Small Mario Findings

Officially licensed 1999 Mario Golf keychain of Bowser, from Japan.

Source: hideyuki_0102

Early concept art for the Luncheon Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey, seen in the Art of Super Mario Odyssey book. Note the design of the buildings to resemble cabinets and other furniture that would be seen in a kitchen; this concept was not used in the finished game where the architecture of the kingdom is simply in a Roman temple style instead.

Mewtroid, known as "Nekoroid" in Japan, is a minigame that first appeared in WarioWare: Twisted, whereby the aim is to control a cat with a cannon arm in the style of Samus Aran from Metroid (named Sameow) to defeat bugs. The minigame also received remakes and sequels in future WarioWare titles.

Interestingly, Mewtroid was also available for download for the Play-Yan media player for the Game Boy Advance SP, where the minigame itself was identical, but it featured a new title screen with unique artwork of Sameow that was never used in any actual WarioWare games.

Source: RHG1951

Officially licensed 2019 Super Mario Bros. castle level-themed insulated bottles.

Source: 1, 2

In Super Mario RPG, when Mario reaches Rose Town for the first time, it is under attack by arrows from Bowyer, which cause NPCs to become frozen in place when they are hit. There are various scripted events of NPCs being hit by the arrows on the first visit to the town.

One of them is a yellow Toad woman walking out from behind the house to the right of the entrance, and immediately being hit by an arrow. Interestingly, she does not appear simply by approaching the house, and instead requires Mario to pass through an invisible activation area.

As such, by going around that area, Mario can reach her while she is still behind the house, which is seen in the footage by disabling the background layer of the roof. Unfortunately, she does not have any collision or dialogue during this, and can only be interacted with once the cutscene completes and she is hit by the arrow.

Source: LitesJZ

Officially licensed 1986 Super Mario/Legend of Zelda waist bag.

Source: TheUltiMarioFan

Extremely rare 1992 promotional pin for a Swiss cross-promotion event between Mario and Lusso Eldorado, a brand of ice cream.

Source: coincollectorscove

Pre-release screenshot from Mario Party 9 showing a minigame that does not exist in the final game, seemingly revolving around two players needing to catch Bowser Jr. in a large 2D room inspired by the bonus rooms from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

In the finished game, the minigame "Zoom Room" revolves around a similar concept of two players needing to catch Bowser Jr., except taking place in a 3D maze instead of a 2D screen.

Source: RHG1951

Large store display for photo-ops at Nintendo New York for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.

Source: VGArtAndTidbits

Officially licensed 1988 Super Mario Bros. 2 T-shirt depicting Mario skateboarding.

Source: daddydaughterresale

In Donkey Kong Country 2, the Lost World level Fiery Furnace contains a bonus room where the Kongs are immediately put inside a Steerable Barrel, which must be taken through a maze of brambles and Zingers to the goal.

Interestingly, it is possible to move the Steerable Barrel slightly off screen and then around the area out of bounds, as seen in the footage. This allows the entirety of the maze to be bypassed without needing to deal with any of the obstacles.

Source: tasvideos

Officially licensed 2026 Super Mario Galaxy Movie pouch from Japan.

Source: 1468z

Highest-quality available screenshot of the poker-playing ghosts from the pre-release version of Luigi's Mansion, originally published in the UK Nintendo Official Magazine in 2000. In the finished game, the ghosts are absent, though a tiny barely visible image of them can be found on one of the machines in the Ghost Portrificationizer room.

Source: Delphinus48

Illustration from an article in a 1993 issue of the Japanese Famitsu magazine, serving as a mock-up of a speculation about the future of video game presentation.

The article posits that if games using photorealistic imagery like Mortal Kombat are popular, but so are games with highly cartoony characters like the Mario series, then surely something combining the two styles into one (with cartoon bodies and live-action heads) would eventually emerge as well.

Source: Famitsu (Japan), Issue 222, 1993

1992 box of Kellogg's Apple Jacks with a Super Mario World cross-promotion event. While the Mario & Yoshi and Koopa Paratroopa illustrations are merely redrawn official art, the artwork of Mario holding six maps of the Forest of Illusion is entirely original.

Source: estatesaleuniverse

In the Poisonous Pipeline level of Donkey Kong Country 3, a bizarre "pseudo Warp Barrel" glitch may occur underneath the Koin enemy near the end of the stage whereby the playable character will act as through entering a barrel and warping to a nearby location, despite no actual barrel being present.

This appears to be tied to the exit barrel from the level's second minigame that leads to this location, but has not been observed to occur with other minigame exits in the game.

Source: DarXmash

Reader-submitted artwork of Peach with peaches, featured in a 2004 issue of the Japanese Nintendo Dream magazine.

Source: Nintendo Dream (Japan), Issue 120, 2004