Mario Kart 8 Deluxe contains an unused failsafe texture for the drivers’ emblems, which can be made to appear if the game is edited/corrupted to not be able to find the correct texture. The texture is a circle that reads (clockwise) “LURD Dummy”, showing the left, up, right and down directions and marked “Dummy” to signify a placeholder.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: RoGamer97

Officially licensed Yoshi mask on display at the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas at their “Off-Model Mario” exhibit. Note the placement of the eyeholes and nostril holes.

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In Super Mario Galaxy, the Flying Mario power-up can only be used in two specific locations, so that most of its interactions are never seen. Modifying the game to let Mario use it anywhere reveals that he activates step-activated platforms (shrinking platforms and Flipswitch Panels) just by flying above them, as seen in the footage.

This appears to be a custom-programmed interaction since Flying Mario does not simply project his own hitbox downward at all times, and this type of activation is unique to these platforms. This suggests Flying Mario could have been planned to be usable in a much larger number of locations at some point in development.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SPG64

By using various out of bounds glitches to beat Super Mario 64 DS as any non-Mario character, it is revealed that the game’s credits load a special Mario object that is dependent on the real player character’s location in the scene (who is made invisible for this purpose).

If the real Mario is actually replaced by someone else, the spawn point of the fake Mario will change subtly, resulting in humorous scenarios.

Top: in the regular ending, fake Mario is shown standing on the edge of the top of the tower in Whomp’s Fortress.

Bottom: in the glitched ending, fake Mario spawns slightly further from the tower and falls off, which can be seen by closely looking at the side of the tower.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Axewlotl

The colors of the letters in the word “World” in the logo of Mario Kart World appear to be, at least in the majority, a reference to the colors of the word “World” in the logo of Super Mario World.

Note that the “D” is a new teal color that was not present in the original logo, but this may be simply to avoid using the same green color twice, especially this close to each other. In modern Mario logos there is usually a rule that two letters of the same color (in a multicolored word) have to have at least two more letters of other colors between them.

If this is somehow not intentional and a coincidence that 4/5 of the colors match up with the same word used previously in a logo, this scenario is equally as notable for its unlikely chance.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: kaasiand.cool

In the GameCube version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the collision model for the environment - very unusually - uses environmental textures. As the collision is never intended to be seen by the player and its visual appearance is merely a reference for the programmer while editing, the overwhelming majority of games leave it either single-colored or use simple color segments or development textures to signify different types of collision.

Since the collision is so simplistic compared to the actual visual geometry and its textures are stretched and misaligned, this produces the appearance of a corrupted early 3D (e.g. Nintendo 64) game when the collision is viewed by itself.

Top: Rogueport Plaza as it is seen in-game.
Bottom: removing the plaza and viewing its collision model.

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Officially licensed 2015 Baby Donkey Kong plush.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: VGPlushDaily

In New Super Mario Bros., whenever Mega Mario performs a Ground Pound, coins or Goombas fall from the sky. While Goombas are almost always loaded into memory specifically because Mega Mario can cause them to appear almost everywhere, there is one place where the game does not expect them to appear: Toad Houses.

By modifying the game to allow Mega Mushrooms to be used inside a Toad House and then performing a Ground Pound, Mario summons Goombas without the game loading their graphics into memory first, making them appear as glitched green squares.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: NSMB (NA, DS)

Internally, the Bugaboom boss in Super Mario Galaxy is called “BossStinkBug” (object name) and “BossFartBug” (texture names). No in-game text refers to him as particularly smelly, so this may be a remnant of an earlier idea from development.

Note that stink bugs are a real-life insect, though neither Bugaboom nor the related Mandibug enemies resemble them, instead appearing to be modeled on stag beetles.

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Unauthorized 1986 Super Mario Bros. milk caps from Japan, featuring many miscolored and off-model character depictions.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: BigAfroDogg