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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Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 contain a glitch known as “Launch Star Displacement” whereby entering a Launch Star while Mario is slipping will cause his launch trajectory to change.
As most targets for launches are small planetoids relatively far away, and most locations in the game are surrounded by empty space, even a small trajectory deviation statistically often results in Mario missing his target and flying into the void.
The footage shows this happening in Boo Moon Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Mario very briefly slips on the edge of the purple Snake Block while entering the Launch Star. While he is supposed to land on the crescent moon planetoid, he ends up missing it entirely and dying.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Source: hunyasupaa677, via allegedlymarco
Top: Paper Mario: The Origami King contains an unused setting for text to be displayed at a 90° angle, demonstrated here in-engine.
Bottom: the game often uses text gimmicks for characters who are in nonstandard states. As such, it is possible that this was intended to be a text gimmick for characters who for some reason or another, are arranged perpendicularly to Mario while speaking. This is a mock-up of what such a usage of this text effect could have looked like.
Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: Scrooge200
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