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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Top: in Super Mario Maker 2, Mario can swim through the air in the nighttime Castle theme. For this, he uses his existing swimming animation.
Bottom: this is, however, not the first time Mario has been able to swim through the air in the exact same manner. The Japanese-only 1986 Super Mario Bros. Special for the NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 home computers contains an obscure “Wing” power-up, found in hidden Question Blocks in levels 3-2 and 4-1, that briefly gives Mario the ability to swim through the air, also using his existing animation for swimming through water.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Source: 1, 2: myself, Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) on original hardware
Left: artwork of Bowser and Koopa Troopas from the How to Win at Super Mario Bros. guide, the Japanese version of which is the earliest guide for the game and contains some of the characters’ earliest designs.
Right: for a long time, that book was thought to be the only source of these designs; however, a 1985 Super Mario Bros. sticker set from Japan also seems to use very similar designs, although these are closer to the finalized official art. It is possible that these are designs are from a period between the first draft and the finished versions.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Small Findings | Source: 1, 2
Sketch from the development of Super Mario Bros., showing the original envisioned control scheme. Before the jump function was assigned to A, it was mapped to Up on the D-Pad, similar to the Super Smash Bros. series. The A button was instead used for an “Attack” function that was removed in the final game.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Small Findings | Source
Super Mario Bros. cushion in the shape of the Small Mario sprite offered as a reward for Platinum members of the Japanese Club Nintendo in 2011. The box the cushion was shipped in contained the message “Thank you very much for your love!”
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Small Findings | Sources: 1, 2
In Super Mario Bros., if Mario touches a vine when the block it has grown out of is exactly halfway off the screen to the left (the vine itself should be invisible due to being programmed to not display when it is partially offscreen), pressing Left will teleport Mario to the right edge of the screen.
Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Source: myself, Super Mario Bros. (NA, NES) in NES emulator
