In the 2023 film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", the Japanese name for the character Spike (the foreman from Wrecking Crew) was changed in the corresponding dub. Although no specific reason was given as to why the change was made, it can be assumed it was done to avoid controversy as the character's original Japanese name is "Blackie", which is also a derogatory racial slur in English-speaking countries used to refer to dark-skinned people of African descent.

In a 2023 interview done to promote "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", Shigeru Miyamoto shared his thoughts and opinions on certain aspects of the character Mario that the filmmakers could easily take from the video games that made him endure over time and become so beloved the world over:

"It’s the very fact that he is not your typical superhero that makes him such an interesting movie character[...]He’s so relatable. He’s an Everyman character. He never gives up. He always keeps coming. Those qualities make for a very compelling central character.

I think part of it is the idea that Mario never gives up[...]And he’s kind of got this shy side to him. When all the attention is focused on him, he’s a little bashful and doesn’t maybe want that. That speaks to me. He might seem brave, but that’s still a fundamental core essence of his character."

On April 22, 2015, Nintendo of America uploaded a tweet with an image of a Waluigi plush doll riding a Wiggler plush doll, with the caption:


Someone at Nintendo of America forgot to spell-check Wiggler's name, because the term "wigger" describes a white person who emulates the behaviors of African-Americans.

Shortly after finding the mistake, Nintendo of America took it down and apologized for the error.

While filming the infamous live-action Super Mario Bros movie released in 1993, Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo would deliberately get intoxicated before shoots to help them cope with the disastrous production.

In 1991, Nintendo and MCA Records released a compilation album titled "Nintendo: White Knuckle Scorin'" mostly featuring songs unrelated to Nintendo by numerous rock and pop acts, although the original intention of the album was for the whole release to feature songs based off of Nintendo franchises. The album booklet featured a short comic loosely based on Super Mario World that was written and illustrated by the team responsible for the "Nintendo Comics System" comic book series released in the early 1990's. The comic and the album's release were designed to promote children's literacy, and was dedicated to Bobby Brooks, a talent agent passionate about promoting that cause who was killed in a 1990 helicopter crash that also took the life of blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The most notable thing to come out of this album's existence is an officially-licensed original song based on the Mario series titled "Ignorance is Bliss" written by Andy Sturmer and his then-girlfriend Sarah Wirt, and performed by Sturmer's psychedelic pop band Jellyfish (please note that the preceding link to the song is a fanmade music video with a fanmade spoken word intro based on the comic, and is not found in the original song). Sturmer, despite not being interested in video games, took it upon himself to make sure the song's lyrics remained relevant to the Mario series by directly basing them off of the album booklet's comic, which featured an illiterate Bowser ranting to Princess Toadstool about his plans of turning Dinosaur Land into fossil fuels and using his newfound status as an oil tycoon to join the real-life Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as well as how much he hates reading. Sturmer later described the song as a "mini-opera" that was "a lot of fun to write".

In the Super Mario World official guidebook interview, the game's composer Koji Kondo was asked how he came up with Mario's main theme, and revealed that it was originally very different, and went through multiple iterations. He commented:

A 2016 study conducted in Hong Kong revealed that more players drove a car better after playing Mario Kart. This was because “easily accessible action video games for as little as 5 hours can be a cost-effective tool to help people improve essential visuomotor-control skills used for driving,” according to the Association of Psychological Science.

Goomba's name in the Japanese version is "Kuribo" (クリボー), which means "Chesnut boy" or "Chesnut people". They were named like this because the character sprite was mislabelled by one of the programmers of the original Super Mario game, saying that it looked like a chestnut.

Paratroopa's Japanese name, 'Pata-pata' (パタパタ), comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia for flapping wings.

Koopa troopas' Japanese name, “Noko-noko” (ノコノコ), is the Japanese term for doing something without much care.

Lakitu's Japanese name, 'Jugemu' (ジュゲム); or 'Jugem' as it was romanized in later games of the series, comes from a rakugo folk tale. In the tale, a couple could not think of a suitable name for their newborn baby boy and so the father went to a temple and asked the chief priest to think of a name. The priest suggested several names, but they couldn't decide on one, so they decided to mix all of those names into one, the final result being:

Jugemu-jugemu Gokonosurikire Kaijarisuigyo-no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Kunerutokoroni-sumutokoro Yaburakojino-burakoji Paipopaipo-paiponoshuringan Shuringanno-gurindai Gurindaino-ponpokopino-ponpokonano Chokyumeino-chosuke

Before Super Mario World, Koopa Troopas walked on all four legs.

According to the Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii official guides, the character Daisy is Princess Peach's cousin. However, there are no official sources or in-game evidence that confirms this.

According to a interview with ABC News, when Shigeru Miyamoto was asked why Daisy and Wario aren't a part of the main Mario titles, Miyamoto replied that "Both Daisy and Wario were originally drawn as part of the "Mario Land" games and had the same illustrator. The art style of those games was different from the "Mario World" series with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach, and for a long time that was the reason that we didn't have those characters enter into each other's stories." Despite this statement, Wario did appear in the DS update of Super Mario 64 and Mario faced off against the enemies of Wario Land 3 in Dr. Mario 64. This not only explains their absence in main Mario games, but also might explain the lack of direct representation of their games in the Mario spin off games in terms locations, enemies, characters, and special moves such as Wario's iconic shoulder bash.

According to a Nintendo documentary, Wario is Mario's childhood friend who grew up with the same plumbing skills.

According to a Nintendo Documentary, Mario's favorite music is not only Opera, but Euro-Pop as well.

According to Eiji Anouma, Miyamoto got the idea of naming Mario from Marionette. Marionette is a puppet controlled from above with strings or wires. Miyamoto also made puppets during his days at school where he would display his puppets in front of the class.

Next Level Games, who developed Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers Charged, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, had pitched to Nintendo a Mario volleyball game titled Super Mario Spikers. Called during development as simply Mario Volleyball, it featured wrestling mechanics and presented with hints of a TV game show. It was intended for the Wii and work began on it around the end of 2006. Development was canceled in 2007 after the pitch had failed with Nintendo. The game was financed as a reward from the studio's previous work on the Strikers games.

In the Mario Kart games, Rosalina is a heavy/large class character. However, in Super Smash. Bros for 3DS and Wii U she is a light class character. The reason she is a heavy class character in Mario Kart is most likely due to her height.

Mario has starred in over 200 different games.

According to a 1993 Nintendo Character Guide, Yoshi's full name is T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas.

Princess Daisy's country of origin, Sarasaland, takes its name from the calico textiles imported by Portuguese traders from India to Japan during the Edo Period. Calico became widely popular in Japan to the point the Portuguese word for it, sarasa, was adapted into the Japanese language.

Calico (or sarasa) textiles are most commonly flower patterns made up of multiple, contrasting colors. This is why it is ruled by Daisy, a flower-inspired princess. And just as animal color patterns are named after the fabric (i.e., calico cats, calico goldfish, etc.) it's name alludes to the fact it is comprised of multiple, diverse kingdoms. The reason it is written as "Sarasaland," is because of the poor localization for the English release of Super Mario Land. In Japanese, it is: サラサ・ランド. Properly translated to English, it would be: Calico Land. A space or hyphen can be used in place of the interpoint.

Subsequent descriptions have rendered the name differently, as well:
•The ''Official Game Boy Players Guide'' omits the word land completely: "Sarasa"
•The ''Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins'' manual spaces the name out, but still leaves calico untranslated: "Sarasa Land"
•The Daisy trophy in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' hyphenates the name and leaves the 'L' in "Land" lowercase: "Sarasa-land"
•Daisy's ''Mario Superstar Baseball'' profile misspells sarasa with "ra" added on the end: "Sarasara Land"

Nintendo has depicted Mario (previously Jumpman) with hair and no hat since the NES and Famicom. But in the early artwork for Donkey Kong, Mario was bald.

Ever since Mario's debut in 1981, there hasn't been a single year that a Mario game hasn't been released.

Before he became the voice of Mario, Charles Martinet was a Shakespearean actor. He even based his Mario voice on the character of Gremio from The Taming of the Shrew.

Koji Kondo, the composer of various Mario games, tries to make music that people can repeatedly listen to without getting sick of. He would listen to his own music for hours to see if he would get sick of it or not.

Marc Graue, Ronald B. Ruben and Charles Martinet are the only people to voice Mario in the video games. Marc Graue and Charles Martinet would later go on to voice the characters 'Mr. Zurkon' and 'Orvus' in the Ratchet and Clank Future Trilogy.

A street in Spain, in the suburb of Zargoza, was named "Avenida de Super Mario Bros." as a tribute to the Mario series. The name was chosen via an online poll for the newly built neighbourhood with plans to name more streets after other video game series.

The Mario Party series has been awarded the title of the "Longest Running Mini-Game Series" in the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition. (2009 - 2013)

The 'P' in "P-Wing" stands for Paratroopa or Patapata (Japanese name for Paratroopa).

All 8-bit sprite tiles have only three colors plus transparency as a fourth color, but Bowser's original sprite from Super Mario Bros. appears to have four colors as well as transparency as a color. This is because the black background is what gives Bowser his black spiked collars around his wrists. Due to this, using cheat codes so Bowser appears in a non-castle level will look like his hands are separated from his arms. This occurs again in Super Mario Bros. 3 where Bowser's sprite is designed to exploit the black background and use it as an outline element.

Charles Martinet (the current voice for Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi) was actually not invited to the auditions to be the new voice of Mario. He crashed the auditions and was just asked to do an Italian accent until he ran out of things to say. He knew nothing about Mario going into the audition, and since he was told that he was going to talk to children throughout the game, he started to do a more playful and gentle voice instead of the traditional gruff Italian accent that Mario had before. Martinet left so much of an impression at the recording that his tape was the only one sent to Nintendo.

Luigi's name comes from a pun on the Japanese word ルイージ¸ or ruiji meaning "similar." Since all of his sprites in earlier games were just recolors of his brother's sprites, and his name was Italian like Mario's was, it seemed to fit him.

Bowser's Japanese name, Kuppa (pronounced Koopa), was named by Shigeru Miyamoto after the Korean dish Gukbap, roughly known in Japan as 'Kuppa'. Other dishes considered were Yukke ('Yukhoe' in Korean) and Bibinba ('Bibimbap' in Korean).

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, neither Mario or Luigi have surnames. The Super Mario Bros. film has Mario and Luigi's last name as Mario, but this was because of a scene where the two had to provide their full name.

Mario's hair is brown, while his mustache is black. This was because around the time of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario's creators wanted him to have a definite hair color in game, while it was easier to draw his mustache by extending the black outline of his nose.

According to Nintendo via a Nintendo Direct "Year of Luigi" announcement, Mario and Luigi are twins. It's also been stated that Luigi is the youngest.

On the cover of Super Mario Bros 3 Mario's overalls are different compared to Super Mario Bros 2. Instead of having a blue sweater, and red overalls, it was changed to be blue overalls, and red sweater. It has stayed the same ever since.

An issue of Nintendo Power revealed that Shigeru Miyamoto got the idea for Boos from the wife of his co-worker and close friend Takashi Tezuka, as she is shy but one day got very angry at him for coming home late from work. Boos were also originally named "Boo Diddleys" after the late blues singer and guitarist "Bo Diddley".

The reason Mario has a cap and mustache is because his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, wanted to avoid animating Mario's hair and drawing his mouth. He thought they would be difficult to do correctly in such a small space.

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the Koopalings aren't actually Bowser's children, despite the Super Mario Bros. 3 manual stating that they were.

Shigeru Miyamoto wanted Mario to have a dinosaur companion ever since Super Mario Bros. but it wasn't thought possible at the time due to the limitations of the NES. He wanted to implement Yoshi in Super Mario Bros. 3 but again could not. Two power-ups were created to fill the gap - raccoon and frog Mario. Co-worker Takashi Tezuka once speculated that Miyamoto's love of horse riding had influenced Yoshi's creation.

According to Mario Bros. developer Takashi Tezuka, there was a stage in Super Mario World's development when Yoshi was a Koopa. A relic of this idea is Yoshi's shell-like saddle.

Shigeru Miyamoto had originally intended for Bowser to be an ox, and based him on the main antagonist from the animation "Alakazam The Great". This is likely why his modern design has horns and a defined muzzle, despite him being a turtle.

There is a pornographic parody film released in two parts based on Mario called "Super Hornio Brothers". Nintendo purchased the rights to the movies following their release to make sure they would never be released again.

Mario was not Mario's original name, and nor was Jumpman. When Miyamoto created the prototype of Mario, he called him "Mr. Video" and planned to put the character into many games (possibly as cameos, as he did with Mario). But even before then Mario was called "Ossan" which means middle-aged guy.