Why is Mario so short? The official height of Mario is only one of the many mysteries of the Mushroom Kingdom. Some things we know about Mario aren’t so apparent, like the Koopalings, the power-ups, and the mysterious Yoshi. One thing we do know is that Mario is friends with Yoshi, and he is often depicted in the video games as a baby.
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Mario’s official height
The question of Mario’s official height has prompted a lot of debate among fans. To start, Nintendo never confirmed that Mario is taller than 5 feet. That said, based on the Nintendo Official Magazine’s pack of cards, Mario’s height is 5 feet 1 inches, or 77.5 centimeters. As a result, fans and experts alike often question the accuracy of official height measurements. Whether Mario’s height reflects reality is another debate, with many fans claiming that the characters have a super-human ability in the 3-D games.
The official height of Mario is typically around five feet, but he can jump much higher than that. A double jump, for example, will allow Mario to jump four feet and a half brick. A backward somersault, meanwhile, will cause Mario to jump more than eight feet in height. A triple jump, by comparison, is eight feet tall. But what about his speed? He can jump around ten feet and five centimeters in one second!
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Nintendo even sold a life-sized Mario statue. It is unclear how accurate this was, but it is not too far off Miyamoto’s estimate of twenty-four to twenty-five. That’s still far below the average human child six years old. If Mario is really 26 inches tall, he’s still a few years younger than he looks. Then again, he is an extremely feisty character.
Ways to make him smaller in video games
If you’ve ever played Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World, you’ve probably noticed the way that he shrinks when you touch an enemy. In the video game, he loses a life when he takes damage. Despite this, Small Mario has its uses. Super Mario shrinks into a small sprite whenever he touches an enemy. Small Mario is also useful in games with small crevices to run through.
Effects of making him smaller on his hair
The effect of making Mario smaller can be seen on Mario’s hair when he gets Double Bogeys in the game. Peach’s hair also shrinks when she shrinks into Small form, as can Mario’s hair when he gets Double Bogeys in a game. It’s not entirely clear why the effect occurs, but it’s probably related to a chemical reaction that Mario’s hair goes through while shrinking into small form.
