Who doesn’t love Mario? From Super Mario 64 to Super Mario Sunshine, the Italian plumber has made countless Nintendo fans smile. What is about this plumber that makes everyone love him so much? The cute overalls? Frumpy body? The beautiful world and enemy designs? His dopey eyes before he gets a mushroom in Super Mario World 2? Mario is just too loveable.
Unless you are Bowser or his henchman, there is nothing to fear when face to face with the famous plumber, right? Well, what if there was something sinister about the Italian plumber hiding beneath that cute heroic persona?
If you were expecting some YouTube game theory essay, sorry to disappoint. Over on Twitter, Supper Mario Broth posted a scan of an old officially licensed piece of artwork that was used to promote Nintendo’s cereal in the late-80s, the Nintendo Cereal System. (What wasn’t greenlit in the 80s?) The promotional art depicts Mario as someone slightly sinister and devious with the plumber escaping one of Bowser’s castle with Peach, who looks like a child for some reason. What makes Mario look even creepier is that he seems to be having way too much fun destroying the castle, as onlookers like one Koopa on the left, looking petrified. Honestly, a Mario with this level of confidence feels more Wario-esque.
Some fans in the comments showed that the sinister Mario artwork was actually used in the UK as the DVD cover for The Super Mario Bros Super. As Joshua J. Slone showcased in the tweet above, there tends to be an emphasis on showing protagonists with determined or more gruff faces on the covers of games in Western markets. Possibly earlier on, Nintendo might have seen having a protagonist with attitude appeal to kids and teenagers. It makes sense since going into the 90s, SEGA entered the stage with a promotion that had attitude, showed how radical games are, and how parents don’t understand.
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