1926
Super Princess Peach contains placeholder sprites to be used for Peach on the bottom screen that consist of crude scribbles with numbers for faces. Below is a mock-up animation of what the game's bottom screen could have looked like during early development.
1927
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.
1928
The path of the World S map in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is shaped like the letter "S". While this is likely a coincidence, World S is the only world named after a letter and has the only path that goes back and forth, making it possible that the shape was a deliberate reference.
1929
The Japanese title for DK: King of Swing is "ぶらぶらドンキー", translating to "Hanging Donkey" or "Dangling Donkey". This is the only time he was referred to simply as "Donkey" in a game title without including the "Kong".
1930
In the data of Mario Party, unused early versions of characters' facial textures can be found. Here is a comparison between Yoshi's early eye texture (left) and the one used in the finished game (right).
1931
An extremely minor detail is present in Level 4-5 of Donkey Kong Country Returns that is nearly impossible to see during gameplay: an unreachable minecart on top of a ledge has a sad expression. The additional eyebrows are only used once in the game, on this particular minecart.
1932
Rare artwork of Waluigi playing the Parasol Plummet minigame from Mario Party 3, only found in Japanese promotional material for the game.
1933
Cartridge art and title screen of "Mali & Lugi Fighting 2", an unauthorized hack of Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers 2 for the Famicom with Mario graphics. The artwork is taken from the cover of the 1993 Super Mario Compact Disco official music album.
1934
In Luigi's Mansion 3, the Steward always holds on to his hat, preventing a good look at the shape of his head during his battle. Removing his hat from his model reveals he has a misshapen head, suggesting that he holds on to his hat to avoid revealing it.
1935
A comparison of the tiny character sprites seen in the endings to Super Mario Bros. 2 (left) and its remake within Super Mario All-Stars (right). This is a rare example of Mario and Luigi being depicted without mustaches, as usually they are visible in even the smallest sprites.
1936
The official Nintendo Power guide for Super Mario 64 contradicts itself between the enemy glossary (top row) and the course guide (bottom row). It is possible the glossary was written for an earlier version of the game where enemies like the Mad Piano could in fact be defeated.
1937
The Super Mario 3D All-Stars version of Super Mario Sunshine introduces a very specific glitch not present in the original release: the eyes of the Piantas in Sirena Beach are layered on top of their glasses (left, middle). Compare to the original, displaying correctly (right).
1938
I apologize for an incorrect post featuring the print ad seen below. The wording of the source misled me into believing it was published by an organization; in reality, it was the work of a student for an ad design course. The original post has been deleted.
1939
Due to the X and Y buttons sharing all functions in Super Mario World, it is possible to perform a button press action while it's already being held, by holding one and pressing the other.This allows Mario to throw fireballs while holding an item, impossible with just one button.
1940
A 2007 Dr. Mario manga contains a very specific reference to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door while being unrelated to the actual game. For one panel (left), Peach's Castle is drawn in the style of the storybook drawings from the game's intro (right).
1941
Artwork of Luigi angrily writing in a book, used to represent the "Edit Lessons" mode in Mario Teaches Typing 2.
1942
The world maps in Yoshi's Island are surrounded by scrolls, however, there are still graphics extending past the visible boundary, obscured by the scrolls. On the far right edge of the World 3 map, removing the layer with the border reveals a hidden monkey.
1943
I apologize for a previous Tweet that contained a screenshot of WarioWare Gold that could be misinterpreted out of context. I have deleted the Tweet; below is a different screenshot of that scene. Note Wario's miscolored nose. I will choose my images more carefully in the future.
1944
The original concept for Yoshi's Crafted World included a 3D overworld consisting of a giant kindergarten and its grounds, with the individual levels being craft exhibits found in its rooms and outdoor areas. In the finished game, this was dropped in favor of a world map.
1945
In Paper Mario, Herringway is coded as a regular penguin with a custom sprite. By pausing the game before the mayor cutscene, Herringway will load in a "depersonalized" state, appearing as a regular penguin (left: normal, middle: depersonalized). This will crash the game (right).
1946
The trailer for Super Mario Maker 2's 2.0 update features white birds flying away from the Master Sword. This may be a reference to the box art of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, depicting a similar scene (exclusive to the box; the birds are not present in-game).
1947
There is an unused animation in Mario Party 8 that differs from all other animations in that it does not exist for all playable characters. Instead, the only ones that have it are Mario, Yoshi, Birdo and Boo. It is possible that a special scene existed involving only these four.
1948
The graphical data for the kings' chambers in Super Mario Bros. 3 contains an unused sprite of Toad with asymmetrical eyes. Here is a mock-up of the scene with Toad's regular sprite replaced with the unused one.
1949
In the Hide and Sneak minigame in Mario Party 3, the characters are shown running between the different hiding places. This is entirely misdirection on part of the game, as the running animation is independent of both player input and location and thus is best entirely ignored.
1950
The ending for the Japanese version of Super Mario World lists enemy names in Japanese, transliterated into the Latin alphabet. Some of them are English names and words; Fishin' Boo is "Spook", Mega Mole is "Indy", and Bullet Bill and Banzai Bill are "Killer" and "Magnum Killer".
Additional obscure Mario content for suppermariobroth.com.
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