Paper Mario Secrets

Transcript
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Paper Mario’s artistic direction of having 2D paper objects in a 3D space came from the game’s developers wanting to have a change of scenery. This was in case players were getting tired of CG graphics. With Nintendo’s Hiroyasu Sasano elaborating:

“Even Mario was made with polygons in Mario 64, so we thought it’d be nice to offer something different and came upon making Mario’s world with a pastel touch [...] However, making an entire 2D world like a Super Nintendo game and releasing it for the N64 would be pointless, so we gave [the game] field depth and made it 3D.”

Other interesting choices were made during the game’s development. The character of Tubba Blubba and several elements from Paper Mario’s third chapter are based on a Norwegian fairy tale from the 1800’s called “The Giant Who Had No Heart In His Body”. The antagonist of the tale was a giant who captured a princess and kept his heart outside his body, and could only be killed if his heart was destroyed. In the fairy tale, the giant’s heart is within a church that contains a well, and at the bottom of the well is a nest with a duck egg inside with the egg containing the giant’s heart. This is why, in Paper Mario, Tubba Blubba’s heart is in what appears to be a nest at the bottom of a well.

Since the game’s release, fans have turned Paper Mario inside out looking for secrets. One such secret was discovered fifteen years after the game’s release by Stryder7x. In the Smash Attack minigame room, ten Luigis can be found underneath the scene. The game stores objects and characters off-screen when they aren’t in use, making it likely that the minigame once featured Luigi. It’s speculated that the goal of Smash Attack may have originally been to find ten Luigis instead of ten Peach faces.

The game has another out-of-bounds secret. If the player uses what’s known as the Log Skip, a glitch that allows players to reach the south of Toad Town early, they can encounter some interesting unused dialogue. In the Japanese game, if players use this skip and then talk to Bub-ulb, it’ll say “You shouldn’t be able to get here yet. If you did, it’s a bug. So please get in contact.”* Other residents have similar dialogue, urging the player to contact Nintendo and report the glitch. If players perform the glitch and talk to the Bub-ulb in the English version, it will simply soft lock the game.

Other games have also referenced Paper Mario. Mario Party 5, 6, and 7 each contain references to the original Paper Mario. Mario Party 5 includes the Star Spirits as party hosts, Mario Party 6 has a Whacka pop up out of some snow on the Snowflake Lake board, and Mario Party 7’s Pyramid Park board has a Bowser sphynx based on the boss: Tutankoopa. (Dazz pronounces it “Tootin’ Koopa”.)

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has its fair share of secrets as well. As you may know, the X-Naut Fortress has a changing room that makes Mario and his current partner transform into 8-bit sprites. What you may not know, however, is that Peach was supposed to be able to use the changing room as well. Within the game’s files is an unused 8-bit sprite of Peach, likely from a cut scenario in the game.

One interesting fact about The Thousand-Year Door is that it was the first Paper Mario game translated in North America. Paper Mario on the N64 was translated into English in Japan, which led to a more basic localization. Translating Thousand-Year Door at the Nintendo Treehouse allowed localizers to do more with the game’s writing. That said, some early localization choices were revised in the final release. In an early 2004 demo version of the game, the X-Nauts are called “Boomer Gangers” when tattled. No other text related to X-Nauts is present, but this suggests the entire organization was going to be called the “Boomer Gang”. Or, at the very least, this title was once considered.

Thousand-Year Door also has secrets that can’t normally be seen. In Rogueport, there’s graffiti covering the walls in an alley. Some of the graffiti is off-screen during gameplay, such as the tag “GameCuve” with a “V”, which is likely a mistranslation of “GameCube”. This happens often in Japanese games, as the Japanese language doesn’t have a strong “V” sound. “V” sounds similar to a “B”, so a “B” is often used in its place. When writing Japanese words in English, translators are often uncertain whether a “B” or “V” should be used in a word, leading to mistakes like this.

This isn’t the only off-screen secret. In the battle scenes for The Thousand-Year Door, there are many theater-based objects that can’t be seen during normal play scattered around the stage. This includes lights, a radio, ladders, buckets, a broom, and other small details.

Super Paper Mario has a wealth of secrets too. The game references the Wii Shop Channel, in the only instance of the Wii Shop Channel being referenced in a Mario game. The channel’s loading icon briefly appears in Fracktail’s eye during a cutscene where he searches his data banks. The game has other subtle Easter eggs. The grandfather clock in Merlee’s Mansion pulls the time from the Wii system clock, in most cases showing the accurate time of day. Since the clock has no in-game purpose, and is visually similar to other decorations, this is likely to be overlooked during gameplay.

The game’s characters also have some interesting references surrounding them. In the German version of the game, Francis is named “Conrad”. This is in reference to both Conrad, a popular German computer store, as well as a reference to Konrad Zuse, the German inventor of the world’s first programmable computer. His Japanese name also has a tech-based pun. In Japan, he’s called “Kameregon”, a combination of “chameleon” and “polygon”.

Super Paper Mario was also referenced in other games. Several bumper stickers can be unlocked in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and in Metroid Prime Trilogy in the Bonus Gallery. The stickers can be seen on Samus’s gunship, and are accessible when save files for specific games are stored on the Wii. One sticker is the head of Paper Mario, which becomes available when players have a save file of Super Paper Mario on their Wii.

Super Paper Mario has a few secrets that can’t normally be seen as well. The Korean version of the game has several unused areas in its data, each with out-of-place objects and characters in them. Some areas feature some very strange-looking humanoid cats. The origin of these cats and why they’re exclusive to the Korean release (which came out two years after the Japanese version) is currently unknown.**

Another piece of unused content for Super Paper Mario can be found on the game’s disc, as well as early screenshots. The game’s data contains an unused title screen showing a Pixl who resembles a ladder in the place of Thoreau. This Pixl was never included in the final game. Interestingly, there’s also an unused ladder climbing animation for Mario in the game’s data, showing a side-on perspective. Normally in the game, all climbing animations are shown from behind.

Although it’s arguably the smallest Paper Mario game, Sticker Star also has its share of interesting secrets. Within the game’s files, the folder containing Kersti’s dialogue file is named “Navi”. This is a reference to the character of the same name from Ocarina of Time, as Kersti and Navi have similar roles as companions in their respective games. Speaking of Kersti, in the final battle in Sticker Star, Kersti warns Mario not to sell her at a shop. This comes across as a joke, as normally it’s not possible to sell her at a shop anyway. However, by hacking the game so that the Kersti sticker can be taken to a shop, it’s revealed she was given the price of a mere fifteen coins.

Another secret about Sticker Star is that it originally had partners in the game other than Kersti. These additional partners were apparently removed because they took the focus away from the sticker-based gameplay. (And that’s bad because…?) Early footage, and at least one screenshot, show a Chain Chomp partner fighting by Mario’s side and helping him overcome environmental obstacles.

Players would have to wait four years to get their hands on a new Paper Mario game, but some fans were able to play Paper Mario: Color Splash before the game even released. Color Splash was available for pre-purchase on the Wii U eShop two weeks before the game’s release, but some fans discovered that the pre-purchase download hadn’t been locked. Nintendo of America had accidentally made the full game available two whole weeks before launch. Nintendo pulled the pre-load option from the North American eShop, but those who had already pre-installed the game were able to play it early.

Color Splash has become somewhat known for its excellent localization and wealth of secrets and Easter eggs. Just as the Mario Party games referenced Paper Mario, Color Splash returns the favor with multiple nods. The quintuplet of Toads named the Five Fun Guys get their name from Mario Party 8. The troupe’s name is a nod to Mario and Toad’s Mario Party 8 team named “Fungi Fun Guys”, which was confirmed by Nintendo themselves. The quintuplets host two minigames in Color Splash, one of which is named “Toad and Go Seek”. This title is a nod to Mario Party 9, which has a minigame of the same name, also based on Hide and Go Seek.

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Did you also know that voice mods were actually programmed into Majora’s Mask, just like Hey You Pikachu, but were never used? Or that artwork of Link’s family from Breath of the Wild was never published outside Japan? For more Zelda facts, check out our video on Obscure Zelda Facts.