Super Mario, King of Japan

A little nuggets of awesomeness hidden in Super Mario Bros. 3, and all but invisible to American children who didn’t appreciate geographical Easter Eggs back in 1988.

So the third world, the seaside one…

That last island, where the final castle is, before you fight Wendy…

Bears a striking resemblance so a certain other chain of islands…

And corresponding to almost exactly to where the castle appears on the Super Mario Bros. 3 map is Kyoto, where Nintendo is headquartered. And, as if to clinch it, the king of this particular castle (once you have rescued him)…

Just happens to bear a striking resemblance to the hero of the game and the guy who made the company a financial success.

Just an amazing little Easter egg that I didn’t appreciate until twenty-four years after I first saved a little kingdom of islands from Wendy O. Koopa. I’d always wondered why this one king looked so much like Mario and thought it was a strange decision on the part of the design team to make him look this way. Now I get why.

(Via.)


Other noteworthy Super Mario-related posts:

• The strange origin of Mario characters’ names
• Don’t we already have a Super Mario Bros. 4? 
• The surprising intersection of Super Mario Land 2 and indie pop
• Questions reasonable people should have upon playing Super Mario Bros. for the first time
• The best song from Super Mario RPG and its TV soundalike
• Mario’s lack of balls
• Nature re-creates Super Mario Bros. 3... completely by accident
• Toad had a bad dream
• Who Put the “P” in the P-Wing?
• How the worlds in Super Mario Land got their names