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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In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a glitch may occur on the online menu whereby two of the astronaut Toads that float randomly in the background may accidentally spawn at the same time, causing them to appear fused together as seen in the footage.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: footage, info: sybeez
Top left: this Mario illustration was commonly used in various video game magazines, such as the British Computer and Video Games magazine, starting with 1997. Mario’s expression and the light being emitted by an unseen object in front of him is intended to convey amazement at e.g. a new reveal.
Top right and bottom: a version of this artwork was used in the Mexican “Nintendomanía” TV show as part of the background. However, due to removing the light effect and slightly changing Mario’s mouth shape, it inadvertently made him appear to express fear or a similar emotion of unease instead.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: elrohpro
A Mario Paint reference appears in the Homestar Runner game “Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate”, where one of the random lines after a Game Over is “Undo Dog! Undo Dog!”, referring to the Undodog character that debuted in that game and later also appeared in the Super Mario Maker games.
The choice to reference Mario Paint specifically may be due to the very first Homestar Runner animation being made in Mario Paint in 1996 (four years prior to the official launch of the website), to acknowledge its part in the series’ history.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
In Super Mario Bros. 3 (shown here in the Super Mario All-Stars version, but applicable to all versions), diagonal Thwomps have faulty collision that does not turn off entirely after their death.
As such, defeating one of them with a Star will allow Mario to “juggle” it after death for additional points, as seen in the footage.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: MrPyt1001
Super Paper Mario contains unused sprites that seem to depict Mario, Luigi and Mr. L either jumping while crouching, or hitting a brick with their heads in a painful manner. Neither of these scenarios use those sprites in-game.
Interestingly, the Mario sprite already existed in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but was also unused. Please note that Mr. L’s sprite is smaller due to him not being subject to the same Wii graphics upgrade Mario and Luigi received during development, as explained in this previous post.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: papermariobeta
In Super Mario Galaxy, Mario’s eyes and hands are a separate model from the rest of his body, so that they are affected differently in certain scenarios (e.g. some reflections show Mario with no eyes, or with different hand positions than the real Mario; Mario’s afterimages as Rainbow Mario have no hands; and so on).
Interestingly, different major versions of the game treat Mario’s eyes differently during the brief window of a few frames while switching from regular gameplay to first-person view:
Left: in the original Wii version of the game, Mario’s irises disappear and his eyes are completely blank.
Middle: in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars version, his eyes take on a temporary red/orange texture.
Right: in the Nintendo Switch version, his eyes disappear completely and only the darker skin outline of them remains, which also may give off the impression of Mario closing his eyes.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: cometobservatory
In a curious pattern, the top speed of the initial eight drivers in Diddy Kong Racing scales proportionally to their height, while their handling scales inversely with their height, as pointed out in the official Nintendo Power guide for the game.
However, please note that this applies specifically to the height of the renders instead of the characters themselves, as Conker is shorter than Bumper, but his upright tail in the artwork reaches further up. As such, it appears as though the renders may have specifically been designed like this with the speed/handling correspondence in mind, though it also may have been a serendipitious coincidence.
(Note that the renders have not been resized compared to the characters’ in-game models, which would have been an easy way to make their heights fit any pattern. The heights in the renders are the characters’ actual in-game sizes.)
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
The files of Super Mario Galaxy contain an unused, oddly mesmerizing object that was supposed to be part of the Bowser’s Dark Matter Plant galaxy geometry. The object is two squares joined by a round opening, with a modeled pattern on the inside of the squares that can only be seen by looking between them.
The undulating space texture on the object is actually seen in-game whenever a platform passes through a transparent dark matter cube and temporarily becomes not solid; however, since those gaps disappear quickly, it is difficult to see it in detail during gameplay.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SMG (NA, Wii)