Who needs more reasons to love the nostalgic Super Mario? No one, probably. However, if you thought you couldn’t love this plumber and his magical world more, we’re here to give you 7 facts about super mario that will change your mind!
The name Mario and his Italian heritage had a real person behind it
As the story goes, the name of our favourite Mario was actually inspired by a Washington-based real-estate developer, Mario Segala, who had Italian heritage. Mario was renting out a warehouse which would serve as Nintendo US HQ, when the company’s then president noticed similarities between Segale and the character ‘Jumpman’ from their game Donkey Kong. He decided to give Jumpman the nickname of Mario, and the rest is history.
Mario isn’t actually all rainbows and butterflies; it is gory as heck!
Are you one of those people who seeked pleasure in cracking bricks and boinking coins and eating mushrooms when you played Super Mario?
If you had only read the instructions manual, you’d have known that all these things were literally humans, transfigured by black-magic practitioners, Bowser and the Koopas. Which, to summarise, means that everytime you broke a brick, you bombarda-ed a human, and everytime you ate a mushroom, you became a cannibal. How are you feeling now?
There was a cheat for infinite number of lives
Ever been in a situation while playing Super Mario when you’re about to be the ultimate warrior king BUT YOU LOSE YOUR LAST LIFE AND HAVE TO BEGIN ALL OVER AGAIN!??!?
Turns out, it didn’t have to be that way. All you had to do when you died was hold down the A button on your keyboard and press Start, and you could re-start at the level you died in. Calm down, calm down!
Super Mario mushrooms aren’t just any mushrooms
Cute, bright and hopefully tasty. But the reason we love mushrooms is because they make the small Mario a big Mario. But not every mushroom can do that, and designers of Super Mario were aware. The size-altering mushrooms Mario loves to eat are actually based on a real species of fungi called amanita muscaria. This fungi has hallucinogenic properties and can even distort the size of perceived objects. It makes sense now, doesn’t it?
Mario was originally going to be much more badass than a man throwing pebbles
Even though we loved off-ing innocent turtles with stones, the original idea of Mario actually included him carrying guns and riding rocket. Even though this version of Super Mario, that was in development, never made it to our computers, it might have inspired the shooting stages in Super Mario Land on Gameboy.
Mario was made a teetotaler for us
Thanks to the fear of backlash, Nintendo changed the victory animation for Bowser and Peach, which was originally drinking a bubbly glass of champagne to something us kids would be more okay with. A good moral example?
Someone recently paid $100,000 for a copy of Super Mario
Passion is in fashion. Someone loves Mario enough to have paid $100k for a mint copy of the beautiful game. But what’s so special about this copy?
Turns out, this is one of the only two “sticker sealed copies” of Super Mario that were produced between 1984-85 for testing in N.Y. and L.A. markets – something you don’t get to see everyday!
Do you know some facts about super mario that should be on our list? Tell us in the comments below!
Like what you just read? You need to check out These Are The 5 Most Interesting Facts About Tetris
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