Super Mario Maker has a lot of secrets

Surprise! Today is Super Mario’s 30th anniversary! What better way to celebrate than with what is arguably the most exciting Mario game to date: Super Mario Maker. Like most of Nintendo’s cherished properties, Mario Maker was made with the loving precision and attention to detail that everybody’s favorite hopping plumber deserves. Everything from the reactions of enemies as you pick them up to the game’s fantastic opening tutorial just emanate the love and importance surrounding Mario.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Nintendo has managed to squeeze in a whole bunch of little nods for the Mario aficionados out there. Dying to know what they are? Take a look below the image. But be warned…you will be entering SPOILER territory. Happy birthday, Super Mario!

Oh, you’re back. Let’s get started with the secrets.

First up: Metal Mario! So as it turns out, if you have Mario equipped with either the gold or silver Mario costumes and get the invincibility star, the music is a little bit different from the normal fare. Instead, the Metal Mario theme from Super Mario 64 plays. Check it out below!

Next up: the secret Gnat Attack game! So let’s say you’re playing Super Mario Maker and decide you’re hungry. You get up, you go get some food, relax a little, then you come back. There are suddenly gnats all around your level! Swat them away and you’re suddenly in a secret Gnat Attack game. Weird, right? As it turns out, if you leave the Gamepad completely (that means no jostling, either) idle for 15 minutes, these gnats appear. There’s also a small chance of it happening just by moving blocks as well.

Finally we have the old school, CRT television overlay. Ordinarily, you would need to scan in the 8-bit Mario amiibo to get this theme, and it would only be for the original Super Mario themed levels. However, there just so happens to be a secret code that allows this overlay to be used with any Mario themed level in the game. After you select a level and it goes to the loading screen, press down on the D-pad and the A and B buttons all at the same time.

That’s all this time, but if you really liked this edition of Super Mario Maker Secrets, let us know so we can keep doing them! Thanks to GameXplain for videos of the secrets. For more on all things Mario and his 30th Anniversary, you’re already in the right place with Gamespresso.