Small Mario Findings

Unreleased (what would have become an) official port of Donkey Kong Jr. for the BBC Micro home computer, developed in 1984 with Nintendo's license but never released since the company, Atarisoft, canceled many projects at that time due to financial trouble. The project was leaked online much later by the original developer.

Source: gamesthatwerent

Top: in Paper Mario: The Origami King, the streamers are each destroyed by finding the spool at the source of the streamer and hitting it with the 1,000-Fold Arms ability. The center of the spool is only ever seen from the front in fixed view, and is destroyed alongside the streamer, so it is impossible to see what it actually looks like.

Bottom: using a model viewer to see it without the paper of the streamer from the side, it becomes apparent the spool is actually a stake, hammered into the wall holding it. While this can be inferred in-game due to the fact that a hole remains in the walls holding the spools, it can never be actually seen. The designers did not strictly need to model the pointy end of the stake, yet still did it presumably for authenticity.

Source: noclip.website

Officially licensed 2021 Shy Guy plush.

Source: watch4tanya

Rhomps are enemies that appear exclusively on the sandy slide in the first mission of Slipsand Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Due to the fixed camera angle on the slide segment, it is impossible to see where exactly they appear from, as the camera points down at first and then points up to show them when they are already present.

Using external tools, we can see how they appear. They rise from the sand suddenly off-camera (though due to the curve of the slide, the rear few rows are actually above the sand), which suggests they may have originally been intended to appear on-screen (or at least visible in the far distance). This is because usually, objects that were never intended to be seen appearing on-screen have no spawning animation whatsoever, and simply "pop" into existence.

Regarding the despawning of the Rhomps: normally, they fade out when they reach the camera. This is supposed to make it look like the camera is simply phasing through them and they continue to move past it (the same way many other objects in 3D video games fade out when they would otherwise obscure the view), but in reality, they simply despawn when they fade away.

Source: SMG2 (NA, Wii)

Officially licensed 2026 Donkey Kong Bananza plush keychain from Japan, depicting Donkey Kong with a Banandium Gem. Note how due to plushes physically not being able to appear translucent, the diamond-like gem at the end was reinterpreted as having each facet in a slightly different color, to attempt to convey a scintillating effect.

Source: image

Back of specific versions of the officially licensed 1988 Nintendo Cereal System cereal boxes, advertising trading cards included in the boxes. Note the unique color scheme on the Koopa Troopa, giving it a red shell while combining that with green legs.

Source: discontinuedfoods

Top: in Paper Mario, during the battle against Bowser in the hallway of Peach's Castle near the end of the game (as opposed to the fight in the same location at the beginning), he will say this line when using the Star Rod for the first time.

Bottom: this is a reference to a line from Emperor Palpatine in the 1983 Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi.

Source: retroelectrical

Officially licensed 2017 "Mario jumping into a Warp Pipe" beanie. The design inventively has the Warp Pipe on the inside of the hat so that the length of the Warp Pipe will be adjusted based on how much the hat is rolled up, as seen on the right.

Source: miss.daisy40

Near the end of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Bowser's Castle becomes inaccessible, and remains such forever on that save file. However, it is possible to clip into the castle and explore it as usual if the Fire & Ice Bros. Move is performed in a specific spot near the door, as shown in the footage.

The catch is that while it is possible to enter the castle in this state, exiting it is not actually possible at all, since the game will turn into a black screen with no way of escaping it if that is attempted. As such, saving inside Bowser's Castle after clipping into it will make the player's save game permanently broken, so saving after doing this glitch is highly unadvisable.

Source: Alfredo18

The internal name for Paper Mario: Color Splash is "gojika", which is most likely a Romanization of 午時花 (noon flower), which is famous for its distinctive 5 petals. This is almost certainly a reference to this game being the fifth in the Paper Mario series.

Source: info

In Super Mario World, many glitches exist that allow Yoshi to eat unintended objects, some of which end up placing unintended items into the item reserve box. One very commonly used application of this is placing a Magic Ball into the reserve box, which normally appears only in the Sunken Ghost Ship and instantly wins the level if touched.

If the Magic Ball is released from the reserve box inside a bonus game and collected, the bonus game will be "completed" in the same way a level would be, instead of being "won" the regular way. This is, of course, not intended and will cause the bonus game room to reload, except without the blocks that comprise the actual bonus game in it. Mario will be trapped in the empty room forever until the game is reset.

Note that -the pipe in the upper left is an exit-only pipe and cannot be entered -there is no timer so Mario cannot die from the time running out -pressing Start + Select does not work so none of the potential ways of leaving the room are actually possible.

Source: Wingcapman

Box artwork for an officially licensed 1986 Famicom-themed mahjong game from Japan, featuring some redrawn and even unique Mario artwork like the Bloopers on the bottom.

Source: chriscovell

Model of the "Spiked Beetle" enemy from the Nintendo Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, one of the many Mario series references in that game.

The Spiked Beetle is nearly identical to a Spiny, except for its shell/spike color scheme, and having eyes that are neither angry like a Spiny's, nor darkened and glowing like a Buzzy Beetle's or Spike Top's. The friendly appearance most resembles a Para-Beetle's eyes.

Source: Centrixe the Dodo

Top: in Orbulon's stage in WarioWare: Get It Together, completing a microgame briefly displays a variety of cutouts of various cultural items from across the world, before they fly away. These are never seen in a way where they stay still on-screen, and always overlap each other, so it is not possible to get a good look at them unobstructed.

Bottom: the actual graphics for the cutouts, extracted from the game's files. All of them appear to be stock photos, except for the Orbulon version of Edvard Munch's 1893 painting "The Scream".

Source: DogToon64

Officially licensed 1989 "Team Nintendo Power" T-shirt, featuring Mario.

Source: davesfreshlyused

(Footage contains rapid camera rotation that may cause nausea)

In Donkey Kong 64, the animation of the Kongs entering a DK Portal features the camera rotating while the Kongs appear to be sucked into the portal, becoming smaller as though rapidly traveling away from the screen.

However, in reality, the Kongs are not actually moving into the portal at all, and are instead physically shrinking to simulate that effect. This can be seen directly by throwing an Orange Grenade into the portal so that it rebounds and hits the Kong after touching the portal. As seen in the footage, Tiny Kong is knocked out of the spiraling animation, which briefly shows how small she has become. Unfortunately, this only lasts for a second before the room unloads due to the portal activation.

Source: Mauzasaurus

Front and back cover of a 1986 Japanese guide for Super Mario Bros., featuring unique illustrations.

Source: pukuzone