A Super Mario variety blog.
Screenshots, photos, sprites, gifs, scans and more from all around the world of Super Mario Bros.
- Links
To promote the release of Super Mario Advance 2 in 2002, Nintendo of America donated $7,500 to PAWS/LA, a non-profit Los Angeles organization providing assistance with pet care to specific groups in need.
While other promotional activities at the time also featured Nintendo making donations, those appear to be related to the game in question, such as a donation of 1000 doors to Habitat for Humanity to promote Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
If any such relation was intended here, the presence of Yoshi during the promotion suggests that the angle Nintendo of America may have been going for was presenting Yoshi as Mario’s pet or equivalent.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
In Super Mario Odyssey, the shopkeepers in the Seaside Kingdom are Bubblainians riding on colorful Dorries. If Mario picks up a small seed, talks to one of them, then immediately throws the seed as soon as the shopkeeper finishes talking and presses A again as the seed hits the shopkeeper’s head, the game will become unplayable.
Everything will freeze except Mario and the shopkeeper (note the frozen Dorrie, frozen water, etc.), and the only action still available to the player is to rotate the camera, as seen in the footage. The game must be restarted to continue playing.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: terido_dsc
Officially licensed shy Boo mirror.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: VGArtAndTidbits
Nintendo appears to have had a completely different attitude towards NES educational title Donkey Kong Jr. Math between Japan and America.
Top: in a 1986 interview, Shigeru Miyamoto claimed that Donkey Kong Jr. Math was a “rip-roaring good time” and “super popular among the staff at Nintendo”, referring to the Nintendo Japan development staff.
Bottom: according to Bruce Lowry, former vice president of sales at Nintendo of America from 1981 to 1986, Donkey Kong Jr. Math was among the worst games the company released.
Please note that while the times and circumstances of the interviews differ, with the first being done closer to release when it was still in Nintendo’s interest to promote the game, while the second interview focuses on the game’s sales and public perception decades after, Donkey Kong Jr. Math is mentioned very rarely to begin with and it is curious how different these statements are from each other.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Source: shmuplations, Time Extension, reinodocogumelo
In Mario Kart 7, Wario Shipyard contains a “Banana Bounce Trench” where all bananas thrown into it will bounce for up to a minute before disappearing.
This is due to the invisible floor of the trench being mistakenly designated as a wall in the code, and bananas being coded to bounce off walls. Normally a banana will only bounce off a wall once or twice before landing on the floor, but if the floor itself is defined as a wall, the banana will bounce indefinitely until it despawns.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: B_squo
Top: in Super Paper Mario, the intended way to defeat the Mr. I enemies is to flip into 3D and then run a circle around them. This is, of course, a reference to how they are defeated in Super Mario 64, and would be the method immediately apparent to players familiar with that game.
Bottom: however, an alternate way to defeat them is to use the Pixl Fleep on them, which spins them around and makes them dizzy in a different manner.
Interestingly, Tippi’s Tattle of the Mr. I, “Try flipping and spinning around and around it…” can actually be taken to hint at the second method as well. Instead of “flipping into 3D” specifically, she simply says “flipping”, which applies to Fleep’s ability as well.
Normally, one would interpret “flipping and spinning around” as one action with two steps. However, if the sentence is taken to suggest two things, “flipping” and “spinning around” separately from each other, then it describes both methods.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: SPM (NA, Wii)
Top: in Super Mario 64, the third mission of Hazy Maze Cave is called “Metal-Head Mario Can Move!”
Bottom: when the character who has the Metal Cap ability was changed from Mario to Wario in Super Mario 64 DS, the mission was renamed to “Metal-Head Wario Can Move” without an exclamation point.
Note that this is the only mission in the game that lost the exclamation point; others like “Shocking Arrow Lifts!” or “Quick Race Through Downtown!” still retain them in Super Mario 64 DS.
This makes it look as though the game considers Wario being able to move in metallic form to be objectively less exciting than if it were Mario instead.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Pisprit
Since the Mario franchise is itself named after the main character and officially is rendered as “Super Mario” in merchandise, it is sometimes possible for some merchandise to appear to be confused between Mario and Luigi by pairing either the name “Luigi” with generic brand imagery of Mario, or the franchise name “Super Mario” with imagery of Luigi.
Left: a tag from a Luigi plush that uses a generic design depicting Mario, and only indicates that the product is Luigi as text, making it look like Mario is wrongly called “Luigi”.
Right: a mug depicting Luigi but not listing his name and instead listing the franchise name, making it look like Luigi is wrongly called “Super Mario”.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: mrl314