Trivia / Super Mario Bros.

For trivia related to the original 1985 game, see here.

For trivia related to the 1993 live-action film, see here.

For trivia related to the cartoons by DiC Entertainment, see here.

The franchise in general:

• Acting for Two:
  • Yes, most characters are Heroic Mimes, but nonetheless, for a good portion of the series' run, Charles Martinet voiced both Mario brothers, their baby versions, both "Wario brothers", and a significant portion of the smaller or one-off roles in the series.
    • Even after Charles Martinet's retirement, the tradition of Mario and Luigi sharing a voice actor continues, as Kevin Afghani voices both brothers in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and in addition, he does Wario in WarioWare: Move It!.
  • From the Nintendo GameCube Era onwards, Peach, Toad and Toadette have all shared the same voice actress, the first one being Jen Taylor and the current one being Samantha Kelly. Jen Taylor also voiced Daisy alongside Peach and Toad in Mario Party 3, 4, and 5.
  • Yoshi, Birdo and Professor E. Gadd are all voiced by Kazumi Totaka.
• Adored by the Network: The Mario series is Nintendo's flagship series, stars their Mascot, and gets the largest focus in terms of marketing.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
  • Toad's quote from Super Mario Bros. is sometimes wrongfully quoted as "Sorry, Mario, but our princess is in another castle!", when it's actually "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!". Sometimes "our princess" may be replaced with "your princess".
  • Daisy is often associated with her infamous "Hi, I'm Daisy!" quote, which originated in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Even though Daisy doesn't say "Hi, I'm Daisy" in any of the other games she has appeared in, the line is often used to antagonize her, even if she no longer says the line in any other game she has appeared in. Granted, she does say the line a lot in Double Dash.
  • No, Waluigi doesn't say "Too bad! Waluigi Time!" in any of the games he has appeared in. That line originates from Brawl in the Family. He does say "Waluigi Time!" (without the "too bad!" part) in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! though, but then again "[character] time!" is a pretty common Share Phrase among many characters in the series. That said, Charles Martinet himself did say the line in a fan video.
  • Wario doesn't say "D'oh! I missed!" in the first two Mario Party games. He actually says "So ein mist!" which is German for, roughly, "Oh, shoot!" or "No way!" (In the international versions at least, as in the Japanese versions he, alongside Luigi, says "Oh my God!").
• Cash-Cow Franchise: Mario is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, by a massive margin. Pokémon, which is in second place, only has half the sales (though it is way, way higher-grossing as a media franchise).
• The Character Ice Cream Bar: Popsicle has an ice of Mario's face. It's more stylized than usual, only being white and red. It's cherry flavoured and has a gumball nose. The ice has been discontinued.
• Creator Backlash: Shigeru Miyamoto was not pleased with the original Super Mario Bros. 2 due to it being a blatant rehash of the original game, as well as too difficult for its own good. He much preferred the USA Super Mario Bros. 2.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Shigeru Miyamoto has given several answers as to what his favorite Mario game is.
    • In a 2010 Q&A, he named Super Mario World as his personal favorite.
    • At E3 2012, Miyamoto said his favorite Mario game as a developer is the original Super Mario Bros. due to his memories of working on it, while his favorite as a player is the Cult Classic Super Mario Bros. 2 due to its uniqueness.
    • During a public demo for Super Mario Maker, he stated his favorite Mario game is his penultimate one in the director's chair, Super Mario 64.
  • In a 2022 interview, Charles Martinet listed off four games as his favorites in rapid succession: Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey. Outside the main entries, he also adores the Mario Kart series.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Bowser was voiced by Japanese soul singer Akiko Wada in The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach!.
  • Lani Minella voices Larry, Lemmy, and, perplexingly enough, Morton in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
  • Dolores Rogers and Caety Sagoian have provided Bowser Jr.'s voice, as well as Baby Bowser's voice.
  • Similarly to Morton, Boom Boom is voiced by Lani Minella, despite being a big, tough brute.
  • The various Toads are voiced by Jen Taylor and Samantha Kelly, who also voices Toadette and Princess Peach.
  • Kazumi Totaka has voiced Birdo in all of her voiced appearances starting with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.
  • Honey Queen/Queen Bee is voiced by Katsumi Suzuki, who also happens to voice Diddy Kong.
  • Nabbit has always been voiced by women, with his first voice actress being Natsuko Yokoyama, and his current one being Dawn M. Bennett.
  • Starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Daisy is voiced by non-binary voice actor Giselle Fernandez.
• Denial of Digital Distribution: Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a Compilation Re-release featuring three Super Mario Bros. games, was only available until March 31, 2021. This applies to both the physical version and the digital version.
• Development Gag:
  • Mario's (and Luigi's) character design is one, as the mustache and overalls were only designed by Shigeru Miyamoto as a greater contrast for players due to the 8-bit graphical limitations of Donkey Kong.
  • One has existed right in Yoshi's character design this whole time. According to Takashi Tezuka in "Super Mario History 1985-2010" (which was bundled with Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition), the reason Yoshis have saddles in the first place is because it's a visual leftover from the time in development they were meant to be a type of Koopa, originally making it their shells. As a result, their saddles have been stated to be shells on occasion.
• Exiled from Continuity: Spin-off games made before the Microsoft buyout of Rare very seldom referenced characters and elements created specifically for the Donkey Kong Country series. Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 used Donkey Kong Jr. because the developers were unsure if they could legally use Diddy Kong at the time. This changed after the buyout and Nintendo assumed full ownership of the DKC characters starting with Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Stage 5, because the Mario series is basically the most well known, popular video game series in history. Especially true of the 'Mario Mania' years during the early-to-mid 90s, wherein American children knew Mario better than Mickey Mouse.
• Flip-Flop of God:
  • Surprisingly enough, the exact relationship between Mario and Peach. Given that in most games, the whole point is to rescue Peach from Bowser. Some games all but outright state that they're an Official Couple while others only have them as Implied Love Interests. Other characters like Luigi and Daisy also muddy the situation.
  • Sources aren't really sure if Wario and Waluigi are brothers or not. They also aren't sure if Toad and Toadette are siblings, love interests, or entirely unrelated.
  • Is Yoshi a dinosaur or a dragon? Most sources state dinosaur, but at least one instance (the Japanese "Nintendo Kids Space" official site) has denied it.
  • Do Mario and Luigi have last names? Over time the official word has flipped between "no, they don't", "Yes, but it's unstated", and "yes, and it is 'Mario'".
  • The Koopalings' relation to Bowser. From their introduction in Super Mario Bros. 3 to as late as Super Smash Bros. Melee, they were explicitly stated to be Bowser's own children. Then in 2012 Shigeru Miyamoto went on record saying Nintendo's "current story" is that they're unrelated to Bowser; however, they're still high-ranking members of Bowser's army whom he treats as such. Then in 2014, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U shifted the relationship again from a definite "No!" to an ambiguous "Maybe" with some of them being labeled as Koopa royalty and their relationship to Bowser being described as "unknown". Despite a phase in which Nintendo also had a direct hand in historical revisionism, it has been relented and accepted that the Koopalings are still at least referred to as Bowser's children in re-releases of older material.
  • Is Rosalina a queen or a goddess? What we only know that she is the "Mama" of the Lumas, with her clothing designs related to royalty, but her Long-Lived lifespan suggests agelessness. She's been stated to be a princess in the official guides of Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel as well as online material for Mario Kart 8, but unlike Peach and Daisy, she's almost never referred to as Princess Rosalina.
• Follow the Leader: Mario Kart is often joked about for launching countless ripoffs, but it's often forgotten that the original game launched just as many during its time.
• God Never Said That:
  • Nintendo never retconned anything about Mario being a plumber in 2017, in fact, they never made any meaningful statement about his current job at all. The Japanese Twitter linked to a profile that happened to refer to him being a plumber in the past tense, but this was specifically referencing the original Mario Bros. game, which was one of the few times he's actually done a plumbing job. Several articles reporting on this warped it into "Mario is no longer a plumber!" In response to the misunderstanding, the profile was updated again in 2018, clearly stating that, yes, Mario is a plumber, but he's not limited to just that.
  • No, the developers of Super Mario World didn't confirm that Mario abuses Yoshi, misleading headlines simply lead people into believing they did. They said that while it was originally conceived as Mario hitting him, most of the development team found that too mean for Mario and revised it into him simply pointing and telling Yoshi "Go". So they, in fact debunked the idea that Mario abuses Yoshi.
  • No, Peach and Daisy are not canonically cousins and Nintendo has never said that they were. This particular piece of misinformation came from an unauthorized issue of Prima Guides for Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, which are fairly infamous for getting many things wrong both about lore and about gameplay, sometimes even outright making things up out of the blue like the aforementioned cousins thing. Presumably the writer of that particular issue was operating under the assumption that the princesses had a connection akin to that of Mario and Luigi (and for what it's worth, Wario and Waluigi have suffered similar uncertainties over the years about the nature of their own connection). Instead, Nintendo has only ever said that Peach and Daisy are close friends. Prima Games kept it for their Mario Kart Wii strategy guide but dropped it after that.
  • Miyamoto never said he disliked Toad. This stemmed from an interview with him, which has him state that Toad was his least favorite character in Mario Kart, which led some to assume that he dislikes or hates him entirely, which was not at all the case.
  • Despite claims to the contrary, there's no indication that the blue and yellow Toads in New Super Mario Bros. Wii are named "Bucken-Berry" and "Ala-Gold," respectively. The only statement on the matter comes from an unverified claim by Destructoid writer Jonathan Holmes about an undocumented encounter at Nintendo New York. The fact that "Ala-Gold" is derived from "Allah Gold," the name for Anakin Skywalker in Backstroke of the West, further puts the veracity of the statement in doubt.
• Inspiration for the Work: The recurring Chain Chomp enemy is inspired by a moment during series producer Shigeru Miyamoto's childhood: a dog attacked him once, but he was saved by the fact that it was tied by a chain and couldn't reach him. This informs the Chain Chomp's chained leash and massive, bite-y teeth, as well as the canine qualities it has.
• Kids' Meal Toy: The franchise has gotten toys at McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy's, usually to promote a new game or console. Some of the more memorable examples include the McDonald's promotions for Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990, Mario Kart 8 in 2014 (which was re-released in March 2022), and the 2018 promotion, which included a toy based on Super Mario Odyssey.
• Killer App: Along with The Legend of Zelda, this series is usually the one to get the ball rolling in terms of console sales.
• The Merch: The franchise has plush toy merchandise. One prominent manufacturer is San-ei, who have made high-quality plushies of just about every character, enemy, and more. Some of them include a Fuzzy, each of the Koopalings, Cat Peach, Nabbit, and a terrified Luigi with the Poltergust. However, there have been some pretty crappy ones from other companies, still with the official Nintendo seal.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • Nintendo gave Luigi a whole year-long celebration of the 30th anniversary of his debut in Mario Bros..
  • The 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. in 2015 saw the release of Super Mario Maker, a level-creating and -sharing game for the Wii U allowing players to make levels in the style of SMB, SMB 3, Super Mario World, or New Super Mario Bros. U. A downgraded port was also released for Nintendo 3DS the following year, and a sequel would be released for Nintendo Switch in 2019.
• No Export for You: Mario Super Sluggers was never released in Europe or Australia because baseball is not a popular sport in those regions, thus making it the only Wii game not released in those regions.
• No Dub for You: the characters are only voiced in english no matter the region, although the Talking Flowers make an exception however.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Mario's entire design was created from technical limitations. During the development of the original Donkey Kong arcade game, the devs went whole hog creating a character that could work, and look good, in the game's spritework. Thus, he was given a hat (easier to show than hair in a death animation), overalls (the contrasting colors helped make movement look smooth), and a mustache (easier to animate, especially for facial definition, than a mouth), and became the Acrofatic Italian Stallion we all know today.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Mario's voice in Saturday Supercade was none other than Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen, the very first actor to ever voice the character.
  • Tōru Furuya provided the voice for Mario in The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! OVA and various Japanese anime shorts from the late 80s. Surprised?
  • At one point, when Charles Martinet was just getting started as the voice of Mario, his friend Stevie Coyle filled in for him from time to time so that he could catch a break during the long, long CES hours.
  • In Mario Party 1 and 2, the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Luigi is voiced by a French localizer called Julien Bardakoff. His take on Luigi is completely different from Martinet's. You can hear him here. In those same games, German localizer Thomas Spindler voices Wario, so he has a slight accent. It even caused the infamous "D'oh I missed!"/"So ein mist!" Memetic Mutation.
  • Peach had a much lower voice in the International versions of Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64, provided by Nintendo Localization Director Leslie Swan. This voice was brought back in Super Mario 64 DS, complete with newly recorded lines for the ending to take the added playable characters into account... and then she's back to her high voice for the subsequent games, with the odd exception of Super Paper Mario, where Swan voices the character for the final time. For the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 1 and 2 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Peach was voiced by Asako Kozuki, Nintendo's head of Public Reltions at the time. Jen Taylor became Peach's voice actress for almost a decade, starting with Mario Golf and voiced her for the final time in Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games. Samantha Kelly began voicing Peach in Mario Strikers Charged and is her current voice actress. Between Jen Taylor giving up her role and Samantha Kelly replacing her, Nicole Mills filled in as a temporary voice actress for Peach for a couple of games including Super Mario Strikers and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
  • In the original N64 installment of Mario Tennis and Mario Party 3 through 5, Daisy had a much higher-pitched and girlier-sounding voice provided by Kate Fleming and Jen Taylor respectively, but starting with Mario Golf Toadstool Tour until Mario Strikers Battle League, she is voiced by Deanna Mustard, whose take on Daisy is much, much different from Fleming and Taylor's. Deanna Mustard would be replaced by Giselle Fernandez starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and their take on Daisy resembles Mustard's so much, few had realized she had been replaced until Fernandez themselves confirmed it on the day the game was released.
  • Toad's first major voice actress was a Nintendo employee named Tomoko Maruno, who voiced him in the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 1, 2 and 3, and Mario Kart: Super Circuit. For the international versions of Mario Kart 64, Toad is instead voiced by Isaac Marshall. Starting with Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64, Toad is voiced by Jen Taylor, and continued to be voiced by her for almost a decade until she was replaced with Samantha Kelly. Additionally, Jen Taylor also voiced Toadette before Samantha Kelly took over her voice role as well.
  • Bowser has been voiced by Scott Burns from Super Mario Sunshine up to Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. He is instead voiced by Eric Newsome in Super Paper Mario. Kenny James voiced Bowser in Super Mario Strikers, but he wouldn't come back until Super Mario Galaxy, the game in which he would become Bowser's current voice actor.
  • Bowser Jr. was voiced by Dolores Rogers from his debut in Super Mario Sunshine up to Mario Party DS. Starting with Mario Strikers Charged he is voiced by Caety Sagoian.
  • The Koopalings' voice actors have also changed over time. From New Super Mario Bros. Wii up to New Super Mario Bros. U, Lani Minella voiced Larry, Morton, Wendy and Lemmy, while Iggy and Ludwig were voiced by Mike Vaughn. Starting with Mario Kart 8, Larry is voiced by Michelle Hippe, Morton is voiced by David Cooke, Wendy is voiced by Ashley Flannegan, Lemmy is voiced by Carlee McManus, Iggy is voiced Ryan Higgins and lastly Ludwig is voiced by David J. Goldfarb. Roy is the only one of the Koopalings whose voice actor (Dan Falcone) hasn't changed.
  • In both Galaxy games and in Mario Kart Wii, Rosalina was voiced by Mercedes Rose, but from Mario Kart 7 onwards, she is instead voiced by Kerri Kane. Her voice actress changes yet again to Laura Faye Smith from Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8 onwards. Interestingly enough, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reuses Kane's portrayal of Rosalina instead of having her voiced by Smith.
  • In Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, Birdo is voiced by Jessica Chisum. In the Super Mario Bros. 2 remake Super Mario Advance, she and all of her color variants are instead voiced by Jen Taylor. Starting with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour however, Birdo is voiced by Kazumi Totaka.
  • Charles Martinet's retirement as a voice actor for the series in 2023 necessitated the permanent recasting of his multiple voice roles for the first time in nearly 30 years. In Super Mario Bros. Wonder (the first post-Martinet Mario game), Kevin Afghani provides the voices of both Mario and Luigi in his place and also does Wario in WarioWare: Move It!. In the latter game, Afghani retroactively replaces Martinet as Mario and Luigi in a microgame based on Super Mario 64 DS.
  • Starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Nabbit is voiced by Dawn M. Bennett, replacing Nintendo sound designer Natsuko Yokoyama.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Birdo, who is a transgender woman, was voiced in the Super Mario USA commercial and BS Super Mario USA by Jun Donna, a Japanese trans female voice actress.
• Throw It In!: Blocks which release multiple coins were originally the result of a glitch and not intended to be in game, but were kept since they were liked.
• Trans Character, Cis Actor: Birdo, a trans female, has been voiced by cisgendered actors, both male and female, since the 2000s. In the Updated Re Release of Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Advance, she was voiced by Jen Taylor, whereas starting with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, she has consistently been voiced by Nintendo composer Kazumi Totaka.
• Unisex Series, Gendered Merchandise: Super Mario Bros is a perfectly unisex franchise yet, when it comes to merchandise, it very often gets pinned as being "for boys". Toys, clothes, etc featuring Mario and Luigi are near exclusively aimed at male fans. The main exception to this is Princess Peach merchandise, as her pink Princess Classic design results in her being used for girl-aimed merch.
• What Could Have Been: Considering how long the series has been around, quite a few examples exist.
• Word of God: Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto infamously stated in a 2012 interview that the Koopalings aren't Bowser's children, as described above.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • Charles Martinet (talking in-character as Mario) confirmed the Mario last name at Comic Con 2012, prior to the Flip-Flop of God finally settling on same. Mind you, he also stated that Mario's parents are named "Mama Mia Mario" and "Papa Pia Mario", so how seriously you take his statements in that role is up to you.
  • Charles Martinet also has his own take regarding the relationship between Wario and Waluigi, stating that he feels they are simply "two nice, evil guys who found each other".
• Write What You Know: According to various interviews, Samantha Kelly's voice for Toad is based on a dog puppet she had when she was younger named Cedric, which she would always play with before going to bed.

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