Mario’s cape power-up from Super Mario World went through a number of bizarre revisions before the final design was decided upon. Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the concept of flying power-ups to the franchise in the form of the Raccoon/Tanuki suits, which allowed Mario and Luigi to take to the skies and explore the very top of every level.
The Super Mario Bros. series has used a few different variants of the flying power-up. In Super Mario World, Mario could use a feather to acquire a Cape, which could be used to fly, glide, and strike enemies. The Cape would go on to be part of his repertoire in the Super Smash Bros. series, where it can be used to reflect projectiles back at the opponent. Super Mario 64 introduced the Wing Cap, which allowed Mario to fly in a 3D environment. Super Mario Galaxy introduced the Bee Suit, which allowed him to hover for a few seconds. In New Super Mario Bros. U, Mario and his friends gained access to the Flying Squirrel Suit, which allowed them to glide and cling to surfaces.
Super Mario World went through a lot of design changes during development, as the superior hardware of the Super Nintendo allowed the developers to include content that wasn’t feasible on the NES, such as Yoshi. The Nintendo Gigaleak included early versions of Super Mario World which featured content that never made it into the final version of the game. The flying power-up was one element of Super Mario World that went through several bizarre forms before Nintendo decided on the Cape.
How Mario’s Flying Powers Evolved
The sprites from the various versions of Super Mario World from the Nintendo Gigaleak have been archived on The Cutting Room Floor. Nintendo originally used the Raccoon suit from Super Mario Bros. 3 in Super Mario World, but it’s unclear if this was just a placeholder. This was replaced by the first iteration of Mario’s Cape, which was red and came with a helmet & goggles. The next idea in line involved giving Mario white wings, like an angel. This idea was later given over to Yoshi, and a variation of it would be used with the Wing Cap in Super Mario 64. The developers then used a smaller version of the cape, which switch Mario’s color palette to red & green.
The idea of Mario flying with the aid of Raccoon ears & a tail never made much sense, but then again, there’s a lot of things about the Mushroom Kingdom that don’t make sense. The addition of a flying cape in Mario makes sense, as the clothing is often associated with superheroes. It just took a few revisions until Nintendo was satisfied with the concept of the flying power-up in Super Mario World.
