1976
Licensed "Pocket Yoshi" T-shirt from the 1993 Nintendo Power Supplies Catalog. A close-up of Yoshi in the pocket is provided.
1977
In Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Donkey Kong emerges from a beehive during one of the boss battles. Due to an error in how the 3D models' colors were sampled into 2D sprites, Donkey Kong's eyes and teeth become completely black every time he retreats into the hive.
1978
Illustration from a Japanese guide for Super Mario World.
1979
Super Smash Bros. illustration from the cover of an issue of GamePro magazine.
1981
In Mario Party: Island Tour, completing Bowser's Tower as any character except Bowser Jr. will prompt Bowser to say "That wasn't even my final form!", a reference to a catchphrase originating in Dragon Ball Z. The reference is absent in the British English translation.
1982
In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, clearing 4 lines at once in the Barrel minigame will result in an 8-bit sprite of a skeleton briefly appearing. The sprite is a reference to the original sprite of the Stalfos enemy from The Legend of Zelda on the NES.
1983
Illustration of Mario as the referee from Punch-Out on the NES, from the Swedish Nintendomagasinet magazine. The original sprite is provided for comparison.
1984
Decal found on a Viessmann maintenance van in Italy (left) that highly resembles Mario Party 6 official art (right). As most similar instances of copying artwork come from smaller businesses, this is a rare case of a large multinational company tracing Mario art in this manner.
1985
The Japanese logos for Mario Tennis 64 and Mario Golf 64 contain not just the games' names, but also a tagline: "FOR ALL PLAYERS HOPING TO TOUCH THE TRUE ENTERTAINMENT".
1986
Mario and Luigi socks from South Korea. For unknown reasons, Mario was given an angrier expression than Luigi.
1987
In Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, the message shown when World Extra 2 is unlocked misspells "opened" as "opeeed".
1988
Officially licensed small plastic Super Mario Bros. folders from Japan with the captions "SPECIAL TIME WITH FIRE" and "GET FIRE!" The folders were part of a cross-promotion between Nintendo and Kirin FIRE, a Japanese coffee drink brand.
1989
Unlicensed Mario and Luigi toys with mismatched emblems.
1990
From Charles Martinet's personal collection of fan mail.
1991
Unlicensed T-shirt design using a modified version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door artwork.
1992
Unused early Bomp models from Super Mario Galaxy. In the data, these have a different name from Bomps - their name is "ツキダシくん", which translates to "Bomp-kun"; "kun" being a Japanese honorific used to address young males.
1993
Normally, Mario and Luigi's irises are exactly the same size (top). However, in Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure, Dr. Mario's irises are much smaller than Dr. Luigi's. In addition, Dr. Luigi has specular highlights (shines) in his eyes, while Dr. Mario's eyes do not reflect light.
1994
One of the only known images depicting MarioMotors.inc, a Mario racing game for the Nintendo DS that never passed its conceptual stage. The game's intended main mechanic was the building of custom engines and vehicles through the shaping and connecting of metal chunks.
1995
Whenever Bowser wears his wedding suit in Super Mario Odyssey, his hat covers his hair and horns. However, the hat is too small to be covering them fully. This is masked by simply removing his horns and the top of his head in his wedding suit model.
1996
The calendar in the Toy Box in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe contains three entries when it is unlocked, one commemorating the release of Super Mario Bros. and the other two being extremely vague. Those actually mark the Japanese release dates of Mario Bros. and Super Mario Land.
1997
Luigi's Mansion Arcade reuses cutscenes from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon in higher resolution with some differences. In the original King Boo boss intro, rays of light obscured his face whenever he closed his mouth. In the arcade version, his closed mouth is now clearly visible.
1998
I was recently interviewed by tech website Byteside. If you would like to know more about the history of my blog, and my personal history with Mario, you are welcome to read the interview here: byteside.com/2020/12/supper… Regular content will now resume.
2000
In Super Mario RPG, having Mallow use the Psychopath move on Axem Black reveals that Axem Black is thinking a grammatically incorrect sentence: "You're timing stinks!"
Additional obscure Mario content for suppermariobroth.com.
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