20 Facts You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Super Mario

10 Facts You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Super Mario

Mario’s Original Name

Before Mario was known as the mustachioed plumber as we know him today, he was first nicknamed Jumpman in his first appearance in Donkey Kong back in 1981. Also, he was a carpenter… not a plumber.

Yoshi’s Real Name

According to a Nintendo Character Guide that was published way back in 1993, it turns out that Yoshi’s real name is T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. Yeah, we’ll just stick to calling him Yoshi.

Dolphin-Eater

In the Japanese version of Super Mario World for the SNES, Yoshi was actually able to devour the dolphins in the water stages. This was taken out of the western release –thank goodness– because that is just wrong.

Luigi Doesn’t Even Have His Own Name

Poor Luigi –the guy just can’t get a break. I’m not sure if you guys knew this already but Luigi and Mario’s canon last name is indeed…Mario. Yup, Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. He’ll never get out of the shadow of his younger (more successful) brother.

Birdo Was Originally a Dude

In the old-school booklets that used to come with games back in the day, there was one for Super Mario Bros. 2 that mentioned Birdo. It stated that Birdo thinks it is a girl, but he’s actually a guy. Nintendo calls Birdo a female nowadays so I wonder why that change happened.

Princess Peach Is an Icon

The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom has made appearances in dozens upon dozens of different Nintendo games throughout the past 30 years or so, making her have the most famous female character in gaming –solely based on the number of appearances.

Super Mario 64 2 Almost Happened

Strange name aside, Nintendo was (at one point) developing a sequel to Super Mario 64 that would be played using the 64DD –a disk drive peripheral for the N64 that was a commercial flop when it launched in Japan. Hopefully, we still get a proper sequel to this game one day. I just want to jump in some paintings, man.

Mario’s Age

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, it turns out that Mario is a bit younger than we would have expected.
It seems that he’s supposed to be about 23-24 years old –I can’t believe he’s a millennial, but the real question is: does he age?

Chain Chomps Inspiration

Miyamoto often finds inspiration in his daily life, including traumatic experiences. One day he was walking and a dog suddenly came after him but thankfully he was stopped in his tracks because he was chained up. And that’s how he came up with Chain Chomps.

Toads Secret

Toadette was the first time that we’ve ever seen a “female” Toad, but it turns out that Toads are genderless. They just choose what gender they want to be and that’s it. Man, the Mario universe is wacky as heck.

Luigi Is Missing

When Mario Party 9 originally released on the Nintendo Wii, Mario’s brother Luigi was left out of the box art even though he was a primary playable character in the party game. He was later added to the box art in the west after release but he was forever forgotten in Japan.

Excitebike: Mario Battle Stadium

Excitebike: Mario Battle Stadium was a Japanese adaptation of Excitebike that only came out on the Super Famicom’s Satellaview that replaced all of the racers with Mario characters. It was only available for download at the time but if you ask me, this a spin-off that definitely needs to come back.

Scrapped Kamek

During the development of Mario Kart 64, Kamek was planned to be a playable racer but was later scrapped and thrown in the trash after being replaced by none other than Donkey Kong –I would have much preferred the sneaky little wizard.

Poppin’ Bottles

In the victory animations for some of the characters in Super Mario Kart, you can see them blatantly chugging down a bottle of champagne to celebrate their wins. This was only able to be seen in the Japanese version as the drinking of alcohol was censored in the western release of the game.

Super Mario Odyssey Speedrun

The fastest time for any% speedrun for Super Mario Odyssey currently sits at 58 minutes and 36 seconds. As for 100% moon completion, the record time is 7 hours and 29 minutes –that’s quite impressive.

Mario’s Namesake

Mario was actually named after a man known as Mario Segale, the landlord to a property that was being rented out by Nintendo of America in the early 80s in Tukwila, a suburban city in Washington.

Stolen Fire Bars

The swinging bars of fire that Mario encounters in the castle levels in Super Mario Bros. are taken straight out of The Legend of Zelda on the NES, or were the fire bars from Zelda stolen from Mario?

Zelda Reference in Super Mario Sunshine

The character known as Piantissimo in Super Mario Sunshine is actually The Running Man from Ocarina of Time and the Mailman from Majora’s Mask. You can thank some talented hackers for uncovering this bizarre secret.

Koopaling Musicians

Did you know that all of Bowser’s minions (kids?) are named after famous musicians? Who knew that Ludwig, Lemmy, Roy, Iggy, Wendy, Morton, and Larry aren’t just randomly chosen names… they still suck though.

Kinopio Burger

In a Mario Party 4 mini-game involving a restaurant, there’s a poster on the wall that says “Kinopio Burger” which is the Japanse name for Toad. It sneaked past translation for the west but does this mean that people in the Mario universe are chomping on burgers made of Toad meat? I don’t want to know.

If you’re looking for other weird facts about popular video game franchises, then check out this one on Super Smash Bros.