A Super Mario variety blog.
Screenshots, photos, sprites, gifs, scans and more from all around the world of Super Mario Bros.
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Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers was a Donkey Kong puzzle game that was in development for the GBA from 2000 to 2002, but was cancelled due to Rare being purchased by Microsoft and losing its license to Donkey Kong, only being able to work on remakes of preexisting titles. The game was later released without the Donkey Kong IP as “It’s Mr. Pants” in 2004.
According to a 2010 Rare interview with the British Edge magazine, one of the early names for the game during development was “Splonge”. It is unknown for how long this name was used, and whether it was ever used in conjunction with the Donkey Kong theme, such as e.g. “Donkey Kong Splonge”.
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Top: Nintendo has been proven to use the fan website The Spriters Resource to access sprites from their own games, instead of taking the sprites from their own archives. A sprite in Super Mario Maker (later even reused in Super Mario Maker 2) contains a pixel underneath Mario’s mustache with a color that does not actually appear in Super Mario World. However, that exact color appeared in a sheet submitted to that site that was up in 2013-2015, at the time of the game’s development.
Since the only way we know Nintendo used fanmade rips of their content was because they forgot to remove the pixel in this instance, it stands to reason that many more instances exist that are unknowable due to Nintendo successfully scrubbing out any traces of the original sheets.
Bottom: for everyone who is interested in sprites or is already a fan or user of The Spriters Resource, you may find it interesting to tune in to a livestream that is currently occurring whereby a new design for the site is being showcased. All feedback from the viewers is appreciated and will be considered for changes and future updates!
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In Super Mario 64, the intended method to defeat the Mr. Blizzard snowman enemies is to run circles around them, similar to how the Mr. I enemies are defeated.
However, a more difficult alternative method exists to defeat them whereby they will also get dizzy if Mario performs precise jumps and mid-air kicks above them. Since this carries a high risk of landing on the Mr. Blizzard and getting hurt, this is only recommended for expert players.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: jeaze2288
In Mario Kart Wii, part of the melody of the Bowser’s Castle track is a more sinister-sounding version of the main melody of the Maple Treeway track.
The audio in this post plays Bowser’s Castle until 17 seconds in (sped up to match the tempo of the other track), where it switches to Maple Treeway.
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In the first three games in the Paper Mario series, a minor and easily overlooked running gag was to number the respective quiz segments sequentially, starting with 64.
Top: in Paper Mario, the quiz is known as the “64th Trivia Quiz-Off”, referring to the Nintendo 64.
Middle: in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the quiz is known as the “65th Super Fun Quirk Quiz”. Note that the second quiz found in Chapter 7 increases the number to 66, which is ignored by Super Paper Mario.
Bottom: in Super Paper Mario, the quiz is known as the “66th Annual ‘That’s My Merlee!’ Show”.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: various emulators
Top: in a previous post, I have shown how in Super Mario Galaxy, Mario’s head shrinks down into his neck whenever he dies from sinking into a swamp or quicksand. This is necessary to show his arm extending upwards as he sinks, since his arms are so short and his head so large that the head would get in the way of the animation.
Bottom: while this can normally not be seen in-game, it is possible to see the shrinking under specific circumstances, such as sinking into angled quicksand. By using Player 2-assisted jumps in the Dusty Dune Galaxy, Mario can get far enough from the playable area to reach quicksand that is at an angle that allows his shrinking head to be seen.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: PurpleSunSR
Top: the “Funky’s Rentals” minigame exclusive to the Game Boy Advance version of Donkey Kong Country 3. Note how Dixie Kong races a boat against enemies in a winding river, and can shoot projectiles from the front of the boat.
Bottom: this is actually an extremely elaborate reference to one of Rare’s older titles, the 1989 NES game Cobra Triangle. Not only is one stage of the minigame a reference to this specific part of the game, but other stages also use other mechanics from it, such as defusing mines. This is also confirmed by the minigame maps being called “Cobra Track” internally.
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In Super Mario Sunshine, Klambers are yellow bug enemies that normally hurt Mario if he touches them, as seen in the beginning of the footage.
However, entering a manhole and jumping in such a way that Mario hits his head on the ceiling of the sewer will grant Mario inexplicable Klamber-defeating powers, so that if he touches the enemy after this, it will die instead.
This is not the only way entering a sewer permanently changes Mario’s interactions with the environment: as pointed out in an earlier post, entering a sewer also makes him constantly kick durians with full force, and prevents him from kicking them gently. The reasons for this and the extent of the effects are yet to be fully understood.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: GamesDoneQuick
In WarioWare Gold, every microgame host has a special voice clip for when the player fails a microgame by falling for a trick, such as performing a normally expected input when the microgame is surprisingly not requesting an input.
An example that can be seen in the game is the third level of the Gold Digger microgame, where the nose has a chance to be covered in piercings, causing the microgame to be lost if the player tries to pick it. Not every host has microgames that ever employ tricks at all, so some of these files are unused.
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