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The game's producer and director Shigeru Miyamoto was asked if he had any references, or anything else he relied on when making all of Mario’s various animations. He responded:



"We tried out a lot of different things using motion capture, but ultimately we ended up doing it all by hand. We created a “skeleton” for Mario that was the basis of his movement."

In the game's files are unused animations for Mario that include:



• Mario putting on his hat faster.

• An alternate animation for when Mario rides a Koopa Troopa shell.

• Mario changing from a free fall to a forward flip.

• Either Mario crying or reaching for something in his pockets.

• Mario's unused running animation

• Mario motionless while sliding

• A forward sideflip.

In the Japanese exclusive Shindou Pak Taiou edition of the game, the famous "backwards long jump" glitch was fixed, as Mario's speed is capped when going backwards.



It is the only version of Super Mario 64, barring the DS remake, with this fix.

The concept of a floating Mario head on the title screen was taken from a prototype of a game called Mario Paint 3D. It is unknown what this game was going to be but it was speculated to have eventually become Mario Artist Paint Studio for the 64DD.

The level select sound that occurs after the player jumps into a painting is actually the first few notes of the Super Mario Bros. overworld theme but with vocals.

During a stream of Super Mario 64, Twitch user DOTA_Teabag accidentally warped upwards in Tick-Tock Clock while trying to land on a platform on the first floor. While similar to a glitch in Bowser in the Fire Sea that allows Mario to warp into the caged portion of the level from the platform directly below, DOTA_Teabag's version did not rely on any hang-able ceilings being above Mario during its performance. This prompted Super Mario 64 analyst and Youtube personality Pannenkoek2012 to offer a $1000 reward to anyone who could submit a recording of themselves replicating the glitch in Mupen64 (a Nintendo 64 emulator) under the same criteria as when DOTA_Teabag discovered the glitch, with the purpose of reverse-engineering it.

At the time of this writing the bounty has not been collected.

The Wing Cap theme is actually the "Powerful Baby" theme from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island , but sped up and featuring different instruments.

There is an unused flower within the graphics for Lethal Lava Land.

In early version of the game Mario's health bar was different. It featured numbers, as well three colors, green, yellow and red. This was later changed in the finished product where Mario's health is a full pie graph, and the colors that are in the final version of the health bar are Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red.

A rideable horse was discussed during early development of the game but was never included. This idea eventually made it into The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as Link's horse, Epona.

After defeating Bowser, a key will appear with a number of coins flying outwards from it, but none of them actually fall onto the ground. This is likely a remnant of a past idea where coins would appear after Bowser's defeat, as seen in early pre-release footage. The idea was likely scrapped as the coins would serve little to no purpose after defeating Bowser, since Mario's health automatically recovers after collecting the key and returning to the hub world.

In addition to the red, blue, and green switches, there was originally going to be a yellow switch too. When used in game, the switch is automatically set to the "on" position for unknown reasons.

There's unused text that may have been spoken by a Boo upon entering Big Boo's Haunt, saying "Eh he he... You're mine, now, hee hee! I'll pass right through this wall. Can you do that? Heh, heh, heh!" It was likely removed because no mission involved chasing a Boo through the Level.

If you pick up Tuxie the baby penguin after returning her to her mother, the mother penguin will angrily follow Mario around until Tuxie is put back down.

Early in development, there was originally going to be a level-cleared flagpole. However, the developers felt that scouring the land for hidden items was better, so the flagpole was scrapped. It would be included in Super Mario 3D Land, and Super Mario 3D World.

The "Slider" and "Snow Mountain" Theme are both variations of the main theme of Super Mario 64, which is played on the "Bob-omb Battlefield". The songs are all played at different tempos and with different instruments, but are largely the same tune.

In a late pre-release build, stars that have already been collected are in grey shades instead of the dark blue seen in the final version. This was shown during E3 '96 when demonstrating the game before its release.

The enemy "Whomp" was likely inspired by a Japanese mythological creature known as a "Nurikabe". Nurikabe were said to take the form of a wall either to trick or trap any travelers. It's also said that Nurikabe could expand infinitely in size. The only known way to make it disappear was to knock on its lower-right-hand side.

An unused trampoline can be found in the game's files. It has no model in-game, and behaviour for it was never created.

In the world "Bowser in the Sky", two Goombas can be seen on the same platform together. These two Goombas are actually part of a Goomba trio object loaded by the game, however, the third Goomba is placed over the edge of the platform, resulting in it rendering at the bottom of the stage, out of reach.

The Japan-only Shindou Pak Taiou edition of the game contains an exclusive Easter Egg on the introductory screen: pressing Z fills the background with images of Mario's face. These images are taken from the frame buffer, and therefore reflect the current state of the 3D model of Mario's head that the player can manipulate.

Early in development, before Charles Martinet was hired to provide Mario's voice, the developers used stock Looney Tunes voices as placeholders.

In the Power Star "Blast to the Stone Pillar" in Jolly Roger Bay, the Power Star is contained within a box in the Western versions, but not in the Japanese version of the game. This was likely changed during localization to make the star's position less obvious.

There is a metal wing texture in the game for combining the Wing Cap and Metal Cap, similar to how the Vanish Cap and Metal Cap can be combined in Dire Dire Docks. There are no levels in the game where it would be possible to equip both simultaneously, but they do function and use this texture if given to Mario via hacking.

There is a glitch that causes Mario to hold his hat in his right hand. This occurs when Mario picks up two hats in rapid succession. If Mario loses his hat in Snowman's Land by being blown away by the giant snowman's breath, and then takes the warp under the tree, his hat will duplicate, and retrieving it will cause this glitch.

Two small Koopa Troopa shells, one green and one red, can be found in the game's data. Both of these shells are the same sizes as Spiny shells, however, they cannot be used.

The second Power Star on Cool Cool Mountain, acquired by reuniting the baby penguin with her mother, appeared over the mother penguin's head in the Japanese version. It was moved next to the pool in other releases, likely to make it easier to obtain.

Princess Peach doesn't have any voice acting in the original Japanese release during the beginning and final cutscenes. This was added for all other versions.

Several of Mario's voiced lines didn't exist in the original Japanese version of the game, and were added for western releases:



• "Hello" and "Press Start to Play" during the demo screen with Mario's head.

• "Okey-dokey!" when choosing a save file.

• "Let's-a go!" when choosing a star.

• "Game over." when Mario runs out of lives.

• His dreams about pasta are missing.

• "I'm-a tired." - when the player is idle.

• "So long-a Bowser!" - when Mario throws Bowser a long distance.

• "D'oh!" - when long-jumping, sliding, or diving into a wall.

• "Boing!" - when bouncing off of a Spindrift's head.

• Mario will say either "Yahoo!", "Wha-ha!", or "Yippee!" during the last jump in a triple jump. In the Japanese game, he says "Yahoo!" every time for the third jump.

• In the opening sequence, Mario says "Yahoo! Ha ha!" when he leaps out of the pipe instead of just "Yahoo!" in the Japanese version.

The Idea for Metal Mario may have come from an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto published in 1991, in Nintendo Power's Mario Mania Player's Guide, Miyamoto reportedly said: "Who knows what Mario will look like in the future? Maybe he'll wear metallic clothes!"

In an interview with Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto, it was revealed that an early, experimental build of the game had split-screen multiplayer, with Mario and Luigi as playable characters.

The Big Boo in Big Boo's Haunt course originally held a key instead of a Power Star inside of him. The keys would unlock the various doors in Big Boo's Haunt. There was even a key counter to display how many keys the player had acquired.

The enemy Blargg from Super Mario World is found in the game's code, but it's model and programming are unfinished. It has an animation for jumping out of lava, but doesn't do anything else.

If you allow Mario to fall asleep (by remaining idle for an extended period of time) for long enough, he'll start sleep-talking about food.

Nintendo released a Japan exclusive version of Super Mario 64 which had Rumble Pak support. It also included the English voice acting which the original Japanese version didn't have, and fixed some glitches.

There is an unused animated Yoshi egg texture in the game's data, suggesting that Yoshi was going to play a bigger role in the game, similar to Super Mario World.

In the original Japanese version, if the player runs to where a key will land after defeating Bowser in the Dark World or Fire Sea, presses C-Up and looks somewhere, Mario will keep looking in that direction during the key collection cutscene.

In the December 1997 issue of The64Dream, Miyamoto stated that Super Mario 64-2 would have made Luigi a full part of the game, and that if he was really popular, then the box for Super Mario 64-2 would be green.

If you jump up and down in a shallow pool of water, you can occasionally see a fish jump out of the water with you.

Super Mario 64 was originally planned for release on the SNES , utilizing a more advanced version of the Super FX Chip. However, the project was later moved to the N64 . Super Mario 64 actually defined the features for the N64 Controller, the analog stick and C Buttons respectively being incorporated for better movement in a 3D environment and better free-camera control. This seems to show that a lack of buttons, not a need for better processing power, pushed the game to the N64.

There is a cancelled sequel for Super Mario 64, commonly called "Super Mario 64 2" or "Super Mario 128" (not to be confused with the tech demo of the same name) for the failed N64 DD. Only one demo was ever made, but was never shown to the public. The only information known about the game is that Luigi was going to feature in it, and co-operative play was a speculated feature. Since these two elements feature in Super Mario 64 DS, it's possible that other elements from Super Mario 64 2 were incorporated into Super Mario 64 DS.

MIPS, the rabbit in the castle basement, is named after the MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages) microprocessor. The Nintendo 64's CPU runs on a MIPS Microprocessor, so the name was chosen for the rabbit.

In early development of the game when Nintendo were working on character movement and camera angles, they only had two characters; MIPS the rabbit and Mario. MIPS was planned to be just a testing dummy, but made it into the final game because they didn't want to part with him.

When you catch MIPS the bunny in the castle basement, he references Alice In Wonderland. Just like the White Rabbit, he says he's late. Then he says says he'll give you a star, but he has an important date to get to.

The penguin found during the 3rd star of the "Cool, Cool Mountain" level changes after 120 stars are found. After obtaining all the stars, the penguin is found much fatter than before from not doing races lately. He can be raced again, but there is no additional reward for beating him.

There are murals on the pillars in Bowser in the Sky depicting the original Bowser from Super Mario Bros.

In the Japanese version, the painting for Jolly Roger Bay originally had a blue frame with bubbles. This was changed to a pirate ship with a gold frame. In the remake Super Mario 64 DS, the painting reverted back to the original blue-framed form.