Random Things You Never Knew About Super Mario Bros. (19 items)

• 

  (#15) The Clouds and Bushes Are Recycled

  The makers of Super Mario Bros. were way into recycling before everybody on your block had four different recycling bins. Not only are the clouds and bushes the same sprite with different colors, but the big castle is a bunch of small castles stacked on top of each other, and the sound you hear when Mario gets hit is the same sound you hear when you travel down a pipe. 
• 

  (#11) Luigi's Name Is Making Fun of Him a Little Bit

  Poor Luigi, he always gets the short end of the stick (except for Luigi's Mansion, that game was dope). Coincidentally, his name is based on a Japanese word that means "similar" and is spelt Ruij. In the early games, Luigi is almost exactly the same as Mario in appearance, so the name was a little joke on the sidekick.
  
• 

  (#18) Mario Originally Carried a Beam Gun and Rode a Cloud

  Before becoming the jumping brick smasher gamers know and love, Mario was going to be the star of an action game that was closer to Metroid. He was even going to ride a rocket at one point. 
• 

  (#5) Mario Was Named After Nintendo's Landlord

  Long before Mario was Mario, he was called “Jumpman” because they had to call him something. Before that, he was called “Mr. Video” which is actually kind of awesome. Even before that, he was known as “Ossan,” which translates to “middle-aged guy.” And because no one wants to play a game called "Super Middle-Aged Guy," a proper name was sought and found in Nintendo's American offices.

  The story goes that Nintendo was supposedly late on rent and their landlord, Mario Segale, looked the other way. In thanks, he was forever immortalized as the namesake for the most popular video game mascot of all time - Super Segale. 
• 

  (#3) The 1-Up Turtle is Not a Glitch

  Gamers love to find glitches, so when players came across a slow poke turtle (specifically in level 3-1) that gave out almost 100 1-ups, they thought they'd hit glitch paydirt. It wasn't until much later that Miyamato revealed that this was meant to be in the game all along. 
• 

  (#16) Mario Started Out as a Carpenter, Not a Pumber

  Most people are aware that Mario’s first appearance was in the classic arcade game Donkey Kong. Less widely remembered: Mario wasn't a plumber, but was a carpenter instead. Mario made a career change because of the pipes and sewers in the original Mario Bros. arcade game. 

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking