Secrets and Puzzles

Super Mario RPG is beloved for many reasons: It’s charming, it's funny, and it gave players a way to explore the world of Mario like none before and only a few others since. But another reason why Mario RPG is celebrated is because it is absolutely chock full of neat secrets, references, and easter eggs that serve as fun rewards for having an inquisitive mind. Most of these are holdovers from the SNES game, but if you’re coming into Mario RPG for the first time, or you wanna see how the remake handled some of them, here’s a look at our favorite Super Mario RPG secrets and easter eggs that you can find in the Remake.

Smaller Secrets

Let’s start off with some baby secrets that just involve a fun reaction from either NPCs or Mario himself.

Get Dizzy

In the Mushroom Kingdom near the eastern entrance, there’s a little hyperactive kid who endlessly runs in a square. If you jump on his head and just wait, this amusing animation happens. That’s it. But it sets the stage for the kind of fun attention to detail that’s everywhere in this game.

Get off the Shelf!

Also in Mushroom Kingdom, if you head into the item shop, try jumping on the shelf for an amusing little interaction with the shopkeep.

笔别补肠丑’蝉????

This one is one of the most well-known secrets in Mario RPG, but if you head to Peach’s room and press the A button next to her chair, you’ll find Peach’s unmentionables and get chastised for snooping around another’s room. You can do this again when Peach is actually in your party for similar, but different results.

Samus Cameo

Finally, one last secret in The Mushroom Kingdom. After defeating Belome for the second time in Belome’s temple, head back to the Mushroom Kingdom and check out the guest room for a little cameo from the one and only Samus.

Link Cameo

Samus is far from the only Nintendo-related cameo in Super Mario RPG. You can also find Link sleeping at the inn in Rose Town after defeating Bowyer.

F-Zero and Star Fox Cameos

Much later in the game, once you reach Barrel Volcano, if you take some time to explore the shop, you’ll also notice these neatly laid out on a shelf. We’ve got an Arwing from Star Fox, along with two cars from F-Zero: Captain Falcon’s Blue Falcon, and Samurai Goroh’s Fire Stingray.

Booster’s Nintendo Themed Tower

There’s a variety of Nintendo-related easter eggs throughout Booster’s Tower. Let’s start with the receptionist. The Snift here has a Magitek armor suit from Final Fantasy 6.

Later on, you’ll find this room where you can head behind the curtain, and come out in 8-bit mode!

Near the top of the tower, you’ll find a box of Booster’s toys which contain dolls for Samus, Rob the Robot, a car from Stunt Race FX, and Disk-kun, the mascot for the Famicom Disk System in Japan.

Jumping on the Cake

Mario can be an absolute menace in Marrymore. First up, try jumping on the cake while Chef Torte is still working on it.

Jumping on the Organ

If you’d like to continue jumping on things you’re not supposed to jump on, head back to the chapel after collecting the Star, and hop on the organ for this fun little reaction.

Working as a Bellhop

Continue your quest to be Marrymore’s most wanted by staying a night in their grand suite, but then keep on sleeping and racking up those 200-coin-a-night room charges until your debt outweighs the number of coins you have. Since you can’t pay your bill, you’ll be forced to work as a Bellhop. This will completely drain your wallet, so maybe save up before you attempt this.

Geno Whirl’s 9999 Damage

You probably know the trick about the Geno Whirl special move: If you time it perfectly, it can hit for 9999 damage. This is not allowed on bosses with the sole exception of one: Exor. That’s right, you can use it to defeat the giant Sword that crashed through Bowser Castle in just one hit with a well-timed Geno Whirl.

Secret Code

This one’s a holdover from the Japanese version of Super Mario RPG, but was never present in the US version. If you bring up the pause menu and enter the code: “Down, Up, Right, Left, L, R, L, R, B”. Doing this will cause Toad to pop up on the menu screen to check and see if your “secret code” messed with any of your stats or experience. Turns out, this code does nothing, but you can continue to enter it to have this amusing conversation with Toad play out again.

Beetlemania

After you finish up at Marrymore and recruit Princess Peach, head to the Inn at the Mushroom Kingdom and keep on bugging this little kid playing his handheld. Eventually, he’ll get sick of everything and offer to sell you his game for 500 coins. If you buy it, you’ll be able to play the game at any time through the pause screen. There’s no real reward tied to the game itself, so only be ready to throw down the 500 coins if you’re genuinely interested in playing the game.

Booster and Valentina

After defeating Valentina, you can catch a funny little hidden scene involving her and Booster by climbing back up to the top of Booster Tower. It looks like this:

Feeding Yoshi

After completing the Marrymore section of the game and also after defeating Boshi in a race on Yo’ster’s Isle, you’ll notice that there’s a baby Yoshi in the nest that you can feed cookies to. If you feed him 30 cookies in total, he’ll grow big and plump. From there you can feed him 10 or 20 cookies at a time for different rewards. Feeding him 10 cookies will get you a random reward of either Bracers, Energizers, Yoshi Candies, Red Essences, or the Yoshi-Aide. Feeding him a total of 50 cookies will get you a Frog Coin. You can get these cookies to feed Fat Yoshi by betting big and winning on the Yoshi Races.

Super Suit

This is probably the most difficult secret to pull off in Mario RPG, but if you manage to perform 100 consecutive bounces with Mario’s Super Jump special skill, you’ll be able to return to the dog in Monstro Town and he’ll reward you with the Super Suit, which is Mario’s best armor in the game.

Bigger Secrets

Now that the smaller secrets are out of the way, let’s go into some of the longer, multistep ones.

Belome’s Secret Temple

You may notice while in Monstro Town that there’s a key that’s in sight but out of reach above the door leading to the house of the thwomp and dog. You can get this key to fall by chatting with the thwomp and making him slam the ground 8 times. With the key in hand, return to Belome Temple by way of the trampoline at the leftmost end of Monstro Town. Go back to the top of the elevator with the Belome Statue with the tongue sticking out and reset the room by leaving and entering it again. Hit the tongue for a new fortune, and keep on resetting the room and hitting the tongue until the fortune reads: “Sorry, I'm not accepting visitors past my bedtime”. When you get that message, go back down the elevator, into the next room, and give the Belome Statue the key to access a secret treasure room with a bunch of flowers, great restorative items, a fire bomb, and a bunch of frog coins.

Culex Fight

This is probably one of the most well-known secrets in video games, period, but there’s a secret Final Fantasy-inspired boss fight in Super Mario RPG that serves as the game’s biggest challenge. To fight Culex, you’ll need to first head to Moleville and make your way to the northwesternmost house where you’ll find a mole selling fireworks. Buy them for 500 coins, then take them to this small girl outside by a bunch of boxes who will trade you a Shiny Stone for the Fireworks.

This Shiny Stone is the key to the dark door in Monstro Town, which is where you can find Culex. Take heed! He’s a very powerful boss who will likely wipe the floor with you when you first unlock the door. Our recommendation is to attempt him when your characters are all at least level 20 or so with the best gear you can equip.

The REAL Culex Fight

New to the remake is part two of the Culex fight! In the post-game, you’re able to challenge certain bosses again to a rematch. After defeating Johnny in his rematch fight, you’ll gain the Extra Shiny Stone. Take this stone back to Culex’s door to unlock it once again and you’ll have to fight Culex in a whole new dimension. This is the fight to end all fights in Super Mario RPG, so make sure you’re prepared.

The Lazy Shell

Mario’s best weapon, the Lazy Shell, is also pretty notoriously hidden. The first thing you’ll need to do is complete a small side quest. You’ll need to first get the Seed and Fertilizer. The seed is hard to miss, as you’ll find it by examining a note right after beating the boss Megasmilax on the way to Nimbus Town.

The fertilizer can be found after clearing Nimbus Castle and defeating Valentina. Head to the far right to reach a house that Croco is stealing from. Head down from the door and hug the invisible wall on the right to eventually find an invisible path that leads to Beezo, the shy guy gardener. Talk to him to get the Fertilizer.

Now head to Rose Town and you’ll notice in the northeastern corner that there’s a new path that leads to a home with a man that needs the seed and fertilizer. Hand them over. Climb up the Beanstalk that erupts and you’ll find your Lazy Shell weapon and Armor!

Grate Guy’s Casino

Knife Guy and Grate Guy are two forgettable bosses that you fought in Booster’s Tower. What’s much more memorable about them is the hidden casino that they run. To find it, the first thing you’re going to want to do is head back to Booster’s Tower and climb up until you run into Knife Guy again. He’ll challenge you to a game in which you need to pick which hand he’s hiding a yellow ball in. Do this 12 times successfully in a row, and he’ll reward you with the Bright Card.

Once you have the Bright Card, head over to Bean Valley and proceed through until you reach the spot where there are five pipes. Enter the topmost pipe and fight the golden chain chomp at the end of the room. Once he’s down, jump three times in the corner to make a hidden platform appear. Jump on the platform to get on top of the wall and head through the exit.

You'll be back at the world map, with a new path leading to Grate Guy’s casino. Since you’ve got the Bright Card, you’ll be allowed entry and will be able to try your luck at Slots, a memory game, and Grate Guy’s own personal game: “Look the Other Way.” Manage to win at that last game 100 times and you’ll get a Star Egg if you really, really want to.

The Sheep Attack

Here's how to get the legendary Sheep Attack. First, you’re going to want to purchase the Mystery Egg from the Item Shop in Moleville, which you can only get after also buying the Lucky Jewel for 100 coins. Next, make sure you have the Nurture Ring from the Item Shop in Marrymore. Now equip Peach with the Nurture Ring, and have her use the Mystery Egg in Battle 11 times. On the eleventh use, it will become a Lamb’s Lure, which has a chance of turning an enemy into a sheep, making them run away from battle.

Now you’ve gotta use the Lamb’s Lure 48 times in battle. Once you do, you’ll get a message saying that “The Flock is Full,” and the Lamb’s Lure will turn into the Sheep Attack. Which largely does the same thing, only it affects all enemies. It’s important to note here that if you turn an opponent into a sheep, you won’t get any EXP for the battle. So the use of this item is limited, to say the least.