10 Obscure Super Mario Facts in Celebration of MAR10 Day

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Mel Dawn
Mar 10, 2022 6:00 PM EST

Did you know that Mario first appeared in a Japanese Donkey Kong arcade game in 1981? Though some say he was originally called "Jumpman," he was actually unnamed in the original Japanese game. Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto didn't expect one of his modest side characters to become so popular, but when the little plumber started gaining a fanbase, Miyamoto decided to call him "Mr. Video." Mario was originally intended to be a sort of recurring background character who would make cameo appearances in other games. But against all odds, Mario became the most iconic protagonist and mascot of Nintendo. Legend has it that Mario was eventually named after the landlord of one of Nintendo's warehouses, a man named Mario Segale who demanded back rent from Nintendo's former president Minoru Arakawa. Mamma mía.

If you're into comically obscure facts about video games, like the exact hex color codes for Mario's shirts throughout the years, then you'll love @MarioBrothBlog, who has a whole website full of weird facts and highly specific observations about all things Mario. We've picked out some of our favorite posts from the account, but be sure to visit the blog—it's a real internet gem. 

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  • 01
    Font - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog In honor of MAR10 Day, here is a brief timeline of Nintendo's official stance of whether Mario's last name is "Mario" or not, which has changed several times over the years. Mario's last name timeline Red: Mario; blue: not Mario -1981: Mario is introduced, has no last name 1983: Mario Bros. is released, suggesting Mario's full name is Mario Mario; listed as such in some licensed material 1985 1989: NOA interview states Mario's name is not Mario Mario 199
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 02
    Vertebrate - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog In Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi's hair is fully rendered underneath his hat. However, in order to not let it clip through the hat, his cranial volume has been reduced compared to his regular hatless model seen in other games. Dedicated hatless Luigi model (New Super Mario Bros. U) Luigi's Mansion 3 model without his hat urce: models-esource.com users "DogToonk4", "JJ314", models-resource.com/vi_unevsupermariobrosulmodel46256, models-tesource.comininten
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 03
    Font - The reddest that Mario's shirt and hat have ever been was in Super Mario 64, where they were the hex color FF0000, the purest red representable on a screen. All Mario sprites and models before and after this used various less pure shades of red. Pre-Super Mario 64 Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. 3 Super Mario World #B23012 #B23226 #F84070 Super Mario 64 #FFO000 Pure Red Post-Super Mario 64 Super Mario Sunshine Super Mario Galaxy Super Mario 3D World #FF2821 #D60000 #D61B1B Notes: -The
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 04
    Nature - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBroth... · 3d On higher difficulties in Mario Party Superstars, CPU players may cheat by using Custom Dice Blocks to land precisely on spaces with hidden blocks, despite this knowledge being supposedly secret from all players. Details in image. ... 20 to the Mario Party Superstars contains an item called the Custom Dice Block, which allows the user to directly choose a number of spaces to move instead of rolling randomly as usual Nomally, a Custom Dice Block wou
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 05
    Light - Donkey Kong 64 contains an obscure hint function that is ostensibly intended to help players who fail to make progress in any specific level. However, the requirements to activate it are absurd, such as pausing the game 1501 times in a row or crouching for 4 hours straight. 90 SQUAWK! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY SOMEWHERE ELGE, OR F IND TOEOMEONE WHO CAN HELP YOU. 7 6 RETURN 46 SAVE EXIT LEVEL An extremely obscure "help" function exists in Donkey There are three ways to get the message to appea
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 06
    Product - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog ... According to a 1996 Super Mario 64 interview, the developers consider the Sweep Kick move to be "useless" as it was originally intended to deal with enemies that were too short to punch. In the finished game, all enemies that can be Sweep Kicked can also be punched. Miyamoto: Our thinking was that as players got good at the controls, they'd want to try out more and more button combinations, and if there was nothing past the basics it would be disa
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 07
    Font - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog The 1991 Nintendo Power calendar contained this "Welcome to the Warp Zone" illustration, featuring an original Mario render. As the illustration is printed across two pages, I have retouched the scan to unify it into a mostly seamless image. WELCOMETOTHE WARP ZONE ce nintendo-connect.denintendoldieser bieane-nintendo-kalender-von-199ist-20vieder nutabar440
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 08
    Font - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog ... Original CGI animation made for a 2006 Taiwanese TV news report about the release of the Nintendo Wii. Mario bursts into a room with children playing the GameCube and kicks it away while presenting them with a Wii Remote to illustrate Nintendo's focus on the new system. ce youtube.com user "ntendo Memo", youtube comeatoh OMmoOA
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 09
    Hair - Out of the recurring female human characters in the Mario series, only Daisy regularly has teeth. This affects both official art and in-game models; in the vast majority of cases, Peach, Rosalina and Pauline simply have no teeth modeled inside their mouths. This angular white shape is the teeth. In many of Daisy's models, the teeth can be seen inside the mouth when viewed in wireframe. Note that no teeth can be seen inside the other characters' mouths; they are simply not modeled. burce m
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 10
    Font - Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog In Super Mario World, if the game crashes due to collecting invalid items via glitches, it is possible for the frozen screen to randomly display a line of text from the game, sometimes resulting in vaguely ominous messages like "Illusion lies ahead." MARIO MARIO X25 ME 0S 18 23 TIME 0 X 93 23 53 *x 95 1242480 393 844300 IIlusion lies ahead. Mario in this new worId? 53 : MARIO X42 TIME 2951 1242480 53 0XL 18 Mario has triumphed over "ource: youtube.com us
    via @MarioBrothBlog
  • 11

    Happy Mar10!

    Sky - Charles Martinet @CharlesMartinet Hoppy Mario Day!!!! #woohoo !!!!!! Here we goo00000o!!!!!
    via @CharlesMartinet

    And here's a wholesome picture of the OG Mario because why not. 

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Mario Day mario trivia twitter mar10 interesting gaming memes mario facts Super Mario bros fun facts
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