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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A small obscure item drop in Paper Mario is a Shooting Star that can be retrieved from Goompa’s balcony in Goomba Village if Mario goes back there after visiting Shooting Star Summit in the Prologue. It is presumably implied that it landed on the balcony as a result of Mario visiting Shooting Star Summit and meeting with the Star Spirits.
As the player would have no stated reason to go back to Goomba Village at that point and no one mentions the item or even any shooting stars landing anywhere else, it is very easy to miss this item.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Melmoth54
Yoshi’s Island contains an Easter egg with the Slot Machine Bonus Challenge. The instructions appear to simply state that getting a match of three Shy Guys, stars or watermelons would get a 1-Up, which is correct.
However, if the player gets a line with the Shy Guy in the first slot, a star in the second and a watermelon in the third, mimicking the instructions, the player will also get a 1-Up. Note that they have to be on the machine in that specific order, and this is the only result that rewards the player that does not involve matching three of the same icon.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: racknaee
In Donkey Kong Country, highlighting “Erase Game” on the main menu and pressing Down, A, R, B, Y, Down, A and Y will unlock the sound test mode. By pressing Select, the music will change and cycle through all available music tracks in the game.
However, it is also possible to inadvertently crash the game if after unlocking the sound test, the player then erases a save and presses Select again. This will cause the screen to become black and require the game to be restarted, as shown in the footage.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: DKC (NA, SNES)
Footage from an extremely early point during the development of Super Mario 3D Land, shown by the game’s director, Koichi Hayashida, during a Game Developers’ Conference 2012 presentation.
At this point, Mario had no animations and was represented by a static model sliding around, while the environment was a Whomp’s Fortress model imported from Super Mario 64.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
The Dragon Coins from Super Mario World went through a large number of revisions in the design process, as the developers evidently kept changing what the coins did and what they should depict, as seen by ordering development files by their creation date.
The coin originally started out as a large version of a normal coin, before being worth 10 coins, then 5, and then likely being changed to a special coin type of which several would need to be collected to receive an extra life. These first had Mario’s head on them before it was changed to Yoshi’s head in the final version.
As such, it can be assumed that the developers wanted to have “big coins” from the beginning of development, whereas the exact function of them was to be determined later.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
In Super Mario Galaxy 2, there is a black hole that will not activate the usual “sucked into a black hole” animation, instead making the player characters simply float in midair until they disappear.
It can be found at the end of one of the moving platform paths in the Bowser Jr.’s Fearsome Fleet galaxy.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: lugalan
Whenever Mario obtains accessories in Super Mario RPG, these simply get added to his inventory. A commonly known exception is the Ghost Medal, which is forcibly equipped upon him when he completes the Three Musty Fears quest.
However, a much more obscure second exception exists that very few players would ever see organically during gameplay. If Mario obtains the Troopa Pin from Sergeant Flutter by scaling the wall in Land’s End quickly enough, and he is not currently wearing an accessory, Sergeant Flutter will actually equip it onto Mario himself.
As it is highly unlikely that a player would have played all the way through 5 out of the game’s 7 sections without equipping an accessory on Mario (unless doing some manner of self-imposed challenge), most players would not see this and the pin would simply be added to Mario’s inventory as usual.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: pidgezero_one
Concept art for various logo designs for the Crazy Cap stores in Super Mario Odyssey, seen in the Art of Super Mario Odyssey book.
Note that “since 1994” and the monkey’s appearance are likely a reference to Diddy Kong, who debuted in Donkey Kong Country in 1994. Since Crazy Cap is said to originate in the Donkey Kong-themed New Donk City in-universe, it would have been appropriate to theme it after a specific Donkey Kong character in this manner.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Art of SMO (2018)
Original illustration of Toad taking off his mushroom cap and using it as a parachute from an officially licensed 1991 German book accompanying the Super Mario Bros. Super Show cartoon series, based on a similar scene seen in the cartoon.
Note that in recent years, Nintendo has repeatedly and explicitly stated that this interpretation is no longer correct and that Toad’s mushroom cap is part of his head, and thus non-removable.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source