A. new website for Nintendo’s upcoming Japanese theme park Super Nintendo World i went alive yesterday. It featured new details and a meaningful tour around the amazing video game before it opened on February 4th. He also used an image of Mario for his loading screen that appears to have been created not by Nintendo, but one of his fans.
“I love how Nintendo used MY old Mario ass to donate on their official Nintendo World website,” Twitter user and fan artist Mario ujiidow tweet earlier today. Their image of Mario was created about three years ago using the open source animation software Blender, and was shared on Reddit at the time. The Mario model used to make the offer was not one of Nintendo’s, but instead belonged to the 3D artist RafaKnight, who shared it for download on their Patreon in 2017.
Neither Nintendo nor Universal Studios Japan immediately responded to a request for comment.
Now the image appears on the front page of the Universal Studios Japan website for a theme park inspired by one of the most protected and legal IP guards in the video game industry. (Just this week, the GameJolt game distribution website was visited depend DMCA with Nintendo aimed at hundreds of free fan projects based on the company ‘s IP.)
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The potential irony of the r / gaming subreddit has not been lost, who shared the ujiidow trail in a neatly roasted Nintendo thread, built over 60,000 times. Post on the subject over it NintendoLife showing a rendering ujiidow side by side with a normal one of Mario looks like. Although the two look almost identical at first, it is clear on closer inspection that ujiidow is much more detailed, especially around the blackout.
Ujiidow is not complaining though. “I’m so used to my Mario bidders getting very little attention,” they said Kotaku in an email. “I’m being asked to do something about it but it’s great to finally know a little bit.”
You can find some of their fan art their DeviantArt page. One of the newer pieces there is a version of Cyberpunk 2077box art that replaces the main character V with a more grotesque Mario, building guns. Something else showing the present day Mario and a man from Mario 64 trading glances while swimming in a pool of water.
Ujiidow said they contacted Universal Studios about the image but have not heard back yet. In the meantime, they have taken the whole situation as a recommendation. “To mistake me for an official show, I’m kind of doing something here.”