Many international Mario fans were confused by the design of the Angry Sun in the New Super Mario Bros. U style of Super Mario Maker 2, noticing how it appeared more stern than angry. This is due to the fact that "angry" is not part of the enemy's name in Japan, just being called "sun", meaning that anger is not an inherent part of the character and giving it a different expression would make more sense without knowledge of its localized name.
The new design of the "Angry" Sun seems to be based on pre-colonial mythology based on the sun, most particularly the Inca sun god Inti, a design inspiration that seems to exist in anthropomoprhic suns from multiple other Nintendo games such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mole Mania, and Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
The South Korean version of the game (released two years after the original Japanese edition) contains eleven unused maps not found in any other release, featuring fully 3D environments which do not line up with any locations present in the finished product. All assets related to these maps are dated after the game's Japanese release, with intervals ranging from five days to just over three months. Additionally, the maps' texture names are written in Romanized Japanese rather than Korean, indicating that they were not created by Nintendo of Korea.
Two of these maps, kri_04 and kri_05, additionally feature various cat NPCs, all drawn in substantially different art styles compared to not only each other, but also the final game. Each one is named after a developer from the Super Paper Mario staff: yamada_neko02 (Koichiro Yamada), koba_neko (Sayuri Kobayashi), tuka_neko (Naoko Tsukamoto), and kawa_neko (Chie Kawabe).
Of these four, kawa_neko is the most unique, and was apparently designed as a player character. Firstly, the cat's name is only given to its mesh, with its sprite instead being named bc_all.1. Additionally, kawa_neko features an animated tail and a mesh that is centered on the ground rather than the middle of the room. Furthermore, new_neko_18, a redesigned version of kawa_neko with white fur instead of black, can be found in kri_08, kri_09, and kri_10; new_neko_18's mesh is explicitly labeled "PLAYER" in the data for these maps.
Taken together, all of these elements imply that these early rooms were created as a proof-of-concept for an original project by Intelligent Systems that ended up cancelled for unknown reasons.
Shortly after the game's release, a screenshot started circulating online depicting the Seagallop ferryman in Vermilion City telling the player: "By the way: if you like this game, buy it or die." Those who posted the screenshot claimed that it was a hidden message which was only triggered if the game detected that it was running a pirated copy. This claim appeared to be further corroborated by people claiming that they had encountered the message themselves when playing the game with unofficial Game Boy Advance emulators or when hacking legitimate cartridges with cheat devices, and attracted further popularity after being disseminated by various gaming YouTubers.
However, while the screenshot was not photoshopped, the claim that it was an anti-piracy measure was not true. Rather, the text was added into the game's code by an anonymous individual who distributed a ROM of it online; the claim that it was an anti-piracy feature was most likely used by the individual to circumvent ROM distribution sites' restrictions on modified games. This explains why anecdotal reports of encountering the text were so much higher than what would be expected from a complete hoax, as well as why the text is absent when examining an unaltered ROM of the game in a hex editor.
On August 18th and 19th, 2014, several weeks before Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS launched in Japan, one of the most influential leaks in the series occurred. Footage of the gameplay and the roster (including fighters who were not announced by Nintendo at the time) were uploaded to 4chan, and then YouTube. The legitimacy of the leaks were brought into question by fans (such as the consistency of the rosters compared to the one that was shown at E3 that year), with some speculating that the leaks originated from an employee connected to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), leading fans to refer to the leak as the ESRB leak. It was not until Nintendo took down the YouTube videos very shortly after they were uploaded when they were confirmed to be legitimate. Days later, Shulk would be revealed for the game in a Japanese Nintendo Direct, confirming the rest of the game's unannounced roster.
In 2023, it was discovered that the leaker was a child of a Nintendo of America employee. According to a DidYouKnowGaming? video researching the history of various video game leaks, the employee recorded footage of the game in action, which would be sent to the ESRB for review. The child gained access to it and shared the footage with his friends, before spreading out of control. Nintendo of America fired the employee shortly after word got out.
Prior to the release of the official Japanese version, Japanese audiences, who previously experienced the game through various fan translations, frequently debated about how Sans would refer to himself in dialogue. In the Japanese language, there are multiple first-person singular pronouns, each with their own distinct connotations. Among Japanese fans, the common consensus was that Sans would either refer to himself with 僕 ("boku") or 俺 ("ore"). While both pronouns are masculine, the former has an informal and "boyish" connotation, while the latter typically indicates brashness.
Once the Japanese localization came out, audiences were surprised to discover that Sans instead refers to himself with オイラ ("oira"), a relatively archaic pronoun which is commonly associated with hillbillies (though milder in connotation than おら, "ora"), only using "ore" during his sterner moments. The atypical choice of pronoun resulted in #オイラショック ("#OiraShock") becoming a trending topic on Twitter in Japan, with many fanartists in the country responding by making tongue-in-cheek drawings riffing on it.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe redesigns Wing Kirby's costume, changing the pattern on the headband to a series of straight lines, adding a red jewel on the front (similar to the kind seen on other Copy Ability hats), and replacing the rows of feathers on the back with arrangements that more closely resemble a bird's wings. As the original design was based on a Native American warbonnet, the redesign was likely to avoid cultural appropriation, as real-life warbonnets are regarded as sacred in tribal cultures and consequently can only be worn by those who have earned the right to do so.
In Mario Kart 64's Bowser's Castle, there is what appears to be a green Thwomp locked up in a jail cell. This Thwomp is not actually green, but simply lit in a way that makes him appear as such.
This Thwomp would inspire urban legends claiming that players could bail him out through varying elaborate tricks, after which he would be playable under the name "Marty" (likely chosen for the ease of editing hoaxed images with the names Mario, Toad, and Yoshi)
When N64 Bowser's Castle returned in Mario Kart Wii, "Marty" would be made the color of the rest of the Thwomps, suggesting that his green complexion was simply an error and not an intentional design choice.
The Sega Genesis version of Action 52 was directed by a young Jay Phillip Obernolte, who would later succeed Paul Cook as a Republican member of California's House of Representatives on January 3, 2021.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has been noted as having almost zero similarities to the game it is a sequel to from a gameplay perspective. Gameplay and moveset designer and community manager Thaddeus Crews would address this disparity in a short Twitter thread shortly after the sequel's launch by reassuring fans who prefer the first NASB that the sequel was not intended as a replacement for the first game:
"You know the best part about NASB1 being/feeling so different from NASB2? They're not mutually exclusive!
The first game isn't suddenly rendered irrelevant by the sequel coming out; it's entirely possible to run/enter events for the core gameplay that remains entirely its own
I've seen plenty of people that prefer the first game's gameplay, and more power to them! I'm happy that they've found something they can latch onto and enjoy; surrounding circumstances be damned"
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet has unused graphics from Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, which can be activated by a Game Genie code, allowing one to play SMB1 levels with The Lost Levels graphics, albeit with some glitched tiles in different parts of the game.
According to Super Mario Bros. Wonder's art director Masanobu Sato, Shigeru Miyamoto reportedly explained during the development of the first Super Mario Bros. that the reason why Goombas damage Mario when walking into them is because they bite Mario on impact. Due to graphical and hardware limitations, this could not be shown at the time. However, while Super Mario Bros. Wonder is thought to be the first game in the mainline series that shows this detail in gameplay, it's not the first game in the overall franchise to show it, as Goombas had been seen biting in earlier spin-off games like Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
Several of Konami's arcade beat-em-ups had a recurring feature common among other arcade games where if you wait too long to proceed to the next screen, the game will punish you for idling. In most games, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Sunset Riders, Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, and Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas to name a few, the game will take away a life in one way or another for waiting too long. However, in some other games like The Simpsons Arcade Game and Asterix, the player will only take a select amount of damage for idling, and may not necessarily be enough to lose a life.
In Super Fall Brawl, one of the many reskins of Jingle Brawl, the new character was intended to be Sheen Estevez from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, in promotion for his then-new spin-off series Planet Sheen. However, Sheen was not coded correctly, making him near-impossible to beat in a fight. The game's second update would remove Sheen and his stage completely, and he would never be added back in, making Fall Brawl the only Super Brawl game without any new combatants. Sheen would return in Super Brawl 2, though the House of Pain stage, based on the first episode of Planet Sheen, would be swapped for a Zeenu stage generally based on Planet Sheen instead of a single episode.
Because the developers were still experimenting with Double Battles where the player teams up with an NPC ally to fight two NPC opponents, this led to a glaring oversight during the battle where the player joins with Steven Stone to battle Maxi and Tabitha where, during the battle, Steven's Level 42 Metang can actually gain a substantial amount of EXP simultaneously with the player's own Pokémon. This essentially means that, with careful manipulation, the player can have the ally Metang get enough EXP to grow to Level 43. This so far is the only instance in the entire Pokémon main series where, in a non-scripted battle, an NPC's Pokémon can gain EXP and level up.
If a fighter tries to footstool Piranha Plant while the plant is crouching, the footstooler will be met with a biting attack that takes 4% damage. This happens automatically every time even when the Piranha Plant player presses nothing during the footstool. This highly situational attack however can be easily dodged and countered by the attacked player making it useless in high-level play.
Spoiler:The scene where Artorius kills Laphicet was changed for the Western release. Instead of stabbing him directly in the chest, Artorius sacrifices Laphicet through a magical ceremony.
In the Japanese version of the game, the knocked out guard Spoiler:outside of Meryl's cell will still be wearing underwear. In other versions of the game, the guard is found naked with his rear-end blurred out.
In the North American version, the enemies known as "Grey Children" bare a strong resemblance to real-life children, however in the Japanese & European versions they were instead replaced by "Mumblers".
In all versions of the game there is a secret passage in Cafe HOWDY!/Pub Lali-Ho in the Dwarven Castle of the Underworld that leads to a place called the "Developer's Room". In it are recolored sprites that are meant to be the developers of the game. In the DS release, it has the developers of the DS remake instead. This area was cut in "Final Fantasy 4 Easy-Type" and "Final Fantasy 2 (US)" because it's possible to find a pornographic magazine in the room, called Lustful Lali-Ho.
Many international Mario fans were confused by the design of the Angry Sun in the New Super Mario Bros. U style of Super Mario Maker 2, noticing how it appeared more stern than angry. This is due to the fact that "angry" is not part of the enemy's name in Japan, just being called "sun", meaning that anger is not an inherent part of the character and giving it a different expression would make more sense without knowledge of its localized name.
The South Korean version of the game (released two years after the original Japanese edition) contains eleven unused maps not found in any other release, featuring fully 3D environments which do not line up with any locations present in the finished product. All assets related to these maps are dated after the game's Japanese release, with intervals ranging from five days to just over three months. Additionally, the maps' texture names are written in Romanized Japanese rather than Korean, indicating that they were not created by Nintendo of Korea.
Shortly after the game's release, a screenshot started circulating online depicting the Seagallop ferryman in Vermilion City telling the player: "By the way: if you like this game, buy it or die." Those who posted the screenshot claimed that it was a hidden message which was only triggered if the game detected that it was running a pirated copy. This claim appeared to be further corroborated by people claiming that they had encountered the message themselves when playing the game with unofficial Game Boy Advance emulators or when hacking legitimate cartridges with cheat devices, and attracted further popularity after being disseminated by various gaming YouTubers.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe redesigns Wing Kirby's costume, changing the pattern on the headband to a series of straight lines, adding a red jewel on the front (similar to the kind seen on other Copy Ability hats), and replacing the rows of feathers on the back with arrangements that more closely resemble a bird's wings. As the original design was based on a Native American warbonnet, the redesign was likely to avoid cultural appropriation, as real-life warbonnets are regarded as sacred in tribal cultures and consequently can only be worn by those who have earned the right to do so.
In Mario Kart 64's Bowser's Castle, there is what appears to be a green Thwomp locked up in a jail cell. This Thwomp is not actually green, but simply lit in a way that makes him appear as such.
In the Chinese port for the iQue Player, the 'Special Cup' has been renamed 'iQue Cup', though the courses appear to the same.
Spoiler:The scene where Artorius kills Laphicet was changed for the Western release. Instead of stabbing him directly in the chest, Artorius sacrifices Laphicet through a magical ceremony.
In the Japanese version of the game, the knocked out guard Spoiler:outside of Meryl's cell will still be wearing underwear. In other versions of the game, the guard is found naked with his rear-end blurred out.
In the North American version, the enemies known as "Grey Children" bare a strong resemblance to real-life children, however in the Japanese & European versions they were instead replaced by "Mumblers".
In all versions of the game there is a secret passage in Cafe HOWDY!/Pub Lali-Ho in the Dwarven Castle of the Underworld that leads to a place called the "Developer's Room". In it are recolored sprites that are meant to be the developers of the game. In the DS release, it has the developers of the DS remake instead. This area was cut in "Final Fantasy 4 Easy-Type" and "Final Fantasy 2 (US)" because it's possible to find a pornographic magazine in the room, called Lustful Lali-Ho.