876
Rare official art of Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2, found on a 1989 Nintendo of America sticker. This design resembles King Koopa from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show; it is possible that this was a rejected cartoon design for Wart before King Koopa was chosen as the villain.
877
Wario: Master of Disguise and Mario vs. Donkey Kong share a particular similarity: both begin with a character watching TV and then changing the channel away from something he would normally find interesting. Wario is bored with a show about himself, and DK is bored with bananas.
878
The Question Blocks in Super Mario Galaxy are decorated with rivets (left). These are 12-sided prisms and would each take 36 triangles to render separately; however, a trick is used where opposite rivets are actually two ends of a long rod (right), halving the number of polygons.
879
Left idle for a minute in Super Mario Sunshine, Mario will adjust FLUDD's belt (left). However, the same animation is also used when Mario is not wearing FLUDD (e.g. in the file select screen or in the secret courses), leading him to still adjust his nonexistent belt (right).
880
In the data of Paper Mario, an unused battle against four Amazy Dayzees can be found, intended to have a very small chance of appearing in Flower Fields. This was likely cut due to being too deadly; if all Amazy Dayzees attack on the first turn, Mario will die even at maximum HP.
881
Official artwork of Wario with and without his mustache from Nintendo of Japan's website for Wario Land 2. The Japanese release included mustache-shaped stickers; the website jokes that Wario does not actually have a mustache and is using the enclosed stickers to fake having one.
882
In WarioWare: Twisted, a box of Mona Pizza appears briefly during Mona's story intro. In the international versions, the box is decorated with an elaborate logo and drawing of Mona as the Mona Lisa (left). In the Japanese version, however, the design is more amateurish (right).
883
The German name for Tiny-Huge Island in Super Mario 64 is a very appropriate literary reference: Gulliver Gumba ("Gumba" being German for "Goomba"), referencing the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels, where the main character visits both a land of tiny people and a land of giants.
884
In the New Super Mario Bros. U game style of Super Mario Maker 2, clearing a course hoists a flag with the player character's symbol on the flagpole. For an unknown reason, the sprites used for Luigi's flag are half the resolution of all other flags.
885
In the data of Super Mario Sunshine, an unused object named "kinopio_sunmegane.bmd", which translates to "Toad sunglasses", can be found. Here is a mock-up of what a Toad would look like if the sunglasses were used in-game.
886
Unused enemies found in the data of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam: a Paper Stingby as well as black and gradient green Paper Goombas. In the finished game, all paper enemies are taken from Paper Mario: Sticker Star; the Paper Stingby would have been the only entirely new enemy.
887
In Super Mario Galaxy, the main feature of the Dreadnought Galaxy is the Dreadnought (top), a spaceship that seems to be under construction due to being covered in girders and scaffolding. Removing them from the model, we can see the true shape of the ship (bottom).
888
In the Koopa Freerunning game in Super Mario Odyssey, the Koopas can perform all of Mario's moves. However, they do not have custom animations; instead, Mario's animations are applied to their models. This results in distortions such as their shell disengaging during a Long Jump.
889
Underside of a Nintendo Switch analog stick (extracted from a Joy-Con) received back from Nintendo of America after refurbishing. These are marked with a stamp of Mario wearing a bow tie after being repaired to distinguish them from units that have not been faulty in the past.
890
Before the widespread adoption of Luigi's current design in 1988, a lot of media went off the assumption that Mario and Luigi were identical twins. This 1987 Super Mario Bros. manga gives Luigi glasses to better distinguish him from Mario.
891
In Super Mario Maker 2, Music Blocks have unique sounds for objects that cannot be directly placed in the editor or cannot normally activate the blocks. This footage gives a few examples: shell-less Koopas, Bowser's falling flames and a 10-coin, which needs a POW Block to fall.
892
In Luigi's Mansion, approaching the door to the final boss after catching fewer than 40 Boos causes King Boo to appear and talk about Mario (top). The phrasing is a reference to an almost identical line by Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (bottom).
893
One of Dr. Topper's quiz questions in Super Mario RPG is "How many legs does Wiggler have?", with the options being 10, 8 and 6. The game's official art (top right) depicts him with 8 legs, while the sprite (bottom right) shows 6. The game only accepts 6 as the valid answer.
894
In Super Mario Odyssey, Peach asks "How does the castle stay afloat?" about Bowser's Castle, which is situated on a floating landmass (top right). In the context of this game, this question is particularly odd as Peach's own castle is on a floating landmass (bottom right).
895
Using the frame-by-frame function of the Camera Mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we can see that whenever Dr. Mario throws a Megavitamin, it is always red on the first frame after it spawns (top right), before changing into its intended coloration on the next frame.
896
At the 1994 European Computer Trade Show, Silicon Graphics presented "Project Reality", hardware that would later be used inside the Nintendo 64. One of the demos shown was the "Luigi Gallery", an interactive gallery containing Luigi artwork to show off the lighting engine.
897
Two of the microgames in WarioWare: Twisted involve serving drinks to a person in a dark room. The Japanese version (left column) takes place in a city at night and serves colorful cocktails; this was changed to milk and cola during daytime in the American version (right column).
898
Occasionally, I am asked why I cover Donkey Kong games in addition to Mario games. My answer is that Nintendo treats Donkey Kong as a sub-franchise of Mario. As an example, a lot of official merchandise exists that depicts Donkey Kong characters but only has Super Mario branding.
899
The largest a character can become in Super Smash Bros. Brawl without glitching or hacking is Mario in a Mega Special Brawl, after being hit with a backfired Lightning Bolt, using his up taunt to grow even further (left). Mario's regular size is on the right for comparison.
900
Promotional photo of Charles Martinet laughing next to official artwork of Mario for Mario Party 9, from the UK Official Nintendo Magazine.
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