Small Mario Findings

Officially licensed 1989 Super Mario Bros./Nintendo beanie.

Source: dplace.shop

In Super Mario 64, changing areas between the overworld and a course does not restore Mario's health, so it is possible in many cases to cause Mario to go to a different area with 0 health, resulting in him dying immediately after arriving. This is most commonly seen when selecting the "exit course" option with precise timing after taking mortal fall damage.

A rare variant of this occurs with the Big Boo's Haunt entrance. If Mario defeats the Boo in the courtyard that contains the cage leading to the course, and then reduces his health so that a Boo approaching from behind deals the last hit to him and also pushes him towards the activation area of the cage, he will enter Big Boo's Haunt with 0 health. This will make him die immediately, as seen in the footage.

Source: hazysplays8766

Collectible Mario Clash card from a 1995 issue of Nintendo Power featuring a unique illustration in a "fractured" style that does not resemble any artwork from the actual game, but appears to be inspired by the logo instead.

Officially licensed 1990 Super Mario World coin cases from Japan. The middle (silver) part is spring-loaded, and the coins are slid in from the side, pushing any already present coins down. Removing a coin pushes the remaining coins upward with the force of the spring.

Source: blacktangent

Original Donkey Kong 64 illustration found on a cover of a 1999 issue of EGM magazine.

Source: FesteringAynus

Top: graphics for an early file select screen for Super Mario All-Stars, found in development files for the game. This screen combines the file selects for all four games in the collection into a single table, which enables very quick access but can only spare enough space to dedicate very small titles to indicate the actual games.

Bottom: in the finished game, this was made into a two-step process whereby the player first has to select the box art for the game and then gets a save menu dedicated to that game in particular.

Source: SuperArthurBros

Rare officially licensed 1991 Boo plush from Japan.

Source: nadeshico.Japan

In 1984, software called Family BASIC was released for the Famicom in Japan, which allowed the console to be programmed using the BASIC programming language via a keyboard connected to a controller port.

Various magazines published source code for original games, many of which featured Mario due to him being one of the included sample graphics. Here is an illustration for a type-in game called "Evil Castle" from a 1988 issue of the micomBASIC magazine.

Source: vghistory

For decades, the only image available of a pre-release screenshot of a Banjo-Kazooie-themed refrigerator in Donkey Kong's treehouse in Donkey Kong 64 (removed in the finished game) was a low-resolution web upload.

Only in 2026 was the original issue of the 64 Dream magazine where it was published in original resolution scanned and uploaded. Now, a lot more of the detail is visible.

Source: Rare_Gamer

Officially licensed 1989 Super Mario Bros./The Legend of Zelda wallet.

Source: WC Finds

In Level 5-2 of Yoshi's Story, Lots O' Fish, the first Special Heart is found in a room with many Cheep Cheeps, which normally all need to be defeated for the heart to spawn.

However, due to a bizarre glitch, if the player enters the room through the pipe, immediately exits it, and then reenters it again, the heart will spawn immediately instead of requiring the Cheep Cheeps to be defeated, as seen in the footage.

Source: ヨッシー大好き研究所

Officially licensed 2000 Yoshi finger puppet from Japan.

Source: missynicole13

In Donkey Kong 64, a bizarre corner case occurs with the switches inside the giant mushroom in Fungi Forest. All switches must be hit to cause a series of cannons to appear; however, if the player happens to either exit the level or save and quit within 2/3rds of a second after shooting the final switch, the game will save the flag for "the switches have been hit" to the save file, but never actually spawn the cannons.

This will cause that save file to not be able to be fully completed. As such, it is recommended for casual players to never quit out of levels or shut down the game too quickly after completing a puzzle, and instead wait for any subsequent cutscenes to finish first and only then do so.

Source: theballaam96

In Wario World, pillars to the left and right of the entrances to the worlds have symbols roughly representing the themes of the worlds: -World 1, Excitement Central, has mushrooms due to taking place in a forest -World 3, Thrillsville, has wind gust spirals representing cold winds due to taking place in the mountains -World 4, Sparkle Land, has stars due to its "magic" theme

However, World 2, Spooktastic World, has hearts, which may be confusing as it is a horror-themed location; a player may be expecting e.g. skulls instead.

The meaning becomes clear, however, when looking at its original Japanese name: ドキドキワールド (Doki-Doki World, "doki-doki" being the onomatopoeia for a heartbeat). The hearts are supposed to represent a heart pounding due to fear, which is only fully apparent in conjunction with the name and may be lost to international audiences.

Officially licensed 1989 sweatshirt themed after Mario's overalls. Note that the area to the left and right of the suspenders is miscolored, creating red segments on the "shirt" portion that is supposed to be blue.

This is likely due to the manufacturing process; doing this allows for the middle portion to be made out of mostly red fabric with only a single blue segment in the middle, and the back of it to be entirely red, while doing it the "correct" way would have required additional blue segments on the back as well.

In Super Mario World, Yoshi is not supposed to be able to spit fireballs in the switch rooms of the Switch Palace stages, due to the tileset needing extra tiles to display the texboxes and these using the same indices as the Yoshi fireball graphics.

By using glitches to spawn a Red Shell (or a Rainbow Shell as seen in the footage), Yoshi can spit out fireballs in these rooms, which appear as text tiles due to this.

Source: MrPyt1001

Officially licensed 1993 Toad plush keychain from Japan.