In the original GameCube version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Doopliss does not copy Mario’s badge-based appearance when stealing his identity. As such, if Mario looks like Wario due to wearing the W Emblem badge, Doopliss will still wear the regular Mario outfit, not matching Mario exactly.

This was fixed in the Nintendo Switch version, but introduced a new edge case. Now, Doopliss does correctly copy Mario’s appearance, but only at the moment of the first battle against him; he will continue using that appearance for the rest of the chapter. However, Mario can still unequip the badge in the menu (which does nothing visually while his identity is stolen), which will not affect Doopliss.

This results in the scenario seen in the footage. If Mario has the W Emblem equipped during the first battle, but unequips it before the last battle, Doopliss will have Wario clothes, but Mario will be restored to his Mario clothes. This produces an unintentionally fitting visual, with Doopliss using the “evil” Wario color scheme while Mario is restored to his “good” regular one.

Source: Familiar-Staff2329

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

Top row: concept art for Super Mario Bros. shows that Mario was originally envisioned to be able to ride a cloud. This concept was of course implemented later in Super Mario World, where the clouds of the Lakitus (which have been around since Super Mario Bros.) were finally made rideable.

Bottom: a program called “snd_test” was recovered from internal Nintendo developer files for the SNES. It consists mainly of a technical sound test, but also contains a very rudimentary Mario game with a cloud that resembles the rideable cloud from the sketches more than the Super Mario World Lakitu’s Cloud does (since that one is large and has a face).

While the internal date stamp for snd_test itself places it slightly after the release of Super Mario World, this does not actually preclude the Mario game from being created much earlier, especially given how primitive it looks. It is thus possible that this was a test for the cloud (based on the old concepts) that eventually resulted in the Lakitu’s Cloud being implemented into Super Mario World.

Source: LooygiBros

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

In Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, a rare glitch may occur with Dixie Kong’s helicopter ability when it is used right before hanging on to a climbable surface, whereby her hair will become stuck in its spinning animation indefinitely.

Dixie will continue spinning her hair through all actions until her ability is either used again or gameplay is interrupted by changing areas, a cutscene, etc.

Source: akfamilyhome

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

Interestingly, the Nintendo Switch version of Super Mario RPG merely approximates the original isometric (technically dimetric, but commonly known as “isometric” in video game terminology) perspective of the SNES version.

Instead, it has a 30° angle perspective projection where objects further away do get smaller unlike in the original, but the perspective is very subtle so it can easily be mistaken for an actual isometric projection.

Source: Thomas Feichtmeir

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

Wing Mario-shaped cake from the 1999 book “Lovable Character Cakes” by Debbie Brown. The cake appears to be based on the 1997 officially licensed Wing Mario plush, itself based on the official render from Super Mario 64.

Source: station36.cebu, via Skyevlyn

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

In 2026, the Nintendo New York store has started using branded receipt paper that is decorated with gold Mario objects on the back.

Source: VGArtAndTidbits

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

Previously, I have posted about how in the prototype version of Mario Artist: Paint Studio for the Japan-only Nintendo 64DD add-on, crashing the game shows a bizarre “You’ve been DINGLED…” screen with a British school crossing patrol officer, colloquially known as a “lollipop man” (included since the game being mainly developed by Software Creations, a British studio).

Interestingly, this is barely visible in the game itself as the actual “You’ve been DINGLED…” screen appears for only 2/3 of a second before being replaced with the crash debug information. As such, it appears that even during the prototype phase this was intended to be a sudden moment of surprise that requires viewing it multiple times to fully process the image, and was likely inserted as a prank between the British programmers.

Top: how the crash appears in-game.
Bottom: the “You’ve been DINGLED…” screen, isolated.

Source: Yakumono, Upwader

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

A relatively obscure music track in the Paper Mario soundtrack is “Happy Sun” (unofficial name given by the community since the track does not appear on the official soundtrack CD).

When the Sun Tower is visited during Chapter 6 while the Sun is being prevented from shining by the clouds created by Huff N. Puff, a sad song (commonly called “Sad Sun”) plays in the area. After destroying the source of the clouds, the player then sees the Sun ascend in a cutscene, and has absolutely no completionist reason to ever go back to this area since it is barren and has no collectibles.

However, if the player does go out of the way to return to the Sun Tower after completing the chapter, this original “Happy Sun” music will play. It is bizarre that the developers decided to dedicate two unique pieces of music to an area that has nothing in it except an NPC that needs to be talked to exactly once.

Source: DaintiiMusic

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

Officially licensed 1992 Super Mario Kart jigsaw puzzle from Japan. While the drivers’ poses are based on official artwork for the game, they have been slightly redrawn for the image.

Source: wesofthedead

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings

An extremely rare and bizarre bug that has currently only been documented once in Mario Kart World results in Rainbow Road’s course geometry not loading, while its collision remains.

This results in the track becoming essentially invisible except for objects like coins, item boxes, etc. As seen in the footage, it is still possible to race on the track if the player remembers the layout.

Source: NocturnalBunuy

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings