils-Aime said. He noted that 170 third-party titles will launch for Wii by the end of the year, and 150 games for its handheld Nintendo Ds and Dsi devices.

By Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK: With a little help from the Beatles, Super Mario and price cuts from Sony and Microsoft, the slumping video game industry is hoping for a sales resurrection this fall.

The season gets a late-summer start Tuesday, with the release of "Guitar Hero 5," a game featuring music from the Rolling Stones, Nirvana and other popular bands. Then on Sept. 9 comes the launch of "The Beatles: Rock Band," which marks the rock icons' debut in a video game.

Plagued by the recession and a lackluster game release schedule for much of this year, the video game industry — which is bigger than the music business by some estimates — has fallen into a slump. It has been the first once since the latest game consoles — the Xbox 360, the Wii and the PlayStation 3 — were launched in 2005 and 2006.

The music genre — the second-most popular category behind action games — has suffered in particular, though that's partly because it's been so popular in the past couple of years that it needs exceptional sales just to stay even. According to the NPD Group, U.S. retail sales in the music and dance game genre were nearly $390 million less at the end of July than at the same time last year.

Music games invite you to play and sing along to real tunes, offering on-screen cues about when to finger guitar-like plastic controllers or hit touch-sensitive drums. When the game is played well, the songs sound pretty good.

"You just get into it — it feels like you're in a real band. It's like you're really on stage," said Marquez Alexander, 14, who bought two sports games Monday at a GameStop store near San Francisco's Union Square. He said he plans to pester his mother to buy him the new Beatles game — even though he barely knows the band.

"I never heard of them until I was like 7. It's just another game, another challenge," he said.

While John Lennon may have once boasted the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, time will tell whether today's video game fans feel that way. The "Rock Band" game will cost $60, which is typical for a big release, but there also will be a $250 version that comes with "limited edition" instruments resembling the ones the Fab Four used.

Video game industry analysts are cautiously optimistic that 2009 will end on a higher note than it began, not just because of the music games but blockbusters like Nintendo's upcoming remake of the classic "Super Mario Bros." for the Wii and Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."

It doesn't hurt that two of the three console makers announced hefty price cuts in recent days. Last Thursday, Microsoft Corp. said it is slashing the price of the high-end Xbox 360, the Elite, by $100 to $299. A few days earlier, Sony Corp. rolled back the price of the PlayStation 3 by $100. That just leaves Nintendo Co., whose Wii has cost $250 since its launch. Analysts expect the company to bring down the price of the Wii, though it might do that by keeping the base price level and including more free games with it.

One hurdle for the industry: Several game publishers have delayed big launches meant for the holidays. "BioShock 2" from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., "Splinter Cell: Conviction" from Ubisoft and "StarCraft II" from Activision have been pushed out to 2010.

It could also turn out that the biggest profits from the latest "Rock Band" game flow to the Beatles — and not Electronic Arts Inc., which is distributing the game, or Viacom Inc. the parent company of the game's creator, Harmonix Music Systems Inc. Though it's not clear just how much money it cost Viacom to license 45 Beatles hits used in the game — along with the band members' likenesses — that "doesn't happen for a little bit of money," noted BroadPoint Amtech analyst Benjamin Schachter.

As popular as the Beatles are, in many ways Activision is taking fewer chances and appealing to a much broader audience with its upcoming music games than EA and Viacom are with "Rock Band."

In addition to "Guitar Hero 5," Activision is also launching "DJ Hero" and "Band Hero," each targeted at distinct gaming audiences.

Following the success of "Guitar Hero," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the company realized there were still unsatisfied audiences — fans of hip hop, dance music and more family friendly tunes. He expects good demand for the Beatles game, but, he added, "It's a single category, it's a certain type of music."

With the latest "Guitar Hero," Activision is appealing to fans of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp. With "Band Hero," it aims to lure younger gamers who are fans of acts like Taylor Swift and Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine. With "DJ Hero," Activision seeks listeners of 50 Cent, LL Cool J and the Gorillaz.

"They are doing a smart job of really addressing every user base out there," said Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald. As for the Beatles game, "it's a big risk," he said. "It could be huge, it could be very disappointing."

Henrique Santos, a 22-year-old student from Brazil, tried a demo of the Beatles game at GameStop on Monday and said it was challenging but probably will be a hit.

"They're definitely not my favorite band," he said after banging away for a few minutes on an electronic drum set that's part of the game. "But for a game, the Beatles are the best party band, because everybody likes them."

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AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson contributed to this report from San Francisco.