History CommonKnowledge / SuperMarioBros

* It's widely believed by fans of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYear'' that Vivian was written as a {{Transgender}} girl in the Japanese version, and [[ShesAManInJapan this was cut entirely from the English version]] in order to HideYourGays. This is only half-true, however. While Vivian is indeed biologically male in the Japanese version, the character is actually written as an ''[[WholesomeCrossdresser otokonoko]]'', and consistently referred to with male pronouns both in-game and in official materials. A TransAudienceInterpretation, while very much possible given that Vivian in the Japanese never genders himself, is not the intent in the game's original script.

* When discussing ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', it's common to claim the game was passed over for a western release solely because it was too difficult, mainly as a point against Nintendo. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EUYSN5aFcE&t=825s However, there's a variety of factors as to why it wasn't released stateside initially.]] Not only was it too difficult (there were also many difficult games licensed by Nintendo in the US, they just didn't have the value that Mario had), the game looked too similar to the previous game, and this wouldn't bode well for a new series that came out of the ashes of the UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, where one of the problems were games that looked exactly like their predecessor, with new levels.

* When discussing ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', it's common to claim the game was passed over for a western release not because [[NintendoHard it was too difficult]], but because it was [[MissionPackSequel too similar]] to the previous game. However in all public statements he has made about ''The Lost Levels'', Howard Philips has been consistent in saying he recommended not to export it because, quite simply, he found it too frustrating to be fun.

* It is often believed that in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', Dimentio [[spoiler: kills Luigi, Mario, Peach, and Bowser after Chapter 6.]] Even Wiki/ThisVeryWiki once claimed that in many pages. In reality, he just [[spoiler: teleported them to the afterlife; hence why they aren't turned into Shaydes and are allowed to leave.]]

* Fans and [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer some official sources]] often refer to Rosalina by the term "princess" because of her crown and similar appearance to Princess Peach. None of her official appearances have ever referred to her as a princess, and in her debut game, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', she's implied to be a near godlike entity in the present, while her backstory suggests she's just an ordinary girl without any sort of noble background.

* Several sources agree that [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario Nastasia's]] mind-altering powers should be referred to as "hypnosis," as that is used more to describe them than "brainwashing." However, outside of one reference to "hypno-powers," they are exclusively referred to in-game as "brainwashing."

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' is not a "rip-off" of ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic''. While ''Doki Doki Panic'' does count as a LicensedGame due to using characters created by Creator/FujiTV, both games were entirely developed by Nintendo. Similarly, ''Super Mario Bros. 2'' is not simply a re-skin of ''Doki Doki Panic'' either, as the former adds many gameplay changes compared to the latter, such as being able to run with the B button, characters becoming small when at 1 HP, only having to beat the game once to see the true ending, and several other things.
* It's been stated matter-of-factly that the seven Koopalings were "based on" the creators of ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. This comes from a somewhat clumsily-translated interview with Miyamoto in the Nintendo Power "Mario Mania" player's guide. Read in full context, it's clear that Miyamoto is saying the various creators of ''SMB3'' each got to design their own Koopaling, not that the Koopalings were based on themselves in some way. This explains why none of the Koopalings really "match" each other, from a design perspective, and [[TheSmurfettePrinciple why there is a female one]], despite the fact that no women were part of the design team.

* Waluigi is often referred to as the "[[BigBad main villain]]" of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''. While it is one of his more prominent appearances since Waluigi starts the plot by stealing the Music Keys, [[DiscOneFinalBoss he's beaten at the end of the first world]], a quarter of the way into the game, and never appears again after that. The actual main villain is, of course, Bowser.

* Mario is always viewed as using his head to smash blocks open in the games, which leads to people joking that Mario suffers brain damage or a similar injury by the end of the game. While not obvious at first, if one looks closely when Mario jumps, he raises a fist in the air as he jumps and his fist hits the block, not his head. Ironically, if Mario is using a power-up that lets him fly or he is holding something in his hands, he really does use his head to break the blocks, but this is usually due to lack of proper animations. In official media, Mario always uses his fist to hit blocks from underneath, though Luigi actually ''does'' bash blocks with his head in ''Super Mario All-Stars + VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''.
* Many fan videos joke that the manual for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' states all the blocks are Mushroom Kingdom citizens transformed into blocks and thus whenever Mario breaks a block, he's killing a citizen. The original manual actually says ''only'' the PowerUp Blocks are transformed citizens (probably intended as an explanation for why they have eyes) and they are noticeably completely indestructible within the game; in fact, they actually ''help'' him by giving out the various items they hide. Good luck getting that point across to the people that believe that every single brick block is actually a Toad, and that [[RonTheDeathEater Mario is a murderer for every ordinary brick block he breaks]].
* Similarly, Mario does not "spit" fireballs after collecting a fire flower, he "throws" them from his hands. For that matter, he doesn't "eat" the mushrooms, fire flowers, leaves, etc. he encounters. Even as graphics continue to improve, Mario is still depicted as simply absorbing power-ups into his body when he "collects" them. [[note]]He does eat the mushrooms in the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series, though.[[/note]]

* Everyone "knows" that Mario is abusive towards Yoshi, hitting the poor dinosaur on the head to make it attack his foes. In actuality, it only appears this way due to sprite limitations in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''; [[http://www.mariowiki.com/File:SMW_Art_-_Yoshi_and_Berry.png official artwork]] has always depicted Mario pointing forward at their target, not smacking Yoshi, and this is how it has always been represented in [[http://www.mariowiki.com/File:NSMBW_Blue_Toad_and_Pink_Yoshi_Artwork.png more recent media]] with higher-fidelity graphics. As for Mario dumping Yoshi down a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} just to save his own skin, that is a purely player choice and there is no part of the game where that is required. In 2017, it was [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mario-punching-yoshi#nintendo-confirmation "confirmed"]] in [[https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/cb34ab17-9135-11e7-8cda-063b7ac45a6d.html an interview with Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino]] that Mario has always been hitting Yoshi on the head... [[GodNeverSaidThat except it wasn't confirmed at all]]. The interview actually reveals that this was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original intention]], but it was changed during development to Mario telling Yoshi "Go!" ''specifically to avoid'' making him seem abusive towards Yoshi. Unfortunately, misleading headlines in reports covering this interview only worsened the CommonKnowledge effect.
* Mario is a middle aged man in many gamers' eyes. While this was true in very early titles - thus why Mario was played by older men in live action adaptations - it has long since changed. Mustaches tend to make people seem [[ArtisticAge older]] after all. Mario (and Luigi, for that matter) are actually very ''young'' men in their twenties, barely older than Peach. In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' he's said to be 26, and Miyamoto stated in 2016 that Mario is currently considered to be 24 years old.

** There has never been a "Clawdia Koopa" (supposedly Bowser's ex and the mother of his children) mentioned in any official media; she is the creation of an early fansite.

* It's been stated matter-of-factly that the seven Koopalings were "based on" the creators of ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. This comes from a somewhat clumsily-translated interview with Miyamoto in the Nintendo Power "Mario Mania" player's guide. Read in full context, it's clear that Miyamoto is saying the various creators of Mario 3 each got to design their own Koopaling, not that the Koopalings were based on themselves in some way. This explains why none of the Koopalings really "match" each other, from a design perspective, and why there is a female one, despite the fact that no women were part of the design team.
* There's a portion of the fanbase that believes Bowser used his Japanese name of Koopa in the NES games. With [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 one tiny blip]], this isn't the case; the name Bowser goes all the way back to [[AllThereInTheManual the instruction manual]] for his debut, ''Super Mario Bros.'' While he was called Koopa in [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros the cartoons]] and [[Film/SuperMarioBros movie]], English translations of the games have consistently called him Bowser, with the exception of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', which does indeed call him Koopa in English.

* Waluigi is often referred to as the "[[BigBad main villain]]" of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''. While it is one of his more prominent appearances since Waluigi starts the plot by stealing the Music Keys, [[DiscOneFinalBoss he's beaten at the end of the first world]], a quarter of the way into the game, and never appears again after that.

* Similarly, Mario does not "spit" fireballs after collecting a fire flower, he "throws" them from his hands. For that matter, he doesn't "eat" the mushrooms, fire flowers, leaves, etc. he encounters. Even as graphics continue to improve, Mario is still depicted as simply absorbing power-ups into his body when he "collects" them. [[note]] He does eat the mushrooms in the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series. [[/note]]

* One fact that tends to come up in {{Alternative Character Interpretation}}s of Mario being less than heroic, or straight up [[RonTheDeathEater evil]], is that he stomps on enemies that are beyond harmless, like Goombas, who don't even try to attack Mario, they just mind their own business and walk in pre-determined paths, the only danger being from running into them. It is true that in the original game and other old 2D platformers, technical limitations made it so that enemies couldn't have complex attack patterns, so they simply walked back and forth, acting more like obstacles. In modern 3D platformers, and in spin-offs like the various [=RPGs=], though, it's made clear that the Goombas that work for Bowser aren't simply "minding their own business" and they ''do'' actively try to attack Mario. The same can be said about basic Koopas.

* Luigi is often treated as the poster child for put-upon little brothers, with Mario being a BigBrotherBully. This seems to come from people misinterpreting or misunderstanding Luigi's Second Banana Complex. Mario's not a glory hound who forces Luigi out of the spotlight because he can't share it. As a matter of fact, Mario is just about the only person who actually appreciates Luigi. Luigi's issues instead stem from the fact that ''everybody else'' puts the spotlight solely on Mario, ignoring him and his accomplishments, even if he was right there alongside Mario to help. Luigi's cowardly personality also means he tends to prefer being safe at home than going on adventures, often being dragged into his latest adventure against his will, so it may even be that he actually ''prefers'' Mario to be in the spotlight.

* Waluigi is often referred to as the "[[BigBad main villain]]" of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''. While it is one of his more prominent appearances since Waluigi starts the plot by stealing the Music Keys, he's beaten at the end of the first world, a quarter of the way into the game, and never appears again after that.

* Waluigi is often referred to as the "[[BigBad main villain]]" of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''. While it is one of his more proeminent appearance by some margin since Waluigi starts the plot by stealing the Music Keys, he's beaten at the end of the first world, a quarter of the way into the game, and never appears again after that.

* Waluigi is often referred to as the "[[BigBad main villain]]" of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''. While it is one of his more proeminent appearance by some margin since Waluigi starts the plot by stealing the Music Keys, he's beaten at the end of the first world, a quarter of the way into the game, and never appear again after that.

** Mario's species name is not ''homo nintendonus'', and Yoshi's full name is not T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. Both ideas come from a 1993 character guide published by Nintendo's American branch, [[WordOfDante was written by someone unaffiliated]] by their Japanese branch, and uses a whimsical sense of humor throughout that indicates [[PoesLaw it is not meant to be taken seriously]].

** Mario's species name is not ''homo nintendonus'', and Yoshi is not short for T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. Both ideas come from a 1993 character guide published by Nintendo's American branch, which uses a whimsical sense of humor throughout that indicates [[PoesLaw it is not meant to be taken seriously]].

* Whenever people bring up ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', they mention how Nintendo refused to release the game due to its sheer difficulty. While it was definitely ''a'' reason, it wasn't the only one: In reality, not only did Japanese gamers and critics ''also'' have a major bone to pick with the difficulty, but Nintendo of America's complaints were more that they wanted a different Mario game and believed the sequel was basically a MissionPackSequel no one would want to play.[[note]]The staff of Nintendo of America made a list called "Why Atari Failed" which outlined things which they must never do: releasing a tweaked version of an existing game as a new game was one of them.[[/note]]
** Along similar lines, there's the myth that the game released as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' was a randomly chosen game given a graphic facelift. ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic'' was created by Shigeru Miyamoto, and had references to previous Mario games. It was changed to a licensed game for Fuji TV midway through the development process. In turn, it is sometimes claimed that ''Doki Doki Panic'' started development as a sequel to ''Super Mario Bros''. An old interview between Wired and director Kensuke Tanabe said Tanabe was assigned to do a prototype for a "Mario-''style'' platformer focused around vertical levels" as his first job at Nintendo, but saying ''Doki Doki Panic'' was always intended to be a ''Mario'' game based on that is a leap of logic.

* It is often believed that in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', Dimentio [[spoiler: kills Luigi, Mario, Peach, and Bowser after Chapter 6.]] Even Wiki/ThisVeryWiki once claimed that in the DarkerAndEdgier page of this franchise. In reality, he just [[spoiler: teleported them to the afterlife; hence why they aren't turned into Shaydes and are allowed to leave.]]

* Everyone "knows" that Mario is abusive towards Yoshi, hitting the poor dinosaur on the head to make it attack his foes. In actuality, it only appears this way due to sprite limitations in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''; [[http://www.mariowiki.com/File:SMW_Art_-_Yoshi_and_Berry.png official artwork]] has always depicted Mario pointing forward at their target, not smacking Yoshi, and this is how it has always been represented in [[http://www.mariowiki.com/File:NSMBW_Blue_Toad_and_Pink_Yoshi_Artwork.png more recent media]] with higher-fidelity graphics. As for Mario dumping Yoshi down a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} just to save his own skin, that is a purely player choice and there is no part of the game where that is required. In 2017, it was [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mario-punching-yoshi#nintendo-confirmation "confirmed"]] in [[https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/cb34ab17-9135-11e7-8cda-063b7ac45a6d.html an interview with Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino]] that Mario has always been hitting Yoshi on the head... [[GodNeverSaidThat except it wasn't confirmed at all]]. The interview actually reveals that this was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original intention]], but it was changed during development to Mario telling Yoshi "Go!" to avoid making him seem abusive towards Yoshi. Unfortunately, misleading headlines in reports covering this interview only worsened the CommonKnowledge effect.

* Many fan videos joke that the manual for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' states all the blocks are Mushroom Kingdom citizens transformed into blocks and thus whenever Mario breaks a block, he's killing a citizen. The original manual actually says ''only'' the PowerUp Blocks are transformed citizens and they are noticeably completely indestructible within the game; in fact, they actually ''help'' him by giving out the various items they hide. Good luck getting that point across to the people that believe that every single brick block is actually a Toad, and that [[RonTheDeathEater Mario is a murderer for every ordinary brick block he breaks]].

** Mario's species name is not ''homo nintendonus'', nor is Yoshi short for T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. Both ideas come from a 1993 character guide published by Nintendo's American branch, which uses a whimsical sense of humor throughout that indicates [[PoesLaw it is not meant to be taken seriously]].

** Mario's species is not ''homo nintendonus'', nor is Yoshi short for T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. Both ideas come from a 1993 character guide authorized by Nintendo's American branch, which uses a whimsical sense of humor throughout that indicates [[PoesLaw it is not meant to be taken seriously]].

** Mario's species is not ''homo nintendonus'', nor is Yoshi short for T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. Both ideas come from a 1993 character guide authored by Nintendo's American branch, which uses a whimsical sense of humor throughout that indicates [[PoesLaw it is not meant to be taken seriously]].

* Whenever people bring up ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', they mention how Nintendo refused to release the game due to its sheer difficulty. In reality, not only did Japanese gamers and critics ''also'' have a major bone to pick with the difficulty, but Nintendo of America's complaints were more that they wanted a different Mario game and believed the sequel was basically a MissionPackSequel no one would want to play.[[note]]The staff of Nintendo of America made a list called "Why Atari Failed" which outlined things which they must never do: releasing a tweaked version of an existing game as a new game was one of them.[[/note]]

* Everyone "knows" that Mario is abusive towards Yoshi, hitting the poor dinosaur on the head to make it attack his foes. In actuality, it only appears this way due to sprite limitations in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''; [[http://www.mariowiki.com/File:SMW_Art_-_Yoshi_and_Berry.png official artwork]] has always depicted Mario pointing forward at their target, not smacking Yoshi, and this is how it has always been represented in [[http://www.mariowiki.com/File:NSMBW_Blue_Toad_and_Pink_Yoshi_Artwork.png more recent media]] with higher-fidelity graphics. As for Mario dumping Yoshi down a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} just to save his own skin that is a purely player choice and there is no part of the game where that is required. In 2017, it was [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mario-punching-yoshi#nintendo-confirmation "confirmed"]] in [[https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/cb34ab17-9135-11e7-8cda-063b7ac45a6d.html an interview with Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino]] that Mario has always been hitting Yoshi on the head... [[GodNeverSaidThat except it wasn't confirmed at all]]. The interview actually reveals that this was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original intention]], but it was changed during development to Mario telling Yoshi "Go!" to avoid making him seem abusive towards Yoshi. Unfortunately, misleading headlines in reports covering this interview only worsened the CommonKnowledge effect.

* Shy Guys are known as standard recurring enemies, much like the Goombas and Koopas. Despite this, they have only been enemies in two games of the main series, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' (with only the Fly Guy variant appearing in the latter). They've been common enemies in much of the spinoffs, most notably ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMario''.

* Everyone "knows" that Mario's original name was Jumpman, but it actually wasn't. Before the character debuted in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto called him "Mr. Video" and planned to include him in various different video games as cameos. And even before that, artwork of the character was labelled "Ossan", which is Japanese for "middle-aged guy". Likewise, Donkey Kong was always intended to be Donkey Kong and is not a misspelling of "Monkey Kong".

* It is often believed that ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' has Dimentio [[spoiler: kill Luigi, Mario, Peach, and Bowser.]] Even Wiki/ThisVeryWiki once claimed that in the DarkerAndEdgier page of this franchise. In reality, he just [[spoiler: teleported them to the afterlife; hence why they aren't turned into Shaydes and are allowed to leave.]]