1201
After the Game Boy Advance was announced in 2000, but its design not yet shown by Nintendo, Edge Magazine featured mockups of what they expected. Interestingly, the ideas of four face buttons and the ability to run Super Mario 64 ended up predicting the Nintendo DS instead.
1202
When opening the data of Super Mario Bros. 2 in a hex editor, the word "ZELDA" can be found in plain text due to some code being copied and pasted from The Legend of Zelda. This is both the earliest and the most obscure Zelda series reference in a Mario game.
1203
As a decoration on the Creepy Cavern board in Mario Party 3, three Whomps are seen playing their own game of Mario Party (left). The board they are using is actually Rules Land, the tutorial board from Mario Party 2 (middle), mirrored vertically (comparison on right).
1204
When Mario visits a shop for the first time on a save file in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the shopkeeper mentions this. The story forces Mario to visit a shop before Chapter 3; if this is skipped with cheats, the later-game shopkeepers will have an incredulous reaction.
1205
The data of Super Mario RPG contains an unused purple Bahamutt-like enemy with sunglasses, which appears to be a hybrid between Bahamutt and Boshi. The decision to combine them may have been due to both being related to Yoshi through their Japanese names (Doshi and Washi).
1206
In the Flipside Outskirts in Super Paper Mario, there is a doorway where positioning Mario in a precise location (left) and switching to 2D results in Mario merging with the wall. Switching to Peach or Bowser retains the effect; however, switching to Luigi ends it immediately.
1207
In Mario Party, if computer-controlled characters have 99 Stars (usually requiring cheats) and visit Boo, they will attempt to steal another Star, but that option will be greyed out. Despite this, the character will fruitlessly attempt to select it forever, softlocking the game.
1208
In the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, Waluigi is depicted as the pinnacle of skill, often beating the second most skillful character, Dr. Eggman, by a single pixel of skill (bottom right, circled), as well as in some cases, being the only character with perfect skill.
1209
Early layout documents for Super Mario Bros. show that early in development, the ground was shown at an angle from above, giving the path visual depth. This was changed to a completely 2D view in the finished game, but the idea was later used in the Donkey Kong Country series.
1210
Level 2-5 of Donkey Kong Country Returns is decorated with barnacles. Most of them are ordinary; however, after the giant octopus appears, some of them have googly eyes, likely being shocked at the octopus. This is very hard to see at the game's native resolution (left, circled).
1211
In Super Mario Galaxy, the bubble generators in Bubble Breeze Galaxy have unused settings to create cubic and octahedral bubbles. As the galaxy's internal name is "CubeBubbleEx", the cube was likely the original intended shape before being replaced with traditional round bubbles.
1212
In the Art of Super Mario Odyssey book, just like in the game, Mario does not talk. The only instance of Mario saying something using a speech bubble is "This-a place is-a weird!" in artwork depicting New Donk City inhabitants being frightened by his appearance.
1213
In Super Mario Sunshine, Mario will not fall asleep if close to a wall; however, due to backs of furniture counting as walls, he won't sleep in some locations where it would be reasonable. He will not sleep on a bench or on a couch, but he will sleep on the floor or on a table.
1214
Official artwork of Sonic congratulating Mario on the 20th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., released by Sega in 2005. Note that this predates the friendly relationship between the franchises established by the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series.
1215
In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, pressing Down as Luigi while having a photo taken in Beanbean Castle Town makes Luigi roll his eyes. However, there is one frame during this animation where his pupils disappear completely. With precise timing, Luigi's photo can have blank eyes.
1216
In a 2003 interview, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that he chose the sky color in the original Super Mario Bros. for being "purplish". This makes some versions of this sky in various games more accurate to his vision than others, depending on their hue. A comparison is provided below.
1217
In the museum in the Skulking Around level in Yoshi's Crafted World, three vases can be found as exhibits in the background. The design of these is a reference to the vases from Level 2-8 of Yoshi's Island, and that level's boss, Roger the Potted Ghost.
1218
In Super Mario World, if a thrown item grazes the top pixel of a Pokey, it will be defeated and not defeated at the same time. The Pokey will remain alive; however, a second Pokey head will fall off screen in a death animation while Mario gains 200 points for "defeating" it.
1219
In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, performing an attack successfully makes the audience cheer, while failing makes them leave. The one exception is Bobbery's Bomb move. If no input is made, Bobbery will trip and fail (left), however, the audience will cheer anyway (right).
1220
In the Mario Kart series, particularly Mario Kart Wii, many vehicles have names that differ between the North American and British English versions. Below is a comparison of the vehicles this affects, with the North American names in red and the European names in blue.
1221
Rare high-quality photo of the Naval Piranha Yoshi craft used in the promotion of Yoshi's Woolly World, seen in the Chilean Club Nintendo magazine. The resolution is roughly twice that of the version used on Nintendo's official sites for the game.
1222
In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Bowser sits on a throne in pre-boss cutscenes. Zooming in on his tail shows it is absent so it does not clip through the throne; however, viewing the wireframe of Bowser's model reveals the tail has been turned inside-out and is visible inside his torso.
1223
In the library of Creepy Castle in Donkey Kong 64, flying book enemies are encountered. They move too quickly to read their covers during gameplay, but freezing the frame reveals it is very blurry text reading "DK64 PLAYERS GUIDE".
1224
Over the years, certain renders of Mario characters have been rereleased by Nintendo multiple times to reflect subtle changes in character design. Here is an example of a Yoshi render from 2004 (left), remade in 2011 (middle) and again in 2015 (right).
1225
In the Super Mario Maker games, Mario can enter doors one tile off the ground by standing on a Rocky Wrench's head in the New Super Mario Bros. style, but not in any others since the Rocky Wrenches there are a few pixels shorter. Winged Rocky Wrenches can be used in all styles.
Additional obscure Mario content for suppermariobroth.com.
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