Nintendo is known for creating family-friendly environments filled with wonder, but sometimes things slip through the cracks that aren’t so family-friendly that leave players wondering how these easter eggs made it into the final product. With the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King a rather scandalous easter egg has been found with some pretty convincing evidence that it was put in the game on purpose.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is the sixth installment in the Paper Mario series, but it isn’t the first to contain sexually explicit content. In 2004, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was released with one of Mario’s companions being a ghost with… sex appeal. Madame Flurrie is a rather robust ghost companion who makes various remarks throughout the game about giving Mario some “sugar.” She also has a combat move in-game called “Body Slam” which is described as “She can do a Body Slam in battle, squashing enemies with her… stage presence.” This entry shows that the game’s developers are aware of the suggestive content they have put into their game.
While there is no question that Madame Flurrie added adult qualities to TTYD, the innuendo in Paper Mario: The Origami King is a little more hidden. First reported by Polygon, a hidden item in-game is innocent at first glance, but a closer look reveals a rather phallic object. While exploring the Scorching Sandpaper Desert, Mario will pass by large towers erecting from the sand that would take an overactive imagination to see anything other than giant toads. But a trophy of the tower can be obtained later which tells a completely different story than the ones in the desert.
Coming in at entry number 69 (yes, seriously), it is hard not to see how closely the trophy resembles a penis. If the number of the trophy’s entry and sheer resemblance to a male appendage weren’t enough, the trophy also has a description that reads, “Said to be modeled after a legendary king.” While the tower is meant to resemble a very tall toad, it could be possible that the tower was modeled after a specific portion of the legendary king.
While previous Paper Mario titles have had similar adult-themed content, they were not on systems where Nintendo could push out updates as easily as they can on the Switch. Nintendo will probably claim that the trophy was not meant to be seen in that light and that it will be removed Paper Mario: The Origami King. But let’s be honest here… whoever designed that entry knew exactly what they were doing.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is now available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
