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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Top: a common urban legend surrounding Mario Kart 64 concerns this unique Thwomp in a cage on the Bowser’s Castle track, who appears to be green. The mystery of why a Thwomp would be caged, and his seemingly unique coloration, led to many players believing he had some hidden significance and could be instrumental to unlocking some secret functionality in the game.
Bottom: in reality, the Thwomp isn’t green at all. He is merely being lit with pure yellow light, which has the effect of making the blue appear green. This effect can be replicated in an image editing program by overlaying the Thwomp with a layer of pure yellow (#FFFF00) and setting the blending to “multiply”, which results in the exact same coloration.
It is likely that the reason players assumed the Thwomp was green was because the yellow lighting being entirely localized to the inside of the cage is highly unnatural (note the floor of the cage also sharply changing color on the other side of the bars). If the lighting in the entire room was yellow, or if the yellow lighting bled through the cage into the room in a more realistic manner, it is possible that the lighting-based nature of the Thwomp’s color would have been more apparent and the confusion avoided.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
In Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Spirit enemies will spawn when Mario is on the construction side surrounding the tower in Ricco Harbor in all episodes of that stage.
If he is knocked off the plank at a specific angle by the Wind Spirit’s attack so that he falls into one of the vessels on the ground, he will be caught in a state of eternal knockback from which he will be unable to escape.
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Internal concept art for the 2002 Nintendo/Burger King cross-promotion event, featuring hand-drawn illustrations of the toys.
Some of the toys were released in a very similar form to how they were presented (e.g. Egg Hunter Yoshi), some were changed before release to better fit the character (e.g. Soar and Chase Mario was changed to Soar and Chase Luigi to match the Boo), and others were completely scrapped, like Speed Bump Toad.
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One of the biggest mysteries of Super Mario RPG development is the “Luigi Feast”, a screenshot that appeared before the game’s release in many print publications showing a scene entirely unlike anything in the finished game.
Mario is seemingly attending a feast in an unknown part of the game’s world, which includes Toads, moles, and Nimbus people as guests, and is apparently hosted by Valentina. Those three species live in completely separate places in the finished version, and Valentina shows no hospitality to Mario (quite the opposite, with him needing to sneak into the palace and being attacked).
Most importantly, one of the guests is Luigi, who is completely absent from the finished game outside of a tiny cameo in the ending. All of these details seem to suggest that the game’s story was very different at that point in development. Above is the highest known quality version of this screenshot that was ever printed (zoom in to view details).
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: pidgezero_one
Top: Mario Raceway in Mario Kart 64 features cartoonish striped trees. The game’s files contain a striped leaf graphic (slightly resembling the Super Leaf power-up) that was almost certainly intended to fall out of these trees when bumped into.
Bottom: however, in the finished game, the striped leaf graphic is unused and the leaves are replaced with standard, more realistic leaves instead.
Why the whimsical leaves were removed is unknown.
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Officially licensed 1998 Super Mario 64 ring binder that features what appears to be custom-made Bob-omb Buddy and Mr. I artwork that is unique to this item.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: no1mariofan
In an example of extreme irony, it is possible to die from a 1-Up Mushroom in Super Mario Bros. 2.
Shown in the Super Mario All-Stars version in the footage, there is a side room in World 2-2 that contains both a POW Block and a 1-Up Mushroom that can be plucked from the ground. If the player character throws the POW Block before picking up the 1-Up Mushroom, the mushroom will fly into the air after being picked due to the gravity-reducing effects of the POW Block.
Attempting to pick it up again in mid-air will result in the player character falling through the ground and dying.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: MrPyt1001
Top: original concept sketch for a scene from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show cartoon series episode “King Mario of Cramalot”, from the DiC internal archives.
Bottom: the same scene in the finished episode, for comparison.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SuperShowHQ
Unused expression for Yoshi, found in development files for Yoshi’s Island.
While the expression could signify a number of emotions such as anger, shock or frustration, the true meaning of it would have probably only been visible in the context of whatever lost scene it was designed for.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: flabandbabs