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 Free Roam mode of Mario Kart World, a spot exists on the Dry Bones Burnout track where the player can consistently clip out of bounds by Wall Riding against an overhanging bone from below. Doing so makes the player character fall through the course and land on an invisible floor that spans the entirety of the open world underneath the visible geometry.
Interestingly, this type of failsafe with the invisible floor appears to be a direct influence of Monolith Soft, the creators of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, who have worked on Mario Kart World. In their previous open world Nintendo franchise games, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, similar floors are implemented underneath the world to stop the players from falling infinitely if they somehow clip out of bounds.
What makes these floors specific to that company is that they are sometimes angled and actually join up with the visible floors in specific spots to allow players to walk/drive back into bounds instead of simply being a flat rectangle underneath the entirety of the world.
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Segments of Mario dancing, from the official 1992 music video for the Super Mario Land rap by Ambassadors of Funk.
While many assume the song to be either unofficial or merely one of the many bizarre Nintendo of America-licensed projects typical of the early years of the franchise, this is not the case. The musical project to create that song, and later the entire Super Mario Compact Disco album, was greenlit by Shigeru Miyamoto personally.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: rachroyston6697
In Tall Trunk Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2, the central planet with a giant tree can sometimes be seen from further away, such as by looking back from other planetoids, but it would be easy to assume that the crown of the tree looks bigger due to perspective distortion.
Here is a view of the tree using orthographic projection, which displays the true proportions without distorting them (compare this e.g. to a technical blueprint of a structure). This shows clearly how absurdly wide the foliage is compared to the size of the trunk.
With this in mind, it becomes ironic that the location is called Tall Trunk Galaxy when the tree’s trunk is actually extremely short compared to the crown, and would have been more accurately called Wide Crown Galaxy or something similar. The original Japanese name for this location is ビッグツリーギャラクシー, literally the English phrase “Big Tree Galaxy” transliterated into Japanese, which is more accurate since the tree is certainly big, only horizontally instead of vertically.
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In Super Mario Odyssey, the Tail Tree from Super Mario 3D Land can be found in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Its leaves are more subdued in their resemblance to the Super Leaf power-up than they are in Super Mario 3D Land, lacking the eyes and the round holes, and appearing similar to “fresh” Super Leaves as seen in the Toad Houses in Super Mario Bros. 3.
However, as an Easter egg, there is a very difficult to see singular leaf on the tree that actually has a hole in it, seen in the center of the screenshot.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SMO (Switch)
In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a combination of the Bubble Flower and the Boosting Spin Jump badge allows the player to reach any arbitrary height by blowing a bubble and then bouncing off of it.
While most levels in the game have been designed in a robust manner that accounts for the ability to go anywhere, some places contain oversights such as the one seen in the footage in the Missile Meg Mayhem level.
Using the above trick in the portion of the level with the twisting clouds reveals that one of the clouds ends before going off-screen, appearing jarringly cut-off.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: LooygiBros
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.
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