Nintendo Trivia

  • The following games had their own cartoon series:
    Mega Man, Pac-Man, Pole Position, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Mario (1,3, and world) Zelda, Darkstalkers, Batman And Robin, Spiderman, Superman, Wing Commander, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, TMNT, Biker Mice From Mars and Final Fantasy.

  • There is a Super Mario Bros. and Zelda cereal.

  • On the same day in 1986, Kid Icarus and Metroid were released as the first games to use the password system.

  • Star Fox wasn't even supposed to be released to the public. It was just a testing program for the Super FX Chip but the designers liked it so much they told Nintendo to market it.

  • Mario Kart 64, sold more than 1,000,000 copies, in it's first 6 weeks of sales.

  • Metroid was not popular at all in Japan, because it was only released on the disk format the Japanese Famicom supported for a while. Nintendo released the game in the U.S. on cartridge, to become a smash hit.

  • Donkey Kong and Frogger, have their own board games.

  • The Virtual Boy Sold 1,000,000 systems in 1 week. More than half of them were returned.

  • In Fiscal Year 1996 (ended 3/31/97), Nintendo's sales were $3.25 billion, or 400 billion yen.

  • More than 40% of American homes own a Nintendo system.

  • NOA's Consumer Service Department logs more than 120,000 phone calls, letters and e-mails per week.

  • Nintendo's magazine, Nintendo Power, is the most widely-read video game publication in North America, with a readership of over 750,000.

  • Nintendo and the Starlight Foundation have placed more than 1,000 Fun Centers in hospitals, providing terminally ill children with interactive entertainment during hospital stays.

  • Mario is recognized by more children than Mickey Mouse.

  • Mr. Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America, named Mario after the owner of Nintendo's first warehouse, Mario Segali.

  • It took a team of 16 people over 3 years to make Super Mario World for the Super NES.

  • In Japanese, "Nintendo" means "we do all that we can, as best we can, and await the results." In other words it is a commitment to excellence.

  • Shadows Of The Empire: Originally had 17 levels including a scene where Dash had to shoot down TIE fighters through the canyons of Gall and a scene where the freighter attacked Luke and Dash. When The SOTE development team left the cutting room, only ten levels remained.

  • Mario Kart 64: Candyland (a course that's been buzzing with rumors about a hidden way to get it) was a battle mode course that was cut for Skyscraper.

  • Number of systems that have been sold:
    Nintendo 64: 2.6 million hardware units (U.S. only)
    Super NES: 40 million hardware units, 300 million games
    Game Boy: 45 million hardware units, 200 million games
    NES: 62 million hardware units, 500 million games

  • The game "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" was not recalled. The fact that his name was dropped was not related to his prison sentence. His contract with Nintendo ran out after awhile, and that's why he wasn't in the Punch Out games released later as part of the "classic" series. Of course, the contract might have been renewed if he hadn't been in prison at the time.

  • Nintendo has 4 beanie toys based on their games. Beanie Mario, Beanie Yoshi, Beanie Bowser, and Beanie Donkey Kong.

  • Acclaim had its own cartoon series in 1991. The cartoons included NARC and Wizard's & Warriors

  • A lot of games that come to the U.S. have had a name change:
    Resident Evil/Biohazard
    Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki-Doki-Panic
    Contra/Probotector
    Secret Of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 2
    Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka
    Mega Man/Rockman
    Wild Guns/Blood Brothers
    Streets Of Rage/Bare Knuckles
    Growl/Running Arc
    U.N. Squadron/Area 88
    Gradius/Nemesis
    Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest
    Rival Turf/Rushing Beat
    Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Run
    Street Fighter Alpha/Street Fighter Zero Tuff-E-Nuff/Dead Dance
    Rad Action/Ninja Taro
    Bad Dudes/Dragon Ninja

  • Both the Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2 were suppose to be endless. Each new quest the stages switched around. But the games both froze when the stages switched into certain places, and the idea was scratched.

  • Star Fox 2 was released in Japan, but never made it to North America. Nintendo had planned to release Star Fox 2 in North America, but when Nintendo of Japan started making Star Fox 64 they just decided not to release it.

  • The Super NES was going to have a CD add-on, to be made by Sony. It was never released, because of a disagreement between Nintendo and Sony.

  • The Rumble Pack was designed with a fishing game in mind.

  • When the Rumble Pack was being shown at the Shoshinkai/Space World show the games it was shown with were Star Fox 64 and Blast Corps. While Star Fox did come out with Rumble Pack capability, Blast Corps did up not.

  • The Rumble Pack went through a lot of different names while in development. The names included the Jolt Pack, Jumping Pack, and Force Pack.

  • In Japan, Super Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 were reprogrammed and rereleased with Rumble Pack capabilities.

  • In 1991 Shigeru Miyamoto said "Who knows what Mario will look like in the future. Maybe he will wear metallic clothes!"

  • Hudson Soft Controllers, for the Nintendo 64, are programmed to unlock secret levels in Bomberman games.

  • Luigi was planned to be in a bonus level of Super Mario 64. But he was dropped because Nintendo didn't have the time to perfect him. Also because Nintendo planned to switch the Camera from Mario to Luigi it would also have been to confusing.

  • Link has always been a lefty. He's been that way ever since the original Zelda on the NES.

  • Zelda 64 is be the sequel to Zelda 2. A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening were prequels. Here's the order the games go in:
    The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
    The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
    The Legend of Zelda.
    The Legend of Zelda II: Link's Quest.
    The Legend of Zelda 64.
    The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask.

  • Mega Man's real name is Rock and his sister's name is Roll. Also, Protoman's real name is Blues.

  • The company of Nintendo is over 100 years old. It started off making playing cards. It also made toys and then started making video games.

  • Shigeru Miyamoto was originaly an industrial designer who worked at Nintendo designing arcade cabinets and creating game art.

  • Mario's mustache was added to separate the nose from the mouth. Due to the limited resolution of early arcade machines, a bright red overall was chosen to contrast his blue undershirt. White gloves were added to separate the hands from the rest of the body, and a bright red cap was decidedon, since the movement of hair was difficult to draw with limited pixels. Miyamoto also adds that he cannot draw hair very well.

  • According to Nintendo’s own count, more than 60,000 Donkey Kong arcade machines were sold (not including counterfeits).

  • Mario Bros. sold an amazing combined total of more than 50 million units worldwide.

  • The Nintendo Gameboy has sold more then 14,000,000 units worldwide.

  • Mario All-Stars, along with Mario World were packed-in SuperNES units sold between 1993 and 1995.

  • Released as a Nintendo launch title, Super Mario 64 received critical acclaim, and was hailed as the greatest videogame of all time.

  • Mario 64 has sold more than 9 million units so far.

  • It takes about two or three years to design and program one new Mario game.

  • Shigeru Miyamoto has yet to officially rule out the possibility of another major Mario game arriving on the Nintendo 64, and it is possible that a new Mario platformer could arrive as one of the last titles on the Nintendo 64.

  • Super Mario Brothers for Game Boy Color consistently ranked in the top 20 bestseller games months after its release.