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The bottom cacti seen here were created specifically for fangame Super Mario Bros. Latest wii, launched in 2013.
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The background cactus seen in Universal Japan’s Super Nintendo World bears an impressive resemblance to that sprite fangame.
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A side-by-side comparison highlights the similarities. Other cacti seen in the game have the flower placed in other positions.
Universal Park News Today / Latest Team
A piece of scenery in the area of the newly opened Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan seems to be directly inspired by an original work of art created for a fangame.
Twitter user meatball123 was among the first to notice the strange similarity after seeing a cactus decoration in the background of a video for the park’s Yoshi’s Adventure tour. The specific three-pointed design of the cactus in that video does not look like anything seen in an official Mario game, but corresponds almost exactly to the background cacti found in World 2 of Super Mario Bros. Latest wii, a fan-made mod released in 2013.
Meatball123 also noted that, since last weekend, the three-pointed cactus sprite appeared prominently when a search for “New Super Mario Bros. Wii cactus “was performed on Google Images, which could explain how the confusion happened. Representatives for Nintendo and Universal Japan have not yet responded to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
A video showing the Super Nintendo World tour of Yoshi’s Adventure (skip to 4:40 to see the revealing cactus).
Super Mario Bros. Latest wii was the result of years of effort by Newer Team fan-developers, who also created a similar mod for the DS version of New Super Mario Bros.. It features new levels, enemies, art and an original soundtrack that is based on the original 2009 Wii. The mod officially requires a retail copy of the original New Super Mario Bros. Wii to play on an unlocked Wii or Wii U console, but there are also pre-built ISOs floating around to allow emulator-based playback on a PC.
The apparent use of an original fangame feature by the Super Nintendo World brings a bit of irony, given Nintendo’s rigid stance on fangames in general. In recent years, the company has issued several DMCA removal notices for fangames – and even some of the tools used to create them. The discovery of the cactus also happens a month after a fan found it your personal 3D rendering of Mario being used on the Super Nintendo World website.
At a somewhat similar time in history, there is some evidence to suggest that the version of Super Mario Bros. available on the Wii Virtual Console was originally obtained from a pirated ROM file found on the Internet.
A World 2 game from Super Mario Bros. Latest wii fangame (skip to 7pm to see the sprite cacti in question).
In the end, this is probably nothing more than a careless mess caused by a less than scrupulous theme park designer. But he highlights how the fangame community and more “official” efforts by IP holders continually feed on each other, as can be seen most directly (and intentionally) in the Sonic fangame community.
Listing image by Universal Park News Today / YouTube