A Super Mario variety blog.
Screenshots, photos, sprites, gifs, scans and more from all around the world of Super Mario Bros.
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In the Forever Forest in Paper Mario, a beehive can be seen in a tree in an area that is not part of the main path toward Boo’s Mansion. If the path is taken (starting from Toad Town) straight, left, left, right, right, this area can be reached.
If the tree with the beehive is struck with a hammer, a Bzzap enemy will emerge. This provides a hidden preview of an enemy from much later in the game, as these are not usually encountered until Chapter 6, while Forever Forest is part of Chapter 3.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: PM (NA, VC)
The data for Paper Mario contains an unused “Defend” function for Mario, which makes him crouch and increases his Defense stat by 1 (note how the Spiked Goomba, which has an Attack stat of 2, deals 1 damage, and the regular Goomba with an Attack stat of 1 deals no damage). This is identical in function and animation to the Defend function later used in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
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In Chapter 4 of Paper Mario, four boxes inside the Shy Guy’s Toy Box must be hit in the correct order to proceed. This order is yellow, green, red, blue; it is communicated through a note that can be taken to a Toad Town resident to be translated, and through the order of the Shy Guys in the battle that drops the note (top).
The order is identical to the order of the Switch Palaces in Super Mario World (shown here are the level lists from the Super Mario Advance 2 version; note the world numbers on the left and the switch palaces indicated with arrows). While this could be a coincidence, Paper Mario contains enough other references to Super Mario World that this could be deliberate.
In Paper Mario, Jr. Troopa has a sprite that can only be seen very rarely under normal circumstances. In his last two battles, he will use a magic attack. If Mario’s Pretty Lucky or Lucky Day badges activate on that attack (top, note Mario adjusting his hat for the Lucky animation), Jr. Troopa’s spell will backfire, covering him in soot. Note that this does not happen if the attack misses for any other reason such as Mario being transparent; Mario must do the Lucky animation for this to occur. Below is the sprite extracted from the data.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source
Usually, in Paper Mario, all NPCs will be animated at all times, having an idle animation for the occasions where they are not performing any action. However, during the first battle against Jr. Troopa in the Prologue, when Goompa is talking to Mario, Jr. Troopa will be completely motionless until Goompa stops talking. After this, he will resume his normal idle animation.
Unused early version of the intro story theme from Paper Mario, found in the game’s data. The first part of it was repurposed in the finished game as one of the tracks that plays when Peach’s Castle is rescued.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source
In Paper Mario, there is unused functionality to use some healing items on partners in the game’s data. Normally, since partners in this game do not have HP, they cannot be healed; however, this function would have allowed Mario to use a Mushroom on an incapacitated partner to restore them, as shown with Goombario in the footage. This function also includes a unique animation of Mario throwing the item at the partner.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source
The Japanese version of Paper Mario has a different music track that plays during the “new partner” sequences that was replaced in all other versions. Here is the Japanese track, playing for one loop until 29 seconds in, where the international track plays for comparison.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Small Findings | Source
Top: in Paper Mario, the Star Beam move is described as being specifically used against Bowser when he activates the Star Rod. At no point during the game is any other function of that move mentioned.
Bottom: however, it has hidden additional functionality: it removes all positive status effects from all enemies. In this footage, the two Hammer Bros. are flashing due to having received a +1 Defense buff from the Magikoopa. After performing Star Beam, the effect is removed and they are no longer flashing.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Small Findings | Source: twitter.com user “MonadoBoy16″
In Paper Mario, there is a slot machine in the section to the right of the Green Station in Shy Guy’s Toy Box. If a battle is started in front of the slot machine, it will appear in the background of the battle screen. However, instead of being merely a decorative prop, it is actually interactive.
Pressing Up while targeting the enemies will move the cursor to the blocks of the slot machine. By attacking the Start block first, it will start spinning. Then, attacking the Stop blocks stops them on a random symbol. If all three symbols match, 30 coins will be added to the player’s coin total.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Source: myself, Paper Mario (NA, VC) on Wii emulator
