Behold my latest and possibly greatest discovery! But first:
Check out the box arts for the game. Notice anything peculiar?
Here's the American box for Super Mario World:
And here's the Japanese box:
Notice how one has the words "Super Mario Bros. 4" and the other does not?
Now let's see how it is reflected on the actual title screens:
American:
Japanese:
Hey! Where's the "Super Mario Bros. 4" on there?
Perhaps we shall turn to old video game commercials to see, as they tend to have footage from non-finalized versions of games.
Let's try one for Sears.
Hmm, there's something peculiar about it... Wait!
It's the Japanese title screen, with the American "TM" sign, the inclusion of 1991 on the copyright date... and the words "Super Mario Bros. 4"!
But why isn't it on the actual Japanese title screen in the first place?
There's only one thing to do in a situation like this: look through the tiles!
Here's GFX2B.bin for the American version:
And here's its Japanese counterpart:
And here, we finally find the secret, hidden from us for more than 20 years:
The necessary titles were actually overwritten in the Japanese version!
Yes, apparently Nintendo wanted to expand the font for the game's Japanese version, but there was no room left for the pattern table where they kept most of the font graphics, so they had to sacrifice the "Super Mario Bros. 4" moniker on the title screen for additional font characters. This is information Nintendo never told us during Mario's 25th aniversary!
Before we close the file on the most bizarre case of title marketing ever, there's just one more thing I had to do...
Your layout has been removed.
Check out the box arts for the game. Notice anything peculiar?
Here's the American box for Super Mario World:
And here's the Japanese box:
Notice how one has the words "Super Mario Bros. 4" and the other does not?
Now let's see how it is reflected on the actual title screens:
American:
Japanese:
Hey! Where's the "Super Mario Bros. 4" on there?
Perhaps we shall turn to old video game commercials to see, as they tend to have footage from non-finalized versions of games.
Let's try one for Sears.
Hmm, there's something peculiar about it... Wait!
It's the Japanese title screen, with the American "TM" sign, the inclusion of 1991 on the copyright date... and the words "Super Mario Bros. 4"!
But why isn't it on the actual Japanese title screen in the first place?
There's only one thing to do in a situation like this: look through the tiles!
Here's GFX2B.bin for the American version:
And here's its Japanese counterpart:
And here, we finally find the secret, hidden from us for more than 20 years:
The necessary titles were actually overwritten in the Japanese version!
Yes, apparently Nintendo wanted to expand the font for the game's Japanese version, but there was no room left for the pattern table where they kept most of the font graphics, so they had to sacrifice the "Super Mario Bros. 4" moniker on the title screen for additional font characters. This is information Nintendo never told us during Mario's 25th aniversary!
Before we close the file on the most bizarre case of title marketing ever, there's just one more thing I had to do...
Your layout has been removed.