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 the second mission of Noki Bay in Super Mario Sunshine, Mario fights Gooper Blooper on top of a cliff to gain access to the treasure chamber below. Gooper Blooper sits on top of a Brick Block which gets automatically destroyed when he is defeated, allowing Mario to fall down to the chamber.
However, that Brick Block is not actually a special object, but a regular Brick Block seen elsewhere in the game, which means it can be destroyed by jumping into it from below. This is supposed to be impossible for two reasons: Mario cannot jump that high, and he should be incapable of getting beneath the Brick Block before defeating the boss to begin with.
However, via a combination of glitches (clipping into a wall using a trampoline to access the chamber and Rocket Storage to jump high) it is possible to jump into the Brick Block, breaking it. This will actually cause Gooper Blooper to fall into the treasure chamber, where he can be fought normally, a surprisingly realistic outcome compared to what one may expect knowing similar glitches in other games (such as Gooper Blooper floating in mid-air or the game crashing).
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Pluslerules
2006 print ad for Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and the Nintendo DS Lite.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: retrogameart
In Super Mario Galaxy, Boo Mario turns back into regular Mario automatically upon using a Launch Star. As such, it is impossible to see Boo Mario being launched. Note that this is different from some other power-ups, like Fire Mario or Bee Mario, that persist through Launch Stars.
Modifying the game to let Boo Mario be launched (shown here in the Dusty Dune Galaxy) reveals that after landing, he does not actually assume the correct orientation relative to the ground. While gravity still works correctly on him, he is stuck at the orientation he was at when he landed instead of rotating to match the gravity.
This raises the question of whether this is a consequence of Boo Mario never being intended to be launched, and as such the developers never bothering to fix this as it would never be relevant, or - conversely - if this was a bug with Boo Mario that led to the programmers removing his ability to be launched in the first place.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SPG64
In a 1993 issue of the Japanese Famitsu magazine, the staff contacted Nintendo Japan with questions about the Mario franchise due to the imminent release of Super Mario All-Stars.
One of the questions asked of Nintendo was “Donkey Kong has not been appearing recently. Why?” whereupon Nintendo replied that “Donkey Kong Jr. appearing in Super Mario Kart is a preview of things to come”, referencing the (then not yet announced) Donkey Kong ‘94, which would feature both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.
However, the magazine then, as a joke, takes that answer to mean that Nintendo is suggesting that Donkey Kong has some sort of extremely important place in an overarching story, and included this illustration of Donkey Kong as a puppetmaster controlling both Mario and Bowser.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: Famitsu (Japan), Issue 239, 1993
Early concept art of a scenario for New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey, where a cat is holding a Power Moon in its mouth and Mario tries to obtain it by beckoning the cat to come closer. Nothing even remotely like this scenario occurs in the finished game.
Note that early artwork shows Peach being present in many scenarios in New Donk City (note her being visible cut off at the left edge of the image), suggesting that she was at some point thought to accompany Mario in that area, or be a more important character for that segment.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
In Donkey Kong Country, a bizarre glitch can happen when riding Enguarde and collecting an Animal Token. Whenever three matching Animal Tokens are collected, a bonus stage featuring that Animal Buddy is briefly entered to collect tokens for extra lives.
However, if the Animal Buddy (Expresso in the footage) clips through the ground and dies during the bonus stage, the game will not return to the regular gameplay prior to collecting the token. Instead, it will restart the game (start the beginning of the first stage, Jungle Hijinxs) using the current characters, which includes Enguarde.
As shown in the footage, this results in Enguarde being controllable in a non-water stage. Due to the game never expecting this to happen, Enguarde still treats the environment as water, allowing him to swim through air.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: RetroTortuga