2226
During the minigame "Hole Hogs" in Mario Party 9, green hills can be seen in a corner (top left). Zooming out (top right), we can see that this is actually a model of a lake from the World 6 map of New Super Mario Bros. Wii (bottom), which has been imported and slightly edited.
2227
The texture used for the "Mario Kart" banner at the starting lines of tracks in Mario Kart 64 contains chromatic aberration, an optical effect present in some photographs that manifests as fringes of color along boundaries. It is the only texture in the game with that effect.
2228
The Rainbow Road track in Mario Kart: Super Circuit features Bowser's Castle in its Paper Mario design in the background (left). However, a wallpaper from Nintendo of America's official website for the game contains a different, more menacing-looking design (right).
2229
The Power Bee is an insect-like creature that can be eaten to restore Yoshi's health in Yoshi's Story (left). However, the enemy information section in a Yoshi's Story manga depicts the Power Bee as a more fairy-like character (right). This was possibly a scrapped earlier design.
2230
Artwork of Mario from a Japanese flyer for a Mario-themed pachinko machine.
2231
According to the Japanese official guide for Super Mario World, the area on top of Vanilla Dome is called "Vanilla Tableland".
2232
Artwork from the Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World pinball machine. While the character artwork is taken from other sources, the landscape drawing in the background is original.
2233
@SeshohoCian Mario Party 6 also provides us with another description of their relationship, being "Shroommates". twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog…
2234
The low-polygon model of Shy Guy from Mario Kart 7 includes a unique raised rim around the mouth-hole of his mask, resembling lips. This rim is absent in all other depictions of Shy Guys, including even the high-polygon model from the same game.
2235
The 1988 Official Nintendo Sticker Album contains this artwork of Princess Peach with a unique mauve hair coloration, as well as a white ear.
2236
In the Spanish localization of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, the Book of Sealing, an item used for the containment of spirits, is called "Espectronomicón". This is a reference to the Necronomicon, a grimoire of dark magic featured in the works of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.
2237
Unused "Blue Hat Mario", "Blue Hat Luigi", "Wario" and "Dark" palettes from the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros.
2238
Super Mario Bros. Willie Shrinkles, a rare officially licensed craft product consisting of coloring pictures printed on paper that shrinks when baked in an oven.
2239
Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong performing on stage at Nintendo Space World 2000.
2240
In a previous Tweet, I have claimed that Yoshi's Crafted World's soundtrack has only 20 tracks. This is merely the count given by the game itself; data miners have extracted a total of 70 tracks, including jingles. I apologize for making the post without more thorough research.
2241
In 1989, a series of officially licensed sticker cards was released in the US, each containing a "Top Secret Tip" on the back. While the tips were in fact about hidden content for most games featured, the "tips" for Super Mario Bros. 2 were paraphrased excerpts from the manual.
2242
The name used internally for Super Mario Galaxy 2 within the files of the game is "SUPER MARIO GALAXY MORE" (top right). This is consistent with interviews of the game's staff stating development names for the game were "Super Mario Galaxy 1.5" and "More Super Mario Galaxy".
2243
The cover of "Unjust Desserts", the 11th in the licensed Nintendo Adventure Books choose-your-own-adventure book series, features a small image of Bowser looking from outside at Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Toad having a party. To the right is a high-resolution close-up of Bowser.
2244
Illustration of Mario and Pauline from Video Games magazine.
2245
Artwork from the cover of a Japanese guide for Super Mario Bros. 3, featuring miscolored enemies and a long-legged Goomba.
2246
Addendum: as pointed out by reader @EleanorJayynes, there are also in fact Mario graphics used in the BIOS in another spot, the Wii Shop Channel download animation (seen below). I apologize for overlooking these and hope the icon in my post is still notable.
2247
Thanks to Twitter user @GelGelada, a source for the rare Cape Mario artwork was found, being the box art for a European Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World SNES bundle. The original Tweet has been deleted in accordance with my veracity policy.
2248
In Paper Mario: Color Splash, using the "Balloons" card in the battle against Ludwig normally causes Birdo to appear and balloons to lift Ludwig's submarine out of the water. Using a replica of "Balloons" instead causes him to shoot Birdo down with a missile.
2249
Illustration of Mario and Pauline from a 1982 licensed book of Donkey Kong-themed word puzzles. As in many other pieces of official art from that period, Mario is shown to be balding.
2250
Close-up look at the wanted posters appearing in various places in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Of note is that while the first two criminals each have a bounty of 8,000,000 dollars, the last one has a bounty of 8,000,000 cents.
Additional obscure Mario content for suppermariobroth.com.
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