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 Mario Kart 8/Deluxe, the anti-gravity section on the GBA Mario Circuit track is held up by giant blue car jacks that have extremely faint writing on them. Enhancing the contrast shows it reads “Ultra Arm”.
The name and design of the jacks is a reference to Ultra Hand, a toy produced by Nintendo in 1966 (designed by Gunpei Yokoi, later inventor of the Game & Watch and Game Boy among other achievements). The Ultra Hand has been referenced many times all across Nintendo media, recently famously through the “Ultrahand” ability in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
In addition to featuring the Ultra Hand in many WarioWare microgames, the man getting his wallet stolen on the packaging is also featured in the “Clawing for More” boss microgame in WarioWare Gold.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: MarioUnivRsalis, beforemario
Artwork of Mario dancing, seen in the 1985 instruction manual/programming guide for Family Basic V3 on the Famicom.
The illustration is to show that by using Mario’s jumping sprite without making him actually jump, he can be made to look like he is raising his hands in the manner reminiscent of the dance move featured in the 1977 move Saturday Night Fever (which has since become the default “disco” move in fiction), with the caption next to him translating to “Fever”.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: tamagon64
In Super Mario World, by performing a precise bounce off a Rex enemy in the first level of the game, Yoshi’s Island 1, it is possible to clip into a diagonal pipe and become stuck inside it.
Left: going to the right puts Mario in the space between the pipe and the next ledge, from which he cannot escape outside of going back into the pipe.
Right: going to the left makes Mario walk down a series of solid tiles inside the pipe as though they were stairs, and die.
Since all this glitch requires is running fast and jumping onto the Rex at a precise moment, it is entirely possible to encounter this accidentally during regular gameplay.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Wingcapman
In a 2019 interview with GamesRadar, Donkey Kong 64 creative director George Andreas explains that the reason the game has so many collectibles, and so many playable characters, was because Rare co-founder Tim Stamper felt that it needed to distinguish itself from Banjo-Kazooie (which was released a year prior).
If Banjo-Kazooie had not existed, or if Donkey Kong 64 had been developed first, it is entirely possible that the game would have had much fewer collectibles, and only two playable characters, like the previous Donkey Kong Country series games.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source
Illustration made by Shigeru Miyamoto during a Donkey Kong arcade design meeting in 1981, included in the court documents from the 1983 Universal vs. Nintendo lawsuit about whether Donkey Kong infringed upon the King Kong trademark.
It is unknown if this character is even supposed to be Donkey Kong to begin with, or a earlier concept that eventually evolved into Donkey Kong, as the illustration was not discussed in more detail during the actual case. Either way, this design resembles a bear more than a gorilla.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: GamingHistorian , via Drew Mackie
Top: “Shine Runners” is a battle mode found in Mario Kart DS, whereby drivers must collect Shine Sprites and then try to hang on to as many of them as possible, avoiding being hit and having their Shine Sprites stolen.
Bottom: it is possible that this name is actually a reference to the Prohibition era in the United States, where production, transport, and sale of alcohol was forbidden from 1920 to 1933. Cars specifically modified to be fast to be able to escape law enforcement while transporting moonshine were colloquially called “moonshine runners” or “shine runners” for short.
Whether this is an intentional reference to smuggling alcohol is unknown, but is notable even if it is a coincidence.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: MrL314
The StreetPass Mii Plaza Puzzle Swap puzzle “Mario and Bowser” features a rotating platform displaying Mario, Bowser and Luigi with their arms folded.
Here is a view of the models in a model viewer, which allows them to be seen more closely than the low-resolution Nintendo 3DS screen.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: lemurboy12
It is well known that in Super Mario 64, the mirror room in Peach’s Castle is not an actual mirror (since the Nintendo 64 would be incapable of creating real-time reflections in this manner) and is instead merely a copy of the room behind a pane of glass.
The mirror side of the room contains Mirror Mario, who is a separately coded object from Mario and as such is subject to several discrepancies that make him perform different actions from the real Mario under specific circumstances.
The biggest discrepancy is what happens when Mario actually enters the Snowman’s Land wall/painting. Since the real Mario unloads at that point, and Mirror Mario is programmed to copy whatever real Mario is doing (but cannot himself unload), he assumes a standard pose (what would be a T-pose in most games, but is an A-pose in this one) instead.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: LooygiBros