Top: in Super Mario Odyssey, looking down from the Wooded Kingdom main area shows the cliffs disappearing into the fog. It is logical to assume that the model for the cliffs likely ends a short distance below the point where it fades away completely, as there is no point in modeling something that would never be visible.

Bottom: however, examining the model for the Wooded Kingdom in an external model viewer reveals that the cliffs are absurdly tall, going down far beyond the point at which the fog hides them completely, and being many times the height of the entirety of the explorable level. Compare the trees in the top right, which are extremely tall in-game, to the size of the cliff.

It is unknown if this means that the cliff was more visible at some point in development (possibly due to thinner fog), necessitating such a height, or whether this is merely a quirk of the method used to model the area and not intended to have been seen by the player at any point.

Source: noclip.website

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In Paper Mario, an oversight can cause the game to not progress past the level up screen if Mario has HP Plus or FP Plus badges equipped at a high enough level. The only way to continue playing in this scenario is to reset the game, losing progress as a result.

The game considers all stats in which Mario has 50 or more as being impossible to level up, even if his base stat is lower than 50 and it is merely being increased by equipping an HP Plus or FP Plus badge. As such, if Mario is anywhere at Level 21 or above, and has both fully upgraded BP to 30 as well as is equipping enough badges to push both HP and FP to 50 or beyond, the level up screen will not allow any stat to be increased, preventing the player from continuing.

To prevent this, simply make sure at least one of either Mario’s HP or FP is 45 or below while leveling him up between Level 21 and 26 (or alternatively, keep BP under 30). After reaching Level 27, no more level ups are possible so any badges can be used without concerns.

Source: iggykoop

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In the opening to Mario Power Tennis, the establishing shot of the Peach Dome features a number of Piantas walking.

Looking very closely at them reveals that their walk cycle is unnaturally stilted and stuttering, whereby they do not actually walk by taking steps so much as make very tiny hops to move around (best seen with the yellow Pianta on the center road, ahead of Wario and Waluigi).

Source: villomaru

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In Super Mario Galaxy, menu screens and text windows contain placeholder text in their layout files, which is mostly fitting for its purpose (describing what kind of text would go in that window) but is occasionally more bizarre.

The placeholder text for the icon selection when creating a new file has the prompt translate to “Please choose your favorite face” instead of “Select an icon”, and the placeholder text for the Mii icon/any existing Miis is “Bibibibibibibibibibi”. Above is a mock-up inserting the text into the finished screen.

Source: cometmedal

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In Donkey Kong Country 2, a rare glitch can happen to Kutlass enemies in the Gusty Glade level whereby they will turn around and extremely rapidly run off backwards, ignoring ledges (which may result in them running off a cliff into a pit), as seen in the footage.

It is unknown why this occurs; the level features a unique wind mechanic that adds directional momentum to the Kongs that works similarly, but it is not supposed to affect the enemies.

Source: TheHumbleFellow

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In the ScareScraper mode of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, if a Greenie spawns in a corner, there is a chance for it to become stuck and vibrate rapidly instead of floating towards Luigi, as seen with the one in the rear left corner of the room in the footage.

The Greenie will become unstuck after being flashed with the Strobulb.

Source: Balgehaktkruiden

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The prototype version of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga contains a segment in the intro where Luigi actually talks in a speech bubble (as himself), which would not appear in the finished version or any other games in the series. In the final game, he only talks while disguised as Peach, and in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, his thoughts are seen as text in the Dream’s Deep area, but at no point does he talk without a disguise using text in a speech bubble as seen in the footage.

The two speech bubbles translate roughly to “Big brother! That explosion just now left us with a lot of voice bombs scattered around!” and “There are people in trouble. I wonder if anything can be done…” Luigi does not have any other written dialogue in the game, only communicating in the sound bites from the finished version.

He is referring to another element only found in the prototype, being the voice bombs placed around the area. In the finished game, those only appear in the cutscene of Peach’s voice being replaced by bombs, and never in gameplay. Here, Mario can jump on them to disable them, and getting rid of one near a Toad will make him give Mario a Mushroom.

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In Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdos spit eggs exactly every 4.26 seconds, or 256 frames. An expert player who is trained to be able to count these intervals would be able to pause the game strategically shortly before the frame in question, which would cause the Birdo to not spit the egg. Compare the clips of the same game state with no pausing on the left and pausing at the correct time on the right.

Unfortunately, this trick is of very limited use since grabbing the eggs and throwing them back is the way most Birdos are defeated in the first place. However, it does still work on the fireball-spitting green and gray Birdos that are defeated with other items in the environment (though they have different timing due to spitting three fireballs in a row).

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An obscure interaction occurs in New Super Mario Bros. Wii with the Circling Boo Buddies that appear in only one level, 5-Ghost House. These are actually vulnerable to Propeller Mario’s drill attack, as seen in the footage.

It is unlikely for players to discover this during regular gameplay because regular Boos are not vulnerable to this move and instead hurt Mario if he attempts it. As such, there is no incentive to try it on an enemy that by all logic should have the same interactions as regular Boos, being literally a group of Boos going around in a circle.

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Earliest known prototype of Super Mario Kart, recovered from development files surfaced in 2020. At this point in development, the characters were generic racers instead of Mario characters, and Mario Circuit 3 was the only track implemented.

You may have noticed that Mario Circuit 3 appears more times in the Mario Kart series than any other track, appearing in Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart Tour, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Mario Kart World (as 1/3 of the Mario Circuit track).* It is theorized that this may be due to the developers’ sentimental connection to this track as the first one ever made for the franchise.

*Note that SNES Rainbow Road also appears 6 times but only if its Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe appearances are counted as separate, while Mario Circuit 3 actually appears 6 times in completely separate games.

Source: TailsLaboratory3322

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