The Super Mario games often take place in a location called the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi were originally residents of Brooklyn who were dragged into a mystical land that needed their help. This has since been retconned so that Mario and Luigi were always residents of the Mushroom Kingdom.
The Mushroom Kingdom has a layout that changes more often than Hyrule. It seems that Mario always has to work through new areas of the Kingdom in each game, to the point where it feels like Princess Peach is ruling an area bigger than Westeros.
Things aren't all so clean and nice in the Mushroom Kingdom. It is only natural that the sheer amount of Super Mario games would unveil some of the dark truths about the Toadstool administration. Is Bowser the true enemy of the people of the Mushroom Kingdom, or is it the tyrannical ruler who uses her Italian hitmen to stop any kind of insurgency?
We are here today to look into the dark and disturbing history of the Mushroom Kingdom of the Super Mario games. From the genocide that Mario accidentally inflicted upon the Toads of the Kingdom, to the distorted realm that launched an entire genre of horror.
Here are Fifteen Disturbing Facts About The Mushroom Kingdom!
15 The Toad Block Massacre
The brick blocks are an iconic part of the Super Mario series. They float above the ground and act as platforms for Mario so that he can reach higher areas of the level. The brick blocks can also contain coins or vines that lead to secret levels. You will likely see hundreds of these blocks as you journey through each Mario game, without ever sparing a thought for where they came from.
The English manual for the original Super Mario Bros. reveals a darker truth. Bowser had used his dark magic to turn the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom into brick blocks. These blocks are then unknowingly destroyed by Mario as he runs through the levels. This means that Mario is responsible for massacring hundreds, if not thousands of Toads.
14 Princess Peach's Secret
The Mario games have totally shied away from any sexual content. This has also had the unfortunate effect of causing Nintendo to remove any notion of a character being transgender during the English localization of their games, such as with Birdo and Vivian.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was produced by Squaresoft in 1996. This was the point in time when Squaresoft had become dissatisfied with Nintendo's strict content guidelines, which would eventually lead to them jumping ship to the PlayStation. Squaresoft managed to include a dirty reference in the Super Mario RPG. It is possible for Mario to find a secret item in Princess Peach's room, called the "Toadstool's ???". This item was referred to as the "Peach's XXX" in the Japanese version of the game, which suggests that the item is of a sexual nature.
13 People Can Die In Their Dreams
Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn't originally a Mario game. It is a reskin of a different game, called Doki Doki Panic. The original version of Mario 2 is the insanely difficult game that was referred to as The Lost Levels in Super Mario All-Stars. Shigeru Miyamoto has claimed that he considers Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario Bros 2 (referred to as Super Mario USA in Japan) to be the true sequel to the original Super Mario Bros, as he had more of an involvement in its development.
As the later games made Super Mario Bros. 2 canon (with the addition of Shy Guys and Birdo to the regular cast), it should be pointed out that people can die in their sleep in the Mushroom Kingdom. It is possible to run out of lives & continues in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mario can only wake up in the ending, which suggests that he dies if he doesn't defeat Wart.
12 This Piano Isn't Just For Display
Super Mario World introduced Ghost Houses to the series. These are levels that are filled with Boos and other powerful spirits that Mario has to avoid, as their intangible nature usually makes it impossible for him to kill them without finding a star.
There were ghost-themed levels included in Super Mario 64. The level called Big Boo's Haunt has become infamous for including one of the earliest jumpscares in all of gaming. One of the rooms in the level contains an innocent looking piano. If you approach the piano, then it jumps up and starts chasing after you. The sound of its keys being struck is played as it lurches towards you. This piano is one of the scariest enemies in any Nintendo 64 game.
11 Bowser Is Cloning Himself
At the end of each world in Super Mario Bros., Mario must defeat a Bowser that awaits him. You can either jump past him and drop the bridge or hit him with fireballs until he is killed. Depending on how Bowser dies, you can potentially see him switch into a Goomba. This wasn't a glitch or an error: Bowser was using his magic to turn regular Goombas into clones of himself and using them to guard the castles. This plot point is brought back in Mario 3D Land.
The fact that Bowser can create copies of himself means that he could theoretically make his own clone army like Palpatine did with Jango Fett. Bowser could crush the Mushroom Kingdom with enough clones.
10 The Afterlife (Or Lack Of One)
Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the Boo enemies to the series. Boos are ghosts that happen to be incredibly shy. If you look at a Boo, then it will cover its eyes. If you turn your back on it, then it will sneak up and kill you.
The existence of Boos in the Super Mario Bros. series opens up a lot of questions about the nature of death and the afterlife in the Mushroom Kingdom. The information that is revealed about Boos in the games suggests that they were once living beings who transformed into ghosts upon death. This means that it is possible for the dead to come back in a hellish form that preys upon the living and cannot be sent to their final rest until they are struck by someone using an invincibility star.
9 Bowser The Undying
Bowser is an incredibly durable villain. He has been defeated by Mario on numerous occasions, which has involved Bowser being dropped into pits of lava. Bowser has survived injuries that have taken down the Terminator, Albert Wesker, and the One Ring that belonged to Sauron.
New Super Mario Bros. involved a disturbing storyline that involved Bowser having the flesh peeled from his bones by magma. This wasn't enough to kill Bowser, as he came back as an undead monstrosity. Bowser is incredibly difficult to kill, as he can cheat death itself. Mario is going to need to hire Jason and his Argonauts to finish off Bowser's skeleton. He can also restore himself to life with magic, which makes him doubly hard to kill.
8 The Ghost Face
One of the most unsettling parts of the Super Mario Galaxy series involved the Shiverburn Galaxy level. If you look in the background of the stage, then you can see alien looking figures watching you in the distance. These figures are not referenced in the game and they never appear in any other levels.
It seems that these eerie figures have followed Mario to the Mushroom Kingdom. If you play the World 4 Ghost House level in Mario 3D Land and wait around on the flagpole screen, then you can see a similar ghost-like figure appearing in the background of the stage. The fact that Nintendo referenced these mysterious creatures suggests that they may appear again in the future games. Whether they will actually interact with Mario remains to be seen. It seems that they are just happy to silently stare at him for the time being.
7 You Even Have To Watch Out Under The Sea
The Mad Piano wasn't the only terrifying denizen of the Mushroom Kingdom in Mario 64. There was something far worse awaiting Mario within the depths of the ocean.
What is it exactly that makes Unagi the Eel so terrifying? The fact that a giant sea monster awaits Mario in the darkness of the depths is practically Lovecraftian in nature. Could it be the sheer size of the creature, as it dwarfs pretty much every other monster in the game?
No, what makes Unagi the Eel so terrifying is his face. The vacant expression that never blinks is what truly makes this fish work as a monster. There is also the huge maw filled with rows of dagger-like teeth to contend with.
6 They'll Give You The Chase
The Hammer Bros are some of the most annoying enemies in the Super Mario series. They are at their most frustrating in the original Super Mario Bros, due to how fast they throw their hammers at you. It's no wonder that Mario desired to use their power in later games, which involved the creation of Hammer suits that allowed Mario to throw hammers of his own.
The Hammer Bros generally don't move far when you encounter them in the original Super Mario Bros. as they mainly jump up and down between platforms. What most players don't realize is that the Hammer Bros will actually pursue Mario if he lingers for too long. You can potentially be chased through a level by a hammer-wielding maniac.
5 The Original Abandoned Mushroom Kingdom
Super Mario Bros. was first released in 1985. This means that Mario first ran through World 1-1 over 32 years ago. Since then, there have been numerous other Mario games, all of which have given their own interpretation of the Mushroom Kingdom.
So what happened to World 1-1 after Mario climbed the flag pole and traveled to the next stage, does it just blink out of existence?
Masahiro Sakurai decided to answer this question in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where he created a stage that showed a long abandoned World 1-1. This desolate version of the Mushroom Kingdom is presumably what all of the completed levels now look like after so much time has passed. It seems that none of the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom are keen on gardening.
4 Yoshi Kills Harmless Sea Creatures
Super Mario World involved Mario encountering creatures that weren't necessarily his enemy. This was the first game where he joined up with Yoshi and the two formed a bond that continues on to this day. Super Mario World also featured neutral creatures, like the Dolphins. These were creatures that leaped out of the water and allowed Mario to use their backs as platforms.
In the original Japanese version of Super Mario World, it was possible for Yoshi to eat the Dolphins as if they were a regular enemy. This was taken out of the international releases, due to the controversy over the killing and eating of Dolphins in Asia. The ability to eat Dolphins was restated in the later version of Super Mario World that was released on the Game Boy Advance.
3 What Happened To This Toad?
The Paper Mario series somehow managed to make the Mario games ever more cartoonish. They did this by turning Mario into a literal cartoon drawing and had him exist in a world made of pieces of artwork.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door once had an incredibly dark element within the game, which was removed for the international releases. If you visit the Messy Shed in Rogueport, then you will see a house filled with garbage and debris. The Japanese version of the Messy Shed included a chalk outline of a Toad that was surrounded by blood, suggesting that one of them had been brutally murdered in the town. This murder scene was taken out of the non-Japanese versions of the game.
2 The Censored Ending Of Luigi's Mansion
The Nintendo GameCube was the first system by the company to ship without a Mario game at launch. Instead, the GameCube launched with Luigi's Mansion, which was a fun (but short) game that starred Luigi. The story involves Luigi winning a haunted mansion, whose supernatural denizens kidnap Mario. It is up to Luigi to team up with Professor E. Gadd and create some anti-ghost weaponry so that he can go in and save his brother.
There are files within Luigi's Mansion which suggest that there was going to be a far bleaker ending than the one we got. There is an image hidden within the game's files depicting a deeply depressed Luigi holding a flower. What exactly would have happened during this ending is, perhaps, best left to the imagination.
1 The Horrors Of The First Glitch World
Super Mario Bros. unwittingly created the creepypasta genre, due to a glitch that allowed Mario to access a world that should not exist within his game.
There are several methods of accessing the Minus World, though the best known involves using a glitch to move through the blocks near the first secret pipe and going down before the game can signify a destination. This will allow Mario to access the Minus World, which is an endless water level that keeps on repeating until Mario runs out of lives or time.
The Minus World opened the floodgates of speculation over its original purpose: some thought it was an unfinished level or world, while others thought the game was creating something new out of the data available. The Minus World was the first example of a video game glitch becoming famous, which was followed by the likes of MissingNo in helping to create a new genre of horror fiction.