A Super Mario variety blog.
Screenshots, photos, sprites, gifs, scans and more from all around the world of Super Mario Bros.
- Links
In Super Mario Bros., swimming Cheep Cheeps that appear in water levels and the flying Cheep Cheeps that appear in the bridge levels on land are internally completely different objects that merely use the same graphic. Since Mario cannot stomp enemies underwater, it is impossible for him to stomp the swimming kind during regular gameplay.
However, if a swimming Cheep Cheep is placed in a land stage and Mario stomps it, it actually turns into a Koopa Troopa, the same way a Koopa Paratroopa would when stomped. This is not actually merely an unintended consequence of the stomping but appears to be a remnant of the Cheep Cheep’s development history.
In internal development files that surfaced in 2020, the Super Mario Bros. source code was included. In it, Cheep Cheeps were called “flying kame” (“kame” being Japanese for “turtle”), suggesting that their code was originally intended for a type of Koopa Paratroopa before being repurposed for an underwater enemy, the flying movement being recontextualized as swimming.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
Top: during the final battle against Tiki Tong in Donkey Kong Country Returns, the background of the battlefield is abstract and features many shifting patterns. However, the background is very dark and the patterns constantly change opacity, making them very hard to see properly and impossible to see all at once.
Middle and bottom: extracting the textures from the files reveals that these are actually very elaborate patterns that can only be appreciated fully in this form and not in the game itself, including one that appears to depict textile art or even be based on a scan of real-world textile. Please zoom in to view the images.
Source: Eeveeloverthespriter8, RetroArchive
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings
Goodbye splash page announcing the end of the long-running “Dream Drunker” comic series in the Japanese Nintendo Dream magazine in 2003, featuring an original illustration of two of its main recurring characters: Bowser and the Shy Guy who communicates only by saying “Ho~”.
Source: Nintendo Dream (Japan), Issue 92, 2003
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings
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