Super Mario Odyssey contains unused code for a “CeilingKeep” state for Mario that does not resemble anything found in the finished game, or in Mario games in general, which can only be described as “ceiling with ice floor puzzle mechanics”.

A typical ice floor puzzle in a video game will take away the player’s control upon stepping on a slippery surface and make characters keep moving in a straight line until they either leave the ice floor or hit an obstacle.

This state confers the same ability, bafflingly, to a ceiling instead. The ceiling would “grab hold” of Mario, make him move without player input in the direction he was facing when he touched it, and only let go when he reached the end of the ceiling.

What this could have been used for, and what such a ceiling could have looked like, is unknown.

Top: a diagram of the state.
Bottom: an example of an ice puzzle, the Ice Path in the Generation II Pokémon series games.

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Extremely rare 1995 Nintendo of America employee jacket with an embroidered Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong design.

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In Super Mario Odyssey, one of the compliments Mario receives from Cappy after performing impressive feats is “Amazing! I’d take my hat off to you, but…”

This is referencing the fact that Cappy’s species, the Bonneters, have two forms: a “ghost form” in which they appear as a small ghost with nub arms (similar to a Boo) wearing a hat, and a “hat form” in which they are only the hat itself. Since their eyes are on the hat in both forms, it is logical to assume that the hat is the main/essential part of their being and the ghost body is an auxiliary construct. As such, the possibility of them being able to remove the hat seems very unlikely.

However, if we assume that such a thing is possible, i.e. that a Bonneter can remove the hat while remaining embodied in just the ghost part, then Cappy’s model is not actually fully modeled enough to see what that would look like. As the top of his ghost body is always covered by the hat, it is missing from the model.

Still, Cappy’s sister Tiara does have a fully modeled ghost body underneath her veil. This allows us to view at least her in this hypothetical “hat off” form, and if Cappy were to have one, it would likely look very similar to this.

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In the kiosk demo version of Mario Kart DS, some of the paintings on the Luigi’s Mansion track actually moved, shaking and bulging out as though trying to escape in case of the Boo paintings, and simply shaking in case of the Chauncey paintings, as seen in the footage.

This was removed completely in the finished version of the game for an unknown reason.

However, the functionality was restored when the track was brought back for Mario Kart 7, though with the alteration that all paintings in that version are Boo paintings and as such all of them move, instead of only specific ones like in the Mario Kart DS demo.

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In Super Mario Bros. 3 (shown here in the Super Mario All-Stars version, but equally applicable to the NES and GBA versions), Boomerang Bros. are coded to have a 50% chance to jump every 256 frames (4.26 seconds).

However, the timer used to count these frames is not tied to whether the game is actually running, and continues counting even when the game is paused. As such, if the game is paused while the Boomerang Bro is in the middle of a jump, and unpaused when it is time for him to jump again, the Boomerang Bro will do a mid-air jump.

This is shown in the footage, where three lengthy pauses are used to force the Boomerang Bro to make a quadruple jump. With enough patience and either luck or tool-assisted luck manipulation, it is possible to make the Boomerang Bro ascend up to an arbitrary height, including completely off the top of the level.

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In Paper Mario: Sticker Star, there is a unique and extremely obscure attack that a Snifit can perform whereby it will knock away one of Mario’s attack slots.

For this to occur, Mario must get a jackpot at the Battle Spinner to get 3 attack slots, then attack the Snifit, and not kill it. While a number of players must have certainly experienced this attack on their playthroughs, its existence did not receive dedicated documentation online until 2024, 12 years after the game’s release.

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In the prototype version of Yoshi’s Island, the entire concept of Kamek creating the bosses by enlarging regular enemies has not yet been implemented, so the bosses are simply already large creatures to begin with.

This allows the game to do something that was impossible to do in the final version, which is to have the already large forms of the bosses appear before the battle starts. The footage shows the approach to the Naval Piranha boss battle in the prototype, where tendrils emerge from the water and lure Yoshi in before the actual boss appears. While not shown in the footage, the tendrils also hurt Yoshi if he touches them.

While it is unfortunate that this had to be removed as it would no longer fit the concept in the finished game, it was replaced with the equally memorable Easter egg whereby Yoshi can defeat Naval Piranha before Kamek can enlarge it, skipping the entire battle.

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Officially licensed 2026 Mario Kart World Dash Food plush keychain from Japan, depicting a Cheep Cheep taiyaki (a type of fish-shaped cake, usually filled with red bean paste) that can be found in-game in the market at Cheep Cheep Falls.

Of note is the fact that for maximum realism, the plush does not depict a perfectly shaped taiyaki. Instead, it includes bits of extraneous crust around the perimeter of the cake that is a byproduct of the baking process, whereby batter is being poured into a mold (similar to a waffle iron), and some batter may be poured over or ooze out the sides, solidifying into a thin crust.

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The 2014 Japanese official website for Pokémon Art Academy for the Nintendo 3DS featured a gallery of images, one of which was a Pikachu with a Mario-inspired hat and a Piplup with a Luigi-inspired hat.

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Top: in the box art of Super Smash Bros., Mario seems to just be jumping towards Pikachu in an action pose.

Middle: however, zooming in extremely closely on the space between his ear and his right hand (viewer’s left) shows that there is some object behind him.

Bottom: as it turns out, the original version of this artwork that was reconfigured for use in the box art showed that Mario is in fact holding a Star Rod (and attacking Fox instead of Pikachu).

As such, Mario has been holding a Star Rod in the box art all along with only a tiny sliver of it being visible.

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