Super Nintendo World Seemingly Copied A Cactus From A Mario Fangame

A piece of scenery in Japan's Super Nintendo World bears a strong resemblance to an original asset created for a Mario fangame. As spotted by Meatball132 on Twitter, a cactus used at the Nintendo-themed attraction looks a lot like the cactus used in Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, which is a mod of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

A fan developer himself, Meatball132 is currently working on a remastered version of the mod. One of the artists on the team was the first to notice the similarity. Meatball132 goes further to say that errant Google results might have led to the mix-up, since the search string "New Super Mario Bros. Wii Cactus" produces images from Newer's desert levels.

As Ars Technica notes, mistake or not, this occurrence is quite ironic, given that Nintendo is always quick to shut down fan projects and emulators. A fan-artist accused Nintendo of using his Mario render in official Nintendo World art, and some have suggested that the Virtual Console version of Super Mario Bros. contains a ROM that was originally modified from a version you can download illegally. Though Super Nintendo World was scheduled to open this February, it has been delayed to the ongoing pandemic. We've reached out to Nintendo for comment, and we'll update this piece if we hear anything back.