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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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)
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team contains a hidden loading zone in one of the Driftwood Shore areas that leads to a test area with many untextured surfaces with numbers on them.
While the loading zone is very close to a point normally reached during gameplay, it is slightly out of bounds and requires modifying the game to actually access.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Pixiuchu
Mario Kart Wii contains a bizarre error on the Mario Circuit track whereby the shadow of one of the houses has the chimney on the wrong side (note how the house has the chimney on the right while the shadow’s chimney is on the left).
This would obviously be impossible with modern games’ lighting engines that create real shadows based on the actual shapes of objects and light direction, and is only possible due to the game using premade textures covering the ground as a low-tech alternative to actual shadows.
It is likely the texture was made when the house was facing the other direction, and not updated when it was rotated or mirrored.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: kevinvg207
In Super Mario Odyssey, a New Donker man is sitting on a bench in front of the Crazy Cap store in Bowser’s Kingdom. Normally, if Mario stands on the bench, he will enter a sitting animation next to the man.
However, by capturing a nearby Jizo statue and strategically uncapturing it while it occupies the other half of the bench, it is possible to make it push Mario into the man’s hitbox. This will cause Mario to sit down inside of the man instead.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SMO (Switch)
