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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In the 1980s, the Japanese Famitsu magazine would feature custom-drawn comics illustrating various glitches in video games. Here is a detailed comic showing the “backwards-walking Koopa Troopa” glitch in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, as well as footage of the glitch itself for comparison.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: Famitsu (Japan), Issue 3, 1986
In Yoshi’s Story, the spiked stone block carried by the Black Fly Guys actually has a Thwomp-like face on it when examined very carefully (in-game sprite on the left), implying it is also sentient. This is difficult to see in-game due to the face being only barely darker than the stone, and the eyes following the contour of the shadow so that they are even harder to notice.
Interestingly, the official render of the Black Fly Guys (right) does not have the face on it, which suggests that either:
-the render predated the sprite and the sprite artist put the face on the stone without notifying the 3D artist, or
-the sprite predated the render and the 3D artist did not notice the face on the sprite when modeling it.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
Unique animated segment from a promotional video for the Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary event in 2010.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: TheMarioBros.net
Mario Kart World has an extremely aggressive implementation of Lakitu to prevent abuse of the Feather item. If the player attempts to create a shortcut that in any way even grazes an out-of-bounds area, Lakitu will immediately appear and punish the player.
Note how in the footage, the player very slightly touches the space above the colorful boundary blocks of the course, which is considered out of bounds for a Grand Prix race.
Even though Toadette lands in roughly the same spot she would have been if she simply drove along the ground with a Mushroom (so that this shortcut can not be considered a “skip”), she is still severely punished.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, several factors combine to create a unique way to collect arbitrarily many extra lives:
-the Drill power-up automatically defeats enemies falling onto the character from the top
-as long as the character is not touching the ground, this builds up a combo that can reward 1-Ups
-enemies from a pipe will not emerge indefinitely if the player is too close to the pipe to prevent abusing this to farm lives…
-however, the Grappling Vine badge circumvents this, and allows the player to move away and immediately latch back onto the pipe without ever touching the ground, preserving the combo.
If any of these factors was not in place, this trick would not be possible in that form.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: LooygiBros
It is possible that the Moleville theme in Super Mario RPG is a reference to a classical music piece called “Spinnerlied” or “Spinnliedchen” (“spinning song”) from the mid-19th century. The post first features a piano performance of the beginning of the song, followed by the beginning of the Moleville theme, for comparison.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: music, info: EmeryCox4
Super Donkey was a platformer that was in development for the SNES from 1991 to 1992, parts of which would be used as the basis for Yoshi’s Island. The game was never publicly revealed by Nintendo; its very existence is only known due to internal development data surfacing in 2020.
One extremely curious detail about the game shows just how long Nintendo is willing to hold on to an idea they believe is good before finally implementing it in a finished game:
Top: in Super Donkey, one of the abilities of the main character is a stomp attack that releases two dust clouds, one on each side, that continue the attack horizontally. The dust clouds visibly have chomping jack-o’-lantern-like faces to show that they damage enemies.
Bottom: in Super Mario Maker, 24 years later, this attack was finally put into a finished game, being the Ground Pound attack specific to the Big Goomba’s Shoe. It acts and looks nearly entirely identically to the Super Donkey version.
This means that at least one developer at Nintendo has been holding on to the idea for 24 years and waiting for the perfect moment to use it.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source