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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Poster with a stylized Mario scene, included with a 2006 issue of Nintendo Power (please zoom in to view details). This poster was designed by artist Gabe Swarr, known for artwork showcased at the iam8bit video game art exhibition.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: NP (US), Issue 204, 2006
In Super Mario RPG, Fireworks are an expensive item that can be bought from a mole in Moleville for 500 coins (half of Mario’s maximum coin carrying capacity). The game never suggests these are used for anything except being part of a trade sequence where they can be exchanged for a Shiny Stone, which can open the secret Culex boss battle or itself be further exchanged.
However, a secret use for these is that - independent of how many Mario actually has in his inventory - the game keeps track how many of them were purchased on that save file. Depending on the number of Fireworks Mario has purchased before beating the final boss, the shape of the fireworks in the credits will change between a Mushroom, a Fire Flower and a Star.
The same is also true for the Nintendo Switch version.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: VGMuseum1
In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the zero-gravity space section during the Wonder Effect of the Cosmic Hoppos level is reached by jumping on a special Hoppo that bounces Mario many screens up into the sky.
The combination of the Bubble Flower and the Boosting Spin Jump badge allows Mario to gain arbitrary height by blowing a bubble, spinning, bouncing off the bubble, and repeating this indefinitely. This can actually be used to very slowly manually make one’s way to space, which has been sped up in the footage.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: LooygiBros
Concept artwork for the 2023 Super Mario Bros. movie.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: NinEverything
Unused sleeping animation found in the files of Wario Land 4, likely intended to be used when Wario is left idle for long enough, similar to how Mario falls asleep in many different games under the same circumstances.
Interestingly, in the finished game, Wario does the opposite of sleeping when left idle - beginning to do exercise with dumbbells or a jumping rope instead. It is possible that this more standard sleeping animation was created early on in development before the designers decided that Wario’s personality would be more suited for being always active.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: WL4 (NA, GBA)
Top: unique illustration of a glitch found in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels whereby Mario is immune to Hammer Bros.’ hammers as long as he is touching the left side of the screen, seen in a 1986 issue of the Japanese Family Computer Magazine.
Bottom: game footage of the glitch in action, for reference. Note that the glitch also exists in Super Mario Bros., but since Hammer Bros. do not usually move to the left in the same way in that game (only doing this if Mario spends too much time lingering on the same screen), the glitch is far less useful.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: FCM (Japan), Issue 25, 1986
Top: in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario and Luigi’s stage entrance animations involve them jumping out of Warp Pipes. It is difficult to notice during regular gameplay unless comparing them directly, but Mario’s pipe is a darker green than Luigi’s.
Bottom: however, internally, the textures for the two pipes are actually swapped in their brightness relative to the objects as they are seen in-game. On the left is Mario’s pipe texture, which is light green but is made darker at runtime with a shader. On the right is Luigi’s pipe texture, which is dark green but made much lighter with a shader.
It is unknown why the developers chose such a bizarre way of implementing the pipe colors.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
The Game & Watch Gallery 2 version of Helmet includes a unique Easter egg whereby a different character is unlocked for playing badly enough.
If the player gets a Game Over with a score of less than 100, and selects Retry on the Game Over screen, Mario will be replaced with Wario. Note that there is no other way to play as Wario, so a player that is too good at the game might never discover this.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: info
Top: in the preview image for the Bowser Jr.’s playroom field in Mario Super Sluggers, a cloud can be seen to the top right of the Bowser Jr. decoration.
Middle: however, in-game, there are no clouds at all on the walls of this field. At first this may appear to be simply a case of an outdated preview image: as often happens in development, screenshots are taken of areas in a certain stage, but then the area is changed while the screenshot is never updated, creating the discrepancy.
Bottom: the truth, however, is much more bizarre. The clouds are actually there in-game, but can only be seen if the camera is moved outside the field itself. Note how only the clouds on the near side (seen from outside) are visible, and not the far side (seen normally, from inside).
This is due to the clouds being mistakenly coded to be inside-out (in technical terms, their culling is set to “backface”, which is the opposite of how most regular objects are rendered). This strange oversight results in clouds that can not be seen during regular gameplay and require clipping out of bounds to discover.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: PenguinTheGeno