This Mario Powerup Was Never Supposed to Exist

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Footage used:
• Mario 3 *NEW* World Re...
• Super Mario Bros :: SP...
• Single-Controller Rout...
Music used:
• Hot Head Bop - Donkey ...
• Teenage Mutant Ninja T...
• Castlevania II - Simon...
• Upper Brinstar (Jungle...
• Greenwood Village Them...
• Paper Mario TTYD OST -...
• Metroid Prime Music- P...
• Sacred Somnom Woods - ...
#Kosmic #SMB1 #Mario

[@Kosmicd12]

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[@BaoredGanyu]

wait how is this comment 12 hours ago-

[@SatoSere4ever_8300]

Nice explanation video Kosmic! Requesting 454 attempts

[@AkumaAPN]

@@SatoSere4ever_8300 Kosmic already said he's probably never going to do 454 attempts, because he's tired of the category, and wants to focus on SMB1 Warpless & SMB2J Warpless.

[@thestratposter3515]

No

[@thestratposter3515]

@@BaoredGanyu 😳

[@LovroPlaninsek]

I love how this is slowly becoming a channel explaining smb1 mechanics

[@General12th]

A NEW TJ "HENRY" YOSHI MUST RISE.

[@LovroPlaninsek]

sorry, what do you mean by that? there's no way you're comparing me to the legend that is TJ idk I just see him in comments of cool videos every now and then, he also does some ytpmvs which is pretty based

[@RickyAtz]

he also streams some wr attempts

[@Pomodorosan]

mehnics, for mechanics that are just meh

[@rmcoutinho]

Hm ok

[@danielxuzumaqui1]

Kosmis's so obsessed with small Mario that finally did a video on it

[@nugboy420]

Lol as if anyone who watches this channel doesn’t know of this haha.

[@JulianR2JG]

Kosmis

[@vakk985]

I'm actually surprised it took him this long

[@mrWhite81]

Yes

[@1-Up87]

I was about to say the same thing

[@HerbstaMagus]

I remember I saw this glitch as a kid when I would visit my neighbor who had an NES. This is one of the first things I remember that got me hooked on video games and computers forever.

[@LionWithTheLamb]

I used to do this back in the day along with sliding fire Mario as well.

[@FrightF]

@@LionWithTheLamb thats awesome, howd you find it out?

[@lwvmobile]

I did this as a kid a couple time, had no idea why it happened, didn't grasp the concept of a glitch back then, so I thought it was truly a hidden game mechanic and tried to rationalize ways to do it.

[@OctagonalSquare]

Fun little thing that is kinda mentioned. As you said at the end, your color palette is determined by the power up status. I know some people are like “how come there is a small fire Mario sprite?” Well that’s because it’s just a palette swap. All they do is switch which color goes where, and the sprite just says which color in the palette, not specific colors. So technically all sprites have a massive number of variants

[@MegaZeta]

If you want to get into "technically", sprites on this system _don't_ have a massive number of variants in that way. Palettes are heavily restricted by everything else on screen at the same time. It's one reason why Mario is the colors he is.

[@OctagonalSquare]

@@MegaZeta well I just mean that you could theoretically use any of your palettes on a sprite. Yeah, there’s a limit to how many unique colors can be on screen and such, but the fact is, there is a way you can display tons of different variants for each sprite

[@ToaderTheToad]

It would be really cool if you could get Small Fire in newer games when collecting a Fire Flower while being Small Mario Also, I think the counter-intuitive Super/Small values, with Super Mario being 0, and Small Mario being 1, is because Mario was always going to be 2 tiles tall, but they implemented the shrinking later

[@saltygibus5746]

That would be pretty fun! Maybe it'd be part of it's own power-ups based on heat mirages. Mirage Mario, if you will. He could fire fireballs like normal Fire Mario, but these ones merely stun enemies instead of KOing them, along with giving Mario the ability to break bricks and do Super Mario things with the Small Mario hitbox.It'd also transition you to Small Mario immediately on hit--basically, an Expert Mode version of the Fire Flower.

[@ToaderTheToad]

@@saltygibus5746 That would be cool! Though I think it would be counter-intuitive to have Piranha Plants be stunned by the fireballs

[@saltygibus5746]

@@ToaderTheToad True. But it also fits how not one Power-Up is objectively superior to another.

[@koopakape]

Makes a lot of sense, considering in the last Mario game before this, Wrecking Crew, he was always 2 tiles, and ever since SM64 it's been very established that his "super" state is his default and in most games he never shrinks.

[@ToaderTheToad]

@@koopakape Yeah I always found it weird, especially since Donkey Kong actually has a similar sprite to SMB's Small Mario (Yet he's not depicted as being small in most non-sprite interpretations)

[@ZachAttackIsBack]

I accidentally accomplished this power up as a kid. It was EPIC. Of course, I had no idea how to repeat it, so it became almost a myth. None of my friends believed me when I explained what happened.

[@lander77477]

I knew about this glitch when I was a little kid in the late 80s, it seemed like it was almost common knowledge, though i don't know how. Was this glitch published in nintendo power or something? But what I remember as more of a myth was jumping over the flagpole, that was the stuff of urban legend back then, and now there are lots of videos explaining how to do it without any hacking of the code or game genie or anything

[@MrCheeze]

This makes me wonder what glitched powerup values do in SMB3... don't think you can get them without ACE/hacks, but there might be something interesting there.

[@fastbreak333]

I know there’s a “Death Mario” that’s basically a grey Mario that can’t be killed, but he can’t go down pipes. Apparently, this is because he’s actually the Tanooki Statue in that state.

[@ntzrmtthihu777]

@@fastbreak333 Yep. If you tanooki while getting a powerup, you become that powerup but grey. another side effect is you can stomp anything tanooki can, but you almost never see this without a cheating device because the places where you can get it 'naturally' have no enemies (to my recollection).

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

@@ntzrmtthihu777 Couldn't you easily do that by using a reserve Tanuki on the map screen before entering a level with power-ups & enemies?

[@noukentio]

There's a glitch state (by using cheat codes) that allows Mario to swim in air and run in water.

[@TheYouTubeGame]

@@fastbreak333 Some SMB All Stars carts shipped with the debug version of SMB3. You could press select and your powerup would change. If you were the Tanuki Statue and pressed select, you could become statue versions of those powerups.

[@jazzyfuture]

I think it's pretty cool that Small Fire Mario was directly mentioned in the NES Remix games for a couple of challenges where you have to beat levels as Small Fire Mario.

[@java7583]

I always love when things get technical like this, thank you for the in depth description of this odd little quirk in the code!

[@AkumaAPN]

Oooo, I like that player state that lets you jump through blocks. I wonder if someone will ever find a glitch that activates it without hacking. That could make for some interesting alternative Speedrun routes. Lol.

[@HerobrineGaming]

Due to the way the player size gets set, I don't think it will ever be possible.

[@Opanker_]

No, something like that will not be found.

[@tetraedri_1834]

@@HerobrineGaming Unless ACE is found

[@dabs4270]

@@tetraedri_1834 and ACE will probably never be found

[@Tearnalte]

@@dabs4270 What is ACE?

[@ThePurpleCheeseMan]

SMB1 has so many oddities in it. Not just the standard glitches like clipping through things but fascinating ones like this that happened because of really specific circumstances. Love the informative vids, keep em coming!

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Yes, although calling this one a power up when it's really just a bug is a bit of a stretch.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@Oren Black That being said, I do think that it could be an interesting game mechanic that should show up in the future. Just like the shoe, things like this add a bit of interest to a series that has been around for many decades at this point.

[@machinedramon3532]

@Oren Black I don't think this is fake. There's examples of people having gotten it here in the comments, and I remember seeing it by accident once myself. You could probably look it up if you want to be sure.

[@machinedramon3532]

@Oren Black I don't think it's deceptive. It's still a power-up in the same sense that Missingno is a Pokémon and Wavedashing is a Smash Bros mechanic. It's not intentional, but it's still real, especially since it has a legitimate use in speedrunning.

[@Bismuth9]

The slowed down Greenwood Village at 2:55 threw me for a loop

[@Kosmicd12]

lol I KNEW you would comment on this

[@rynomclaughlin1595]

@@KerryRasch Diddy Kong Racing track

[@LeWiiMan]

Pickle.

[@JackCarsonsRailroadVideos]

2:25 Toad: "Mario your heroic sacrifice will not be in vain.... also your Princess is in Another castl- ... ah frick"

[@leroyvisiongames2294]

The reason the value for small Mario is “1” is because his placeholder graphic was a 16x32 rectangle, meaning his large size was originally the default. The size-changing mechanic was still conceived early in development, but they didn’t come up with that idea until they were already in the midst of sketching out his sprites on graph paper (in old development footage, you can see early designs for Mario’s death animation using the “big Mario” sprites, as well as some unused poses of him scratching his chin. The death animation also originally had two frames for him flailing his arms like in Mario Bros. arcade. The “small Mario” sprites probably took up the memory that was originally reserved for these extra animations)

[@RGC_animation]

I feel like being able to break blocks is a pretty major change when getting a powerup, so Small Fire isn't all pros with no cons.

[@FictionVent]

He’s thinking about it from a speedrunner’s perspective where breaking blocks is far less valuable than being able to squeeze through tight spots

[@Ugh718]

@@FictionVent I mean do regular players care about breaking blocks either?Like cmon man the goal is to complete the game not break every single block in existance XD

[@WindowsDrawer]

​@@FictionVent You can duck

[@Tenfey]

I experienced this glitch exactly once in my childhood. Whenever I tried to explain it to my friends, I felt like a crazy person.

[@anthonyrowland9072]

you were the lying kid on the playground. lol

[@slightlysnaked3725]

@@anthonyrowland9072 maybe his uncle worked for Nintendo

[@ProfessionalPatches]

I've watched you do this so many times, but I've never known how it was executed. This was very interesting

[@FordFourD-aka-Ford4D]

My favorite part of ANY Kosmic stream is when he gets Small Fire!

[@Kyango]

This happened to me once when I was a little kid in the 80's. I had no idea what had happened, and it never happened again my entire life. After awhile I thought maybe I had just imagined it. When I saw someone use this a couple years ago it blew my mind that it was actually true lol

[@cheesebone82]

This was probably one of the first actual glitches that I discovered and actually enjoyed playing with when I was a kid. I remember getting to the minus worlds after reading about them in a magazine but I found this one myself. Neat to see someone covering it!!

[@Butterfingers3]

5:02 I'm guessing it's because every time the number goes up, it shrinks Mario's size by a block, so when it goes to 2, his hitbox gets so small that it just vanishes.

[@ReddingCS]

Kosmic, its been awesome to see the content evolution. Keep up the great work!

[@BlondPanda]

Glad to see a full explanation of how small fire works, it really is unique.

[@DavidWonn]

This was one of my favorite findings back in the 80s, figuring it out after a friend of mine would do the same setup on Bowser but as small Mario. One day I'd just try it as Super Mario and presto, small fiery glitch. It's hard to say for certain who found it first, though, as it may have been independently figured out by many in the early days.

[@erazure.]

Always loved blue shell Mario, we’d try to beat every stage without coming out of the shell (except pipes)

[@danwaleby]

The small fire Mario is totally possible in SMW, one simple hex edit and this exact thing happens.

[@ryanmcquinn]

I remember stumbling across this in the 90's while messing around with game genie. I didn't know you could achieve this form without it until I saw your video.

[@Dreadjaws]

I remember doing this trick when I was a kid. I think I read it on a magazine. I had already been introduced to the concept of glitches due to the World -1 and on my own discovered how to make Mario "skate" on the floor by shooting a fireball at the precise moment while jumping out of a pipe. This became a fascination to me, so I started trying weird things in every videogame I could just to see if I could make something weird happen. More often than not there would be no results, but when there were it was always a treat.

[@firelow]

I've seen the juggling video before but it was a long time ago and this explanation was much more in depth. Can't wait for small fireflower in SMM3

[@tub-]

WE LOVE SMALL FIRE MARIO

[@domomitsune5920]

I actually remember this glitch. I used to always do it on purpose, because those both fun and convenient. You don't have to worry about crouching anymore, and you can throw Fireballs while running and jumping. It's one of the reasons why I still have my snes, and my Super Mario All-Stars game.

[@DavidvanDeijk]

Another great explainer video. Us Cosmic fans have seen him do it many times but never knew how it worked in this much detail. Always love seeing some code.

[@chappieenzijnvriendjes6336]

“It’s existence is a beautiful accident” Yeah, mine too

[@LuisR142004]

now this is something i've wanted, a technical explanation in assembly of what goes on when glitches/cheats occur and a comparison with it working normally :D .... would love to see more videos like this for other games as well (of those games that i like)

[@Pacca64]

Looking forward to the collision video! Sounds like it'll be really cool :3

[@SomeGuy712x]

I remember discovering this on my own way back then. For whatever reason, I tried to jump on Bowser and the axe at the same time, got the shrinking sound, and expected to start the next level small. However, I stayed big, and to my surprise (and the surprise of others watching me), the next power up was a mushroom that shrunk me, and I soon got small fire status afterwards. Also, when I got hit and grew, someone else watching me said something like, "Oh, if you get hit again, you'll just shrink.", but I figured that the next hit I took while big would actually kill me, which was correct. (I think I ended up losing that particular life by falling into a pit, so we didn't actually see at the time that getting hit while big was fatal.) Oh, and doing this glitch while small and dying is amusing, especially since the game will usually play the death music again after the victory music finishes.

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

Hehe, that's neat! (Also yo, fellow raocow fan! 😸)

[@Nat_the_Chicken]

You messing around with the glitch with people watching reminds me of the time I learned to bow lift smuggle slide on the Breath of the Wild demo in a Target store.

[@liefwerk]

That's some nice editing, I could watch it from my phone and see all the values! Glad I know why small fire happens :)

[@MeesterTweester]

5:06 It's the Vanish Cap :) I like your explanation videos!

[@asyncasync]

Love these kinds of videos. Like decino's Doom analysis videos and stuff like that. Really cool to think about all the stuff going on in the background.

[@skelkankaos]

Very interesting to see the in depth on small fire. Looking forwards to learning about collision

[@davidyoung3792]

Been playing this game for so long and it's so awesome to still see new things coming from it! Thanks for sharing!

[@Iohannis42]

I temember this actually happened to me once, and I never understood why. Thank you for revealing this forgotten mystery! 😄

[@cmaej28]

I've only seen a small fire Mario sprite when I got softlocked on a glitched spring as big fire Mario. When I timed out, the death animation was small Mario, but kept the fire Mario color palette. I was about 5 years old and that really intrigued me.

[@NiGHTSnoob]

I had this happen once when I was a little kid like 25 years ago and I thought I just misremembered. Thank you for solving this mystery for me.

[@lemons38]

I'm pretty sure everyone who was on this channel for a while knew this power-up already but it was still super cool to see why it happens and stuff

[@russellyowell6255]

When I was a little kid I remember my dad running around as little fire Mario. I’ve tried to figure it out many times I’ve the years, but didn’t know it was only on the original version.

[@Xbob42]

I remember my uncle doing this way back in the day and I thought it was the coolest thing. Glad to see it wasn't forgotten by time, or a figment of my imagination since almost no one talks about it!

[@forcetheedges]

Decades later and I'm still learning new things about this game, amazing!

[@AnimeOtakuDrew]

My friends and I stumbled across this back when I was in junior high (right around the same time I got my first fast clear on the original Metroid and nobody believed me about Samus being a woman). Everyone I knew called it "small spitfire." We figured out how to do it consistently, but I never knew why it worked until now. Thanks for the info AND the stroll down memory lane.

[@computersocsci]

Love this type of video! Can't wait for more

[@MrMcAyyy]

I’m loving these explanation videos! Excellent job!

[@xoxo5296]

I kind of like the idea of say, a fire that dies more damage but won't stop you from dying

[@KngMaxwell]

very well made video, glad you showed up in my recommendations

[@CoolJosh3k]

You can also do this by spawning a fire flower, taking damage (becoming small Mario again) then pickup the flower.

[@ZX3000GT1]

IIRC this is not the case. If you do this all you'll get is the flower acting like a mushroom and you'll become Super Mario, not Fire Mario.

[@CoolJosh3k]

@@ZX3000GT1 Oh. I guess I remembered it wrong then. It would make sense as to why it was not mentioned then.

[@MichelleSleeper]

Shout out to romhack Wednesday crew and keeping track of small fire and "canonical" double deaths in romhacks!

[@RichBourque]

We used to call this “reversing the effects” way back in 1986. It was a really cool trick to pull off and show to unsuspecting friends.

[@Smordor_Stormcrow]

I appreciate Kosmic playing one of the best Metroid songs ever in the background of a Mario video 😂

[@Roxrock]

There is also glitched powerups in smb3 that you can access with ACE. It might be possible to change your powerup state as well, you can with game geni codes. In smb2U, I found a code that lets you choose your charecter twice, creating weird conglomerates of the two you selected, although their more glitched charecters than powerups.

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

Ooh, I'd love to see that! 😲

[@SovrinnK]

I'm glad we have a video explaining small fire concisely, because it's somewhat hard to explain without going into a whole thing about mechanics. Now it can just be like, here have a link.

[@three-quartersbadger2929]

Someone showed me with in an arcade decades ago and I nearly lost my mind. I once played through SMB entirely in this form, using save states of course.

[@holtscustomcreations]

My brothers and I used to play that game when it came out. We played it for hours. We try to beat it in a single setting or even leave it on all night. I remember getting the mini fire flower as we called it multiple times. But never figured out how.

[@sleepingkirby]

Oh yeah! Back in like 1987 or 8, my father got a guide along with the original famicom. The guide talked about this, but I never got around to trying to pull it off.

[@otakubullfrog1665]

When it comes to boolean flags in programs, while zero is false and one is true, the reason that the values often seem counterintuitive when reverse engineering a program is because you don't know how the programmer was thinking about state. If the programmer was thinking about it as a flag for whether Mario was small instead of whether Mario was big, the true and false values make perfect sense. Since setting a flag usually indicates that something has changed, perhaps big Mario being considered the normal state suggests that he was at one point going to start the game that way (sort of like how you start with the armor in Ghosts 'n Goblins).

[@wearenough]

The programming tidbits are manna to my alt career, keep it up. your edits are top notch!

[@edge3220]

Still unknown to me is how Fire Mario colors are on the small sprite and how the game knows to put it in that state on small Mario after getting a fire flower.

[@Suspinded]

This is explained starting at 4:30. Color palate is tied to the power up state. Palate is separate from the shape. It just defines the paint colors in the paint by number way sprite drawing is handled.

[@cornbreadbutcringey5723]

color information is separate from the sprite itself on the nes, so 'small fire sprites' don't really need to exist. actually, big fire sprites don't exist either. nor luigi sprites. (i don't know if this is the specific thing you were confused about. it just sounded like it since it's something i didn't initially know either.)

[@jpvgd]

I love how before the 30 sec mark I already know you're going to be talking about small fire lol

[@purpleepicicon]

I learned about this when playing it in the arcade. Back then it was word of mouth, so I consider myself fortunate to have been one of those who learned about it back when the NES was barely coming out.

[@Nob1ej0n]

Another great analysis video! Not only the specifics of the two relevant variables, but also Bowser's depth on the bridge. I knew this power up state existed, but never knew about any of these specifics. Thank you!

[@Kosmicd12]

Yeah that bit makes such a huge difference, and I didn't know why it was way harder sometimes for a long time

[@Nob1ej0n]

@@Kosmicd12 Yeah, it just seemed so random in the romhack videos. And it's a trick I have yet to pull off.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

"Do you ever have a conversation with someone, and then--" "I'm gonna go ahead and stop ya right there." 💪😎✌️

[@FlavioSantos-uw1mr]

So this is how you do it! I played Super Mario a lot when I was a kid, I'm sure I did it once, i ended up forgetting it, but when I saw it in the video I immediately remembered it.

[@TopGunSTL]

Used to do this as a kid back in the day, never thought someone would do a whole video about it.

[@fernando98322]

Now this is a classic glitch, I remember seeing somewhere and trying it out for myself. Could only pulled it off in World 1 but it sure was fun while it lasted

[@francy1762]

We need this as an actual power up in the series now

[@greenstarsproductions5968]

Honestly the old Mario code is so insteresting in like how it works so im glad i saw this

[@avasam06]

Yeah I guessed it right! Small Fire :) SMW world powerup incrementation that helps with ACE is quite a unique an interesting one as well.

[@lander77477]

I knew about small fire mario and how to do it even in the late 80s. I don't know if it was published in a game magazine like nintendo power or what but it seemed like everyone knew about it back then

[@cooltaylor1015]

In the 80s, my circle called this trick "Little Big Man"

[@Taylor.Dude.]

Back in the late 80’s & early 90’s, before the internet, small & fiery Mario and the Minus World were not common knowledge. Most people didn’t know this stuff. I learned both from two different books I read at the mall. I blew people’s minds showing them this stuff too. I’d tell people I could become small & fiery. They thought I was full of it! Until I showed them. Now everyone seems to take these tricks for granted.

[@jansenart0]

I have a small fire mario saved on my NES mini at stage 2-1. I was so happy to get the glitch I never played it again XD

[@eelamite]

thanks for finally explaining WHY it happens - i never understood it until today

[@cayiika]

These videos are great, especially for the more in-depth details, and I get why he does it, but it's funny how the phrasing implies that it's the first time Kosmic's audience is hearing about small fire.

[@JakeRazorClawson]

Thanks very much for this vid and all of your SF mario game play content 🔥 🌟

[@WizardOfWor]

I remember that I did this glitch plenty of times. It was fun to see!

[@ehrenkrause9861]

Even 30 years later still learning something cool about Mario Brothers. Always a classic staple

[@LinktheSamoyed]

back before Internet and Magazines, as kid I somehow worked this out and thought it was the greatest thing ever. We also figured out the glitch where you push the screen so you have half a brick gap in the underground levels on the left and you can reach the top by wedging yourself up the wall with each jump.

[@suburbanindie]

This blows my mind. I thought I knew everything there was to know about this game. Your video served its purpose.

[@odwrksboxedtrash3730]

Smal Fire's glitched Regular Mario sprite shooting a fireball looks like a stand.

[@nicholasf55555]

MIND BLOWN

[@TimmyME]

I remember getting this glitch in the 80's. Seemed like I was the only one who knew. I could do it on demand after a while. A small thing like that was cool back then.

[@simanolastname2399]

I love when you do this type of video!

[@redcatxb125]

I loved the blue shell in Mario bros ds so much fun to just try and send a full level only in shell

[@DemonLordOdin454]

Little man fire power is what we used to call this. It wasn't really worth the trouble but still pretty cool to pull off like dying to the princess

[@moon_orbit]

Oh, this glitch! I remember I was very excited the first time I got it by accident and then practiced how to replicate it.

[@Aeroxima]

I like the code explanation stuff. It's interesting to see how it works.

[@mnretrogamer7189]

Woah I’m gonna have to check this out!

[@juniorcook4094]

Ahhh I remember doing that many years ago..Great video

[@shannonalbair9862]

Small fire Mario. Loved doing this

[@PabbyPabbles]

Man I found this out on my own as a kid I was sure it was a "secret" since there was a "sprite" for it. Didn't figure out the wonders of color palettes until much later lol