Everyone knows and loves Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber, Mario. In fact, most of us owe him some of our most tender childhood gaming memories. The fact is, the Super Mario games are some of the most unique games to ever exist. Where else would you be able to hit a brick with your fist to get coins, jump on a turtle and send its shell skidding away like soap or eat mushrooms to grow bigger? When the Super Mario games first came out, it was little details like this that made fans go crazy. It was creative, innovative and downright fun. Yet, how well do we really know the games? Everything has a dark side. And a weird side. Much like taking a photo from a certain angle would either make you look flattering or more like a beached whale.
Here’s 8 WTF facts you didn’t know about the Super Mario games:
1. There was a weird limited release of Super Mario Bros. featuring Japanese celebrities.
Back in 1986, All Night Nippon (a long running Japanese radio program) had a contest, in which the winner would receive a limited-edition Famicom Disk System game. It was the All Night Nippon version of Super Mario Bros., which is basically an officially sanctioned ROM hack. The game’s background, powerups and enemy sprites were switched out for All Night Nippon-related content. If you tried playing it today, absolutely nothing would make any sense. Unless you’re a Japanese radio program enthusiast.
2. The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. on the Famicom had some pretty terrifying stuff in its Minus World
The Minus World is a glitch level that can be found in the Super Mario Bros. game for the Famicom. It’s an underwater level that resembles World 7-2, but players physically cannot exit the level. This means that players are doomed to lose all their lives by either running out of time or getting defeated by the enemies. This happens until a ‘Game Over’ results.
The Japanese version of the game had a different kind of vibe to it. The background was clouds, which doesn’t actually make any sense since it was an underwater level, and a few bizarre elements could be seen. This includes a headless Bowser, multiple floating Princess Toadstools, a misplaced Hammer Bro and a glitched color palette on several objects throughout the level. Eventually the players will reach a World -3, in which they’ll be greeted by flying Bloopers. After completing the level, Toad’s usual message saying that the princess is in another castle will appear, even though Toad himself is missing. The game will then take players back to the title screen, and if players choose to start the game again, the Goombas would be replaced by Buzzy Beatles and the game will be set on hard mode.
3. Mario originally had a gun
One of the creators behind the Super Mario games, Shigeru Miyamoto, told a Japanese magazine in an interview that Mario was originally intended to use a gun. He explained that the controls were switched around to have the A button shoot bullets and have the up button make him jump. The bullets were soon changed into fireballs, but the team eventually decided to take it away completely. They thought that it gave Mario too much of an advantage, making the game less challenging and rewarding. It changed to the point where Mario could only shoot one fireball after running for long enough.
4. There was a Super Mario Bros. 3 port made for PC in 1990
Coding legend John Carmack worked with a number of programmers in 1990 to create a PC port of Super Mario Bros. 3 in the hopes of having Nintendo sign off on it. Porting a console game to PC was an incredible technological feat for that time, something only a genius like John Carmack could accomplish. Eventually, Nintendo passed on the opportunity, keeping the game on its consoles. This may have been one of the biggest mistakes Nintendo ever made, because everyone involved with the project decided to work together to form a company known as iD Software. This company went on to define the standards for PC gaming in the 90’s with ground-breaking titles like Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom. So, if you think about it, Nintendo was behind the creation of these gaming masterpieces.
5. Mario isn’t as good as you thought he was
In 1987, Mario made an appearance in Donkey Kong Jr. as the game’s villain. This is the first and only game to ever depict Mario as an antagonist. While Mario is the good-hearted hero in most of the games he appears in, he is actually the sworn enemy of Donkey Kong Jr. and his father, Donkey Kong. This is because of the fact that he imprisoned Donkey Kong, which is ultimately animal abuse. He even gets defeated and killed* by the game’s title character, who manages to resue his dad. *obviously Mario survived.
6. The Super Mario Bros. Theme Song Has Lyrics (and it’s incredibly weird)
Koji Kondo’s iconic Super Mario Bros. theme song wasn’t originally written with lyrics, but after a contest was held to see if anyone could come up with lyrics for it, Nintendo found themselves enamoured with it. They released the song on a vinyl record in 1985. Ever since then, Nintendo never officially did anything else about it. But don’t expect die-hard fans to forget about it as easily. The song was translated to English, but in retrospect, it must sound better in Japanese. Here’s a part of the lyrics:
“Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go save Princess Peach! Go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!” (Admit it. You tried singing it with the song in mind.) Source
7. Super Mario Bros. 3 was actually a play
For years, a fan theory about the classic NES game floated around the internet, which claimed that the entire game was just a stage performance. Mario and Luigi was never in any actual danger. In retrospect, it did actually make sense. The game starts out with a red curtain rising up, just like it would on a stage. If you paid close attention during the game, you’d notice that most objects suspended in the air was kept there with strings. Lastly, throughout the game you would notice that actual mechanics like gears and such would make things like wooden platforms move. Of course, the theory was met with harsh criticism from most die-hard Super Mario fans. Up until one of the most prominent creators of the Mario games confirmed the theory while addressing some of the most popular myths about the famous red plumber’s adventures. On the Nintendo UK Twitter feed, Shigeru Miyamoto himself said that Super Mario Bros. 3 was all just a performance.
8. Nintendo bought the rights of two Super Mario adult film parodies
Two adult films inspired by the Super Mario games, entitled “Super Hornio Brothers” and “Super Hornio Brothers 2”, made an appearance around the same time the Super Mario Bros. Movie came out. Originally intended to be one movie, the adult film was split into two features due to the fact that it had a long running time. The films had the same premise of its video game counterpart, except for the fact that the names were changed. “Luigi” turned into “Squeegie”, “Mario” turned into “Ornio” and “Princess Peach” turned into “Princess Perlina”. Nintendo was so embarrassed, they bought the distribution rights to both movies to avoid any further distribution of the films.