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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All graphics in Super Mario Bros. fit into a single 16x16 table of 8x8 pixel sprites and an equally sized 16x16 table of 8x8 pixel background tiles.
The above image provides a view of the entirety of these graphics; everything displayed in the game is contained within that image, merely the palettes being different for each tile/sprite during gameplay as needed.
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In Super Mario RPG, the parrot worn on Valentina’s head has always struck some players as being strikingly similar to Squawks from the Donkey Kong Country series, particularly due to the coloration of the wing feathers.
In 2023, the character design supervisor for the original version of Super Mario RPG, Kazuyuki Kurashima, finally confirmed that this was in fact a deliberate reference, by replying “This is a homage” in response to a question about the design similarity.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: Retro64__
In Super Paper Mario, if Mario throws an enemy using Thoreau and then immediately flips into 3D afterward, his animation will be forcibly set to “idle” for 5 seconds, no matter what action he actually performs.
This results in Mario appearing to slide along the ground instead of walking, as seen in the footage.
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Officially licensed Yoshi and Baby Yoshi plushes from Japan.
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In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario’s body is stolen in Chapter 4. Despite Mario being able to obtain and use the W Emblem badge by that point in the game, which changes the color scheme of his clothes to match Wario’s, the enemy who steals his body appears as the regular Mario with his red shirt and blue overalls in the original GameCube version of the game.
This was fixed in the Nintendo Switch version, whereby not only the enemy actually matches how Mario looked prior to his body being stolen, but also dialogue from certain NPCs that describes Mario’s regular clothes changes in this scenario to describe Wario’s clothes.
Note that there is no way to obtain the L Emblem badge at that point in the game, so no dialogue of this kind was implemented for describing Luigi’s or Waluigi’s clothes.
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In the Bowser’s Fury mode of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, thrown kittens can be used to kill the Luigi-like Fury Shadows.
Note how Mario throws a kitten and the Fury Shadow runs into it a few frames after it lands (where it still retains its “having just been thrown” property), dying on contact.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: ZX_Many
Initial character sketches of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong by Kevin Bayliss, character designer for Donkey Kong Country. These would later be used as the base for the actual in-game graphics.
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In Delfino Square in Mario Kart DS, Pianta noises are overlaid over the music track when driving by Piantas in the audience. Here is the Pianta noise track, isolated from the music, extracted from the files.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: KingYoshi93
In 2022, a prototype version of Super Mario World has surfaced. The prototype was intended for internal Nintendo use only, and as such has various debug options enabled that allow the testers and developers to access parts of the game quickly, such as being able to walk on paths in the overworld that have not yet been revealed.
If this is used to access Star Roads before they are unlocked, the scenario in the footage will occur. The game will load an empty level where Mario starts out underneath the death barrier and dies immediately (note the level fading in after “MARIO START!” but then quickly fading back out).
As such, it appears that Star Roads are “uncheatable” and require legitimate unlocking to use even in a development version.
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In Super Mario 64, a particularly brutal way for Mario to die is by being squished and burned at the same time, which occurs if he becomes trapped underneath these moving platforms in the Bowser in the Fire Sea course.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: SM64 (NA/N64)