There might be some things you notice about this screenshot. Hold them in your mind for a few moments though, as the first thing you should know about it is: it is an extremely popular screenshot.
It's used by news outlets the world 'round to advertise that an article is about Super Mario World, about the SNES Classic Edition, or just about Mario in general.
Some examples of it being used:
- http://nerdist.com/watch-an-artificial- ... rio-world/
- http://mario.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Mario_World (in the gallery)
- http://umlconnector.com/2016/02/classic ... rio-world/
- http://hightimes.com/culture/gear/the-2 ... -all-time/
- http://kotaku.com/creator-of-hardest-su ... 1729624158
- https://www.sporcle.com/games/kcuje27/m ... by-picture (a quiz asking you to identify Mario games from screenshots)
- https://www.gamnesia.com/news/a-fan-has ... ario-maker
- https://www.outoflives.net/2017/07/10/s ... t-hold-up/
- https://gamecola.net/2017/04/mario-vide ... g-process/
- http://www.eightieskids.com/2017/03/som ... -released/
- https://twitter.com/kr3at0r/status/825667372723949577
- https://mynintendonews.com/2016/03/28/v ... irds-code/
- https://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/210627 ... ubway-map/
- https://tech4gamers.com/why-mario-moves ... -to-right/
- https://mynintendonews.com/2016/01/10/s ... 150-games/
And this list could go on for a decade. Here is a link to a reverse image search with the screenshot at hand and the search term "mario".
So I guess this just happens to be the screenshot everybody reaches for when they want to talk about Mario, right? They're just sharing it around. Not like it's that big of a deal; who cares who took the screenshot.
Until you actually look at it for a microsecond. I'm sure most of you know where I'm going with this.
Let's start where I started: the goombas. Those guys are from Super Mario Bros 3's 16-bit ports. Weird.
Also those trees and bushes. Dustinvgmaster, Langton, and company were able to help me identify that it's Black Squirrel's bushes from Tileset 2007.
So this screenshot either has to be from a ROM hack, a fangame, or is just a mockup somebody made.
A ROM hack seems out of the question, because of the resolution. It appears to be nearly widescreen, but not quite. SNES games are something like 8:7, which is nearly a square resolution.
Also there are some other small nitpicks, like how that [?] block is less than a tile away from the ground. The coins seem oddly placed to me; idk if that's possible in SMW.
I did some investigating. Months ago. And am just now getting to publishing my findings.
Source: PolkaDotStudio's DeviantArt
It's a screenshot from DeviantArt! But it's been cropped! Cropped so that the logo isn't in there anymore. Convenient.
I don't know when or where this trend started of literally stealing this wack screenshot from somebody on DeviantArt, but it's a pretty goofy one. Maybe they think they can more easily get away with second-hand theft of an original work on dA than they can of using an screenshot, for some reason? Or maybe the journalists are all just so incompetent that they don't know what Super Mario World looks like?
What do you guys think?
