Cactus From Mario Fan Mod Allegedly Spotted At Super Nintendo World

Nintendo seems to be continuing a rather strange tradition in using fan mods in its own official works, as a cactus design from the fan-made Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii has popped up at Super Nintendo World, flower and all. It’s strange in that this keeps happening to a company who wields the DACA against fan-made mods and assets without restraint, but in a way it’s also somewhat unsurprising.

Nintendo’s views on fan-made assets has been historically somewhat murky – on the one hand, it’s verbally and publicly decried any fan-made content, resulting in the removal of hundreds, if not thousands, of games, assets, and mods concocted by the fanbase that still continues to support them. But on the other hand, its actions haven’t been exactly consistent with its public views, and it has the rather odd habit of implementing fan-made assets in its own official products and works. It can be argued, though, that Nintendo is more concerned with third-party distributors profiting off of its intellectual property than it is about quashing the fanbase’s creativity, considering that a few fan-made titles are hosted by their own creators for free, and are completely legally playable.

Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii was one such title, an entirely fan-made game in the Mario universe, built without any oversight or involvement by Nintendo, and billed as an unofficial sequel to the official New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It was created over the course of three years, with independently created backgrounds and assets. One such asset was a fairly innocuous cactus, adorned with a single, simple, brightly colored flower. It’s familiar to anyone who’s played or watched gameplay of Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, so when an image taken from Super Nintendo World popped up on the internet, fans of the ROM, including NintendoEverything, quickly noticed that one of the cacti hanging out in the background looked suspiciously like the fan-made cacti in the unofficial game.

Some argue that the cactus is actually based off of one found in the official games, and that the similarity to the Newer asset is coincidental. But comparing the two directly shows that there’s a much stronger and more direct translation of the Newer asset than the official cacti. Of course, one could argue that any similarity to the Newer cacti is a simple mistake. But it could also be argued that it’s a rather prickly peace offering from Nintendo, who has dutifully ignored a number of other infamous mods, and who might just be okay with fan-made assets as long as third-party vendors aren’t profiting from them.

Or it’s just a cactus. Either way, it’s a surprising discovery from a company who’s usually so particular about IPs, and a remarkable addition to Super Nintendo World. Time will tell if the company will weigh in on this prickly issue.

Source: NintendoEverything

About The Author