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Maybe wasn’t mushroom for it.
Image credit: Nintendo
Super Mario RPG’s recently released Switch remake is a lovely thing, freshening up a much-loved classic for a new generation, while ensuring its core remains faithful enough that it can deliver a wonderful blast of nostalgia for long-time fans. And it turns out that faithfulness runs deep, with players having discovered it restores a fun little easter egg that was cut from the original version during the localisation process for release outside of Japan.
More specifically, the 1996 Japanese version of Super Mario RPG contained a cute – if ultimately fairly pointless – sequence that would trigger if players entered the cheat code ‘Down, Up, Right, Left, L, R, L, R, B’ on the pause screen.
Rather than showering players with treats to make the experience a little easier or give everyone a massive head, as cheat codes tended to do at the time, entering Super Mario RPG’s sequence of button presses would instead cause Toad to materialise and ponder what the secret code you just entered could possibly have done.
After that, he’d roam around the pause screen checking players’ stats to see if anything had changed, before concluding that, no, all remained as it was before the code had been entered. He then admitted there were no more cheat codes to be found and that re-entering the previous one would just have the same effect again.
Quite why the gag was removed from the original game during localisation outside of Japan remains unclear, but 17 years later, it’s been restored for everyone to see, courtesy of Super Mario RPG’s Switch remake. As per Nintendo Life, the secret code now works as intended, triggering Toad’s little pause screen jaunt, no matter where in the world you might be.
It’s another fun little moment in a game already jam-packed with fun moments, and given gorgeous new life in its 2023 revival. “I knew I would enjoy my return to Super Mario RPG,” Eurogamer’s Christian Donlan wrote in his four stars review of the remake. “I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d be drawn in, though. Drawn in by that no-fuss campaign with its brilliant jokes and glorious whirlwind combat. I’ve loved my time with this game, and it’s that rare remake that really preserves the spirit of the original very precisely.”
