Top: Blockhoppers are rare enemies in New Super Mario Bros., being encountered only in one level, World 2-5, where they pretend to be regular Question Blocks before revealing themselves. They have never appeared in any other game since.

Middle and bottom: it turns out that a Blockhopper was intended to appear in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, though whether it would have been as an enemy or NPC is unclear. Here are the surviving sprites and animations for it, extracted from the game’s files.

Source: BasileousProductions, VolseniMack

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Quake/Yoshi’s Story crossover reader-submitted artwork published in a 1998 issue of the British Nintendo Official Magazine. The very close releases of Quake for the Nintendo 64 (NA: March 24, 1998, EU: May 24, 1998) and Yoshi’s Story (NA: March 9, 1998, EU: May 10, 1998) led to most publications both in the US and Europe covering both games in a single issue.

This drew attention to the contrast between the two games and resulting in such crossover artwork both from the magazines themselves (as seen in this earlier post) and from readers.

Source: NOM (UK), Issue 70, 1998

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Top: in Super Mario Sunshine, the pool underneath the pirate ship attraction in Pinna Park is normally slightly reflective. Faint reflections of the pirate ships and the surrounding area can be seen, distorted by the rippling of the water surface.

Middle: however, during the boss battle against Mecha-Bowser, the surface of the pool seems highly reflective instead. No water rippling can be distinguished, and the reflection is as vibrant as the pirate ships themselves. In addition, not everything is being reflected; only the ships and the Ferris wheel. This is very difficult to notice during regular gameplay due to the quick movement and constant angle changes of the rollercoaster.

Bottom: modifying the game to explore the boss version of the area without being confined to the rollercoaster reveals that the water looks so reflective because it has been replaced with a literal mirror. The mirror is a hard surface Mario can walk on, and seems to be the same type of object as the mirrors in Gelato Beach.

Source: TheJeffreyLand

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In Luigi’s Mansion 3, Gooigi’s sentience differs between playing in 1-player and 2-player modes, which actually affects some of the game’s cutscenes.

In 1-player mode, Gooigi is merely a vessel for Luigi’s spirit, so he is inactive unless the player decides to control him. Doing that will cause Luigi to slump over and transfer his agency to Gooigi, who will spring to life. Transferring back will cause Gooigi to slump over and Luigi to become active again.

In 2-player mode, Gooigi always has agency due to always receiving input from the second player. However, this is not merely a gameplay consideration; cutscenes are changed due to this as well.

Top: in 1-player mode, after getting the Floor 2 button, which can only be done as Gooigi, Luigi’s consciousness needs to be transferred back to him in order for him to celebrate the achievement. Note Gooigi being inactive during this.

Bottom: in 2-player mode, both Gooigi and Luigi are active during the cutscene, causing Gooigi to celebrate alongside Luigi, which startles him as he evidently did not expect Gooigi to mimic him in that manner.

Source: stephenjplant

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Officially licensed “fully covered with Mario power-up forms” hoodie from Japan (please zoom in to view details).

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According to a 2010 interview with Yoko Tanaka, character designer for Mario Kart Wii, the completion of the game’s development was very emotional. She recalls the team applauding, feeling like she could cry, and then seeing a fellow programmer actually crying. Then, the team lifted the crying programmer in the air.

Source: B_squo

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Super Mario World contains many glitches that result in unintended objects being placed in the item reserve box, allowing them to be spawned anywhere at will. Those who have experimented with such glitches or cheats will know that this can be used to put Yoshi in the item reserve box and as such let him be summoned in places he usually cannot visit, like inside castle levels.

However, manipulating the game even further allows Yoshi to be spawned with something already in his mouth. Since the object held inside Yoshi’s mouth is, internally, merely a reference to another object, it is possible for the reference to point to the Yoshi object itself, resulting in Yoshi holding himself in his own mouth.

He looks normal while doing this, but making him spit himself out results in the behavior seen in the footage, where he will turn into a rapidly spinning, flickering Yoshi head that moves at a great speed and bounces off walls.

Source: badflips

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Officially licensed Yoshi-themed tea set consisting of a teapot and cup that stack up to form a Yoshi Egg, from Japan.

Source: jpnmart

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Illustrated guide to all the references in the Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions version of Mario and Luigi’s house. From the top left, clockwise:
-Mario’s tennis racket using the design used in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and onwards
-Mario’s golf club using the Mario Golf World Tour design
-Comet Observatory as seen in the intro to Super Mario Galaxy
-a Shroob UFO from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
-Cape Mario’s cape from Super Mario World
-a Wii Wheel accessory
-the Egg Cup trophy from Mario Kart 8
-Mario’s hard hat from Super Mario Maker
-a blueprint of a stage from Mario Bros.

Please note that obvious references such as the Yoshi Egg rug or Peach’s picture have been omitted.

Source: mariouniversalis

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Top: in the Game Boy Advance version of Donkey Kong Country, additional cutscenes were inserted to tell the story in-game as opposed to the original SNES version’s manual-only story. For the ending, a scene where the Kongs are left behind in the water after King K. Rool escapes was added.

Middle: looking closely at the tiny sprites reveals that none of them are actually in a swimming animation, and are using shrunken-down versions of preexisting animations instead.

Bottom: for Diddy, Cranky, Candy and Funky, the animation is simply their idle standing animation, while Donkey Kong is in his skidding animation. This humorously implies that the water in that area, despite looking deep due to being far away from the shore, is actually shallow enough for them to simply be standing in it without the need to swim.

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