Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer Easter eggs: the full breakdown

Nintendo and Illumination debuted the final trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie on Thursday, revealing just a bit more about Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad’s adventures through the Mushroom Kingdom. The animated Mario movie’s most recent trailer didn’t explain too much new about the story, but it did give us plenty of Mad Max: Fury Road-inspired action on Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road and offered a peek at some new locations beyond the Mushroom Kingdom.

It also included some fun references, deep cuts, and a few things we’ve never really seen in a Super Mario game before, like Fire Flower Donkey Kong. Here’s what we (and other folks) have spotted.

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

The, ahem, star of the latest Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer is this little Luma, plucked from the world of Super Mario Galaxy. Luma’s reference to “the sweet relief” of death is more than just comic relief, it’s accurate to the Luma species. At the end of Super Mario Galaxy, a cluster of Luma enthusiastically sacrifice themselves to save the galaxy by getting sucked into a black hole created by Bowser. These guys absolutely love dying!

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

Anyone who’s played a Super Mario game knows that consuming a Fire Flower power-up doesn’t just grant you the ability to throw fireballs, it also gives you a pleasing color change. We’ve already seen Princess Peach in Fire Flower mode in a previous trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but seeing DK in a red-and-white palette isn’t something we’ve seen in the Mario games outside of the toy-inspired Mario vs. Donkey Kong series — and that example isn’t even the real Donkey Kong, it’s just one of his wind-up minions.

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

This is just a nice little game reference, but it appears the kart-selection process in The Super Mario Bros. Movie is identical to the games: Peach, Mario, and Toad will apparently use the slots-style menu device to pick their kart, wheels, and glider in the movie, just like players do in Mario Kart 8.

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

While we’ve seen a lot of the Mushroom Kingdom already in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the latest trailer gives us a glimpse of the Sand Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey. And hey, that sure looks like a highly detailed interpretation of Bob-omb Battlefield.

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road will seemingly get a lot of screentime in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as King Koopa’s troopers will chase down Mario, Peach, Toad, and various Kongs. But footage of Mario getting double Bullet Billed sure looks like a reference to the Mario Kart 64 “leap of faith” shortcut that can be used to exploit your way to victory. And one could interpret the skitching/hijacking of a Koopa Troopa’s hoverbike as an oblique reference to Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

Mario is going to do mushrooms in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and they’ll be 100% game accurate. A freeze-frame still — spotted by Lisnovski on Twitter — of Mario’s powering-up moment shows that, just like the original NES Super Mario Bros., the growth powers of a Super Mushroom go to Mario’s head first.

Image: Illumination/Nintendo

Out of respect for our troops, I feel obligated to point out to Mr. Bowser that “those things” in your army are called Spinys. Please show some love for our boys in red.