NFG Games Nintendo Official Magazine Present - A Mario Sprite History

"Back in the day Nintendo was constrained by hardware. It's a well known story that when creating Mario - originally called simply 'jumpman' - Shigeru Miyamoto made him look the way he does because of hardware limitations of the time. He was given a mustache to seperate his nose from his face, overalls so arm movements were visible, and a hat because hair was hard to draw."

I tip my hat to any game article writer that points out a 'jump the shark' tangent concerning a sprite-based character.

(scooped from kottke)