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The background cacti seen here were created specifically for fangame Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, released in 2013.
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The background cactus seen at Universal Japan’s Super Nintendo World looks striking with that fangame sprite.
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A comparison side by side shows the similarities. Other cacti seen in the game allow the flower to be placed in other positions.
Universal Park News Today / newer team
It looks like a piece of scenery in Japan’s newly opened Super Nintendo World theme park draws direct inspiration from an original work of art created for a fangame.
Twitter user frikkadel123 was one of the first to notice the strange agreement after seeing a cactus ornament in the background of a video for the park’s Yoshi’s Adventure ride. The specific three-part design of the cactus in the video does not look like something seen in an official Mario game, but it almost matches the background cacti found in World 2 of. Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, a fan-made mod released in 2013.
Meatball123 also notes that the three-part cactus sprite from last weekend appeared prominently when a search for ‘New Super Mario Bros. Wii cactus “performed on Google Images, which may explain how the mixture happened. Representatives of Nintendo and Universal Japan have yet to respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
A video of the Super Nintendo World’s Yoshi’s Adventure ride (jump to 4:40 to see the stimulating cactus).
Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii was the result of a years-long effort by the fan developers at Newer Team, which is also a similar mod for the DS version of New Super Mario Bros.. It features new levels, enemies, art and an original soundtrack that builds on the 2009 Wii original. The mod officially needs a retail copy of the original New Super Mario Bros. Wii to play on a jailbroken Wii or Wii U console, but there are also pre-built ISOs that float around to enable a computer-based game on a computer.
Super Nintendo World’s apparent use of an original fangame asset gets a bit of an irony, given Nintendo’s strict stance on fangames in general. In recent years, the company has issued several DMCA notices for removal of fangames – and even some of the tools used to build them. The discovery of the cactus also comes a month after a fan was found his custom 3D version of Mario is used on the Super Nintendo World website.
In a somewhat similar history, there is evidence to suggest that the version of Super Mario Bros. available on the Wii Virtual Console, originally came from a pirated ROM dump site found on the Internet.
A replay of World 2 of the Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii fangame (jump after 19:00 to see the relevant cactus sprites).
In the end, it’s probably nothing more than a careless snafu caused by a less than meticulous theme park designer. But it does emphasize how the fangame community and more “official” efforts of the IP holders are constantly feeding on each other, as can be seen more directly (and deliberately) in the Sonic fangame community.
List by Universal Park News Today / YouTube