Out of Bounds Secrets | Classic Mario Games - Boundary Break

Today we look at the absolute best out of bounds discoveries for classic Mario games!

Credits!

animated intro: @SmashToons

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#mario #nintendo #outofbounds

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[PWPictures]

0:00: Intro
0:37: Piranha Plants
2:29: SMB1
4:52: SMB2
5:40: SMB3
8:32: SMB4: Super Mario World
12:14: SMW2: Yoshi’s Island
13:09: Outro

[mistermike]

"What looks like uncharted territory to your left is actually just the edge of the right side of the map screen. Though--"
*FIVE UNINTERRUPTED SECOND OF FOREST OF ILLUSION MUSIC*
"--these smaller areas are way more interesting because they actually share one giant map of all the other small areas!"

[blinkingberry]

12:00 Enemies sink in lava. Placing that invisible water in the lava is probably just a trick to make that work.

[cornbreadbutcringey]

i know this is common knowledge, but i'm gonna put it here anyway:

[4:13] the reason this happens is because the game doesn't actually store the tiles for backgrounds in level data. rather, the game has several different "background types" that can be picked from and changed mid-level. the way the large castles are constructed is by changing the background to the castle wall type used in 8-3. the background never gets changed back, so the castle goes on forever.

[4:39] a similar thing happens here, though it isn't specifically the background type that's being changed.

[Kevin-zdbi]

Hey this is Shesez and this is Boundary Break. If you scrub the video after the 3:18 mark you can actually see the full background of the video for 5 full frames. It's possible this was a mistake made during a tight deadline or maybe it's a fun hidden easter egg since this the only way you get to see the full background portrait.

[fillerbunny]

Blarggs can be eaten by Yoshi, and doing so pulls the sprite out of the lava. this will let you see the "full" sprite without needing to turn off layers.

[markkoetsier]

10:11 It's a bound, Luigi. You didn't break it!

[SuperLegend]

0:00 Jeez, that was an insane animation

[McAster]

Huh, a few of these I knew about due to making levels in Mario Maker concept wise (like the block at the end of the level), but I didn't realise just how much Mario Maker was just recreating the NES games. That's kinda cool as a love letter to the past.

Almost makes me wish Mario Maker let you mess with the background layer too beyond just sounds.

[TheOvermind]

Can we all agree to call the area's where RAM is being represented visually, "RAM Space"? Thank you Shesez for another fantastic video :D

[BenRitter]

As a kid, I thought the Blarg eyes poking from the water was a Nipper enemy.

[Smaxx]

9:40 Remember you see the Lakitus' body in SMW, if you knock them off their cloud (or out of the pipe). Guess just doing it this way was way easier, since you won't need any extra logic.

[dmarth]

A cool detail from SMB3 that you missed: The top and bottom paths near the end of Bowser's Castle are both in the same map. If you crouch-fly over the statue at the end of the top path (at the door to Bowser's room), you can go right through the wall into the bottom path. Also, the Bowser fight is tougher on the top path, because it has a smaller pit in the middle. But if you fly over the wall, you can get into the easier version (or vice versa). The two rooms are right next to each other, separated by only a divider! Though, IIRC, Bowser doesn't like you trying to hop the fence here, and will try shooting you down with fireballs!

[intangiblematter_misc]

Just wanted to say thank you for making this series. I've been watching these for years, and they taught me *so much* about the behind the scenes of game development, and now that I'm well on my way to being a professional indie dev, I use a lot of the tricks that are shown in these videos *very* regularly.

Thank you for pulling back the curtain in such a friendly and accessible way, it really helps inspire so much creativity and wonder in people who are interested in these things :)

[tykat]

What a cute intro!!!

Fun video I enjoyed the recaps!

[Inspirator_AG]

*[**01:51**]:* This is because SMB3 has background decorations, such as windows on castle levels.

[Aenwyn-qivv]

Awesome intro! It's always fun to see how developers found ways to save time and resources. I never knew the mario world special zone was just using the grass tileset but darkened. Once you discover these things it's like, oh of course!


Thanks for the fun video.

[mpt]

1:07 it's just the top and bottom parts flipped separately, rather than as a unit

[DuckJohnn]

6:19 Green? That's light blue/cyan!

[Inspirator_AG]

*[**03:53**]:* This happened because there is an integer to decide which background decorations to draw, which the ROM expects to be positive or zero, but signed integer overflow results in negative values instead.