A quote us for Nintendo the future Japanese Super Nintendo World theme park went live yesterday. He presented new details and a virtual tour of the Wonderland video game before its opening on February 4th. He also used an image of Mario for the loading screen that seems to have been created not by Nintendo, but by one of his fans.
“I love the way Nintendo used MY old Bad Mario ass on their official Nintendo World site,” ujiidow, Twitter user and Mario fan posted to Twitter earlier today. Their image of Mario was created about three years ago using open source animation software Blender and shared on Reddit then. The Mario model used for rendering was not one of Nintendo, but belonged to 3D artist RafaKnight, who shared it for download on Patreon in 2017.
Neither Nintendo nor Universal Studios Japan immediately responded to a request for comment.
Now the image seems to be on the front page of Universal Studios Japan for a theme park inspired by one of the most protective and controversial IP owners in the video game industry. (Just this week, the GameJolt game distribution site was hit a DMCA notification from Nintendo targeting hundreds of free projects done by fans based on the company’s IP.)
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The potential irony is not lost on the r / gaming subreddit, who shared ujiidow’s discovery in a naughty fried Nintendo thread, which has been voted over 60,000 times. A post on this topic everywhere NintendoLife shows ujiidow’s rendering side by side with a standard Mario one with which it is similar. While both look almost identical at first, it is clear from closer inspection that ujiidow’s is much more detailed, especially around shading.
However, Ujiidow does not necessarily complain. “I’m so used to Mario paying very little attention to me,” they said Kotaku in an email. “I am told to take action in this regard, but I find it very pleasing to have recognition in the end.”
You can find some of the art of their fans everywhere their DeviantArt page. One of the newer parts is a version of 2077. CyberpunkThe art of the box that replaces its main character V with a more smiling, more harmonious Mario. Another shows Mario modern and one of Mario 64 trading glances as you swim in a pool of water.
Ujiidow said they contacted Universal Studios about the picture, but have not heard yet. In the meantime, they took the whole situation as a compliment. “For my interpretation to be confused with an official one, it shows that I’m doing something right here.”