Random: Up Or Down The Stairs? Super Mario Illusion Confuses The Internet

You can tell by the positioning of his left foot, it has to be going up. No one would walk downstairs like that.

I mean, the video posted is pretty telling. He's moving up. Although it could've been conveyed better.

Trick question, he's going straight and it's just a parkour thing to practice his platforming skills or something.

Mario is clearly going up the stairs. His right leg is bent, and he is stepping up to the step. However, the shadows are deceiving. They clearly make it look like he's going down. Just bad artwork

Unless he is falling down the stairs he is clearly going up.

Coming from DiC Entertainment and its usual quality, it can be both ways.

Up indeed. Feet placement looks definitive here - going downstairs, he'd have to be moving in an almost horizontal position which should be beyond even the platformer legend he is.

Up, but the art is pretty hot garbage. Perspective is super screwed up.

It's hilarious to me that DiC's animation on this show was SO wonky that it accidently created an Internet-wide debate decades later.

The Dress Meme 2.0

I refuse to accept this conclusion.

Just look at his feet

I love a good optical illusion. Going up though.

@HammerGalladeBro Exactly. I would imagine this was done deliberately so it could be reused for going either up or down by changing the angle or mirroring it.

Let's just agree that the perspective and lighting make zero sense... BUT despite all that, the line that crosses the window is lower at the further end. Now I know that can also be argued to be bad perspective. It is just a circular room with a very edgy floor, a 3d representation of an infinite side scrolling spiky floor is the only REAL conclusion, despite the fact that we are all arguing about something that means nothing.

Without looking at the video, up. This isn’t an illusion, just bad art. Plus, taking into account that Mario is usually rescuing Peach from Bowser’s castle, it’s safe to assume that’s she locked away in the highest tower. Therefore, up

Somehow, the NY Post would be less of a joke if they stuck to stories like this…

After watching the video, I'm only more confused. Not just about the stairs. About the background attendees of the wedding feast, about everything I saw, and about everything I will see from now on.

❗️IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to go up⬆️ or down⬇️ because the 🌍 is FLAT↔️

Where's the poll option for "Mario is clearly running sideways"

@BlueGBAMicro TRUUUUUUE

If he is going down the stairs, he is falling down them because of his position. Also, if he was going down, the window is sideways. So he is obviously going up the stairs.

People on the internet always find some stupid, inconsequential s*** to latch onto.
They never fail to amaze and/or disappoint me.

There shouldn't be any debate here because it's obvious he is going upstairs.

Both of his feet indicate that he is going upstairs. I saw that before I even read through any of the article above or the tweets because it's obvious.

The only way he could be going downstairs is if he was actually falling down stairs. His feet do not match up with walking downstairs.

The people arguing this are the same ones that argue math problems on the internet because they don't follow the order of operations. Logic is not hard. 1 + 1 always equals 2, and Mario is going upstairs in this picture.

It's just bad art guys. The scene is drawn as if he's going down and Mario as if he's going up. All the perspectives and shadows are all over the place. The castle thing with the column on the right is correct but I doubt they adhered to that given they didn't even adhere to basic perspective. The only solid thing we have is his feet are in the motion of pushing himself upward, if he were going down like that he'd fall.

Like the endless Super Mario 64 staircase. 🤔 An illusion!

He's moving to the left guys, get a grip! 😝

Just watch the video a few seconds prior to this scene. Than you can clearly see that the animators were lazy: They originally used the background with top = up (which looks fine), and later they used it with top = down.

I grew up on this show. It’s up. 100% up. The key animations may be confusing, but I stand by this.

@Shambo Yeah the reading up on the history it's not surprising how insane it was.

There's 52 episodes and they all aired from September 1989 to December 1989. It's based on a mix of Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 2 which came out in October 1988.

Considering there's SMB2 elements from episode 1. The show must have been produced with less than a week of outline, scripting, storyboarding and animation per episode. I'm not surprised they didn't pay much attention to the perspective of of the staircase in a single scene lol.

He's going upwards on downwards stairs.

Easy.

There’s no way of knowing for sure, due to the bad art. But they were trying for ‘down’. Case closed.

His legs’ position makes me think he’s going up. But then again…

He’s going up but the stairs are going down

I can't believe I'm commenting on this, but Mario is obviously running up the stairs based on the position of his feet. If those steps were going down, then his feet would be on the front of the steps and not the top, so unless this is a picture of him in the act of falling, then he can only be running up the stairs.

There are elements of the picture that suggest "up", but there are also elements that suggest "down". Both answers are correct. For what it's worth, after my first initial glance, my brain kicked out the answer "down".

I was on team UP before seeing the reveal. The art is problematic, but the window is more upright if you view it as going up the stairs. If you consider Mario going down the stairs, then the window would be extremely slanted relative to the stairs.

@Link-Hero "It would be breaking physics, space, and time if he was going down them."
Or he'd just be falling face-down down those stairs xD

I think the important thing here is that Mario had a voice long before Charles Martinet, and it was perfect. Does Lou Albano have a son and is it too late to replace Chris Pratt?

I voted down but after seeing the video it's obviously up

The video really makes it pretty obvious haha. Also I think I vaguely remember this episode from many years ago.

The stairs are going down, but Mario is going up. Simple as that. 🤷‍♂️ (and yes, I'm serious).

Man i so loved these shows.

@MichaelP the budget is going down, and the imprecision is going up

This is the dress all over again. You know the one: is it white and gold, or blue and black?

@Link-Hero Not only were their own shows done terribly, but shows they acquired from overseas they also botched (looking at you, English Dub of Sailor Moon; seriously, the Viz Media Dub is so much better). They're practically the Bethesda of children's animation.

If he’s descending, then he’s doing it while falling because NO ONE is safe if they’re in that position relative to a center of gravity in a stairwell.

As castle staircases are always clockwise, meaning Mario is obvious going downwards.

https://www.simplemost.com/clever-reason-medieval-castle-staircases-always-clockwise/

I propose that Mario is running downstairs backwards.

Show of hands, how many of you voted AFTER watching the video?

Mario is clearly just into Escher-esque Architecture and thus playing Manifold Garden... like everyone should.

... Wun can only hope.

@HammerGalladeBro Perhaps, but no reason to be a DiC about it.

Before I watched the video, it was 100% looking like he was going downstairs. Anyone selecting otherwise watched the video first and is lying lmao.

The art is trash and the perspective makes no sense at all. Even after watching it, it looks like Mario is going downstairs and "King Koopa" is at the top of them. It's not "obviously" upwards at all lol.

Another debate of is it ‘Blue VS Gold’ dress or ‘Yanny VS Laurel’…

This is a show that would ship episodes missing backgrounds and even character faces. To consider this question is to spend more time thinking about it than the animators did.

Going up was my guess before viewing the video.

Ah, the memories of SMBSS. It really entertained 90's not-concerned-about-accuracy me, but present-day me sees this is a nostalgia-inducing, innacurate mess.

Mario's next game Super Mario Illusion confirmed.

actually, looking at the window position and the lighting and sky I would say the he is going straight on a weird floor.

however when checking the animation it's clear that he is going up, only that the artists messed a few things up.

This is the same thing with the one with the cat going up/down and all those clickbait articles stating "Only 1% of the population knows" or "Only if you have 150+ IQ you can solve this!"

Anyway, it's very obvious from the position of his feet to see he's going up and I remember this segment from my youth So I know he's running up before confirming with the video, haha. Guess I am part of the 1% 150+ IQ crew!

Quite obviously he is carefully reversing down while carrying something invisible.

@Fizza
If you look again Mario wouldn't be running down, but falling down due to his posture being horizontal with the stairs. The conclusion would be that he is running up the stairs.
From our point of view, we are only seing the side of each stair, not the top of them.

Up, just look at his feet. No one runs down like that hehe

It's definitely up due to his feet - specifically his left foot. If you were walking downstairs, you couldn't have your foot like that.

The image has obviously been drawn to create the illusion, so the foot is an error.

He's running up, but whoever drew the stairs probably used a reference from the viewpoint of someone looking down at their feet while standing on a spiral staircase.

He is falling up or down that's for sure

Clearly down.

Don’t get me wrong this is great PR for Nintendo and all things Mario!

But man, obviously it’s up and if I had the problems like this I would be on Cruz control

Based on how Mario is positioned, he's either walking up or falling down

Not sure how this is even an illusion..he's going up. The way his feet are placed he would have to be falling face forward to be going down?

Looks like someone's been watching Stan where this show is currently available. It's just as bad as I remember.

He appears to be running on the blades of a turbine fan. So neither up nor down. Merely across.

Up obviously...... Look at his feet and his body positioning..... If he was going down, he'd be falling as his weight's leaning forward too much. Only makes sense if he was running up the steps!

The light issue doesn't make sense, if it's a very low castle, the sun could still be above to the right. His feet couldn't be the way they are of he were going down the stairs.

@Fizza the stairs can be seen by themselves as going up or down, like an optical illusion, so you can't go by that alone, IMO.

@Dr_Lugae to be fair, they could have seen the SMB 2 elements before the game was released to the public, if they had any contact with the devs (which i would assume they did, especially if they were told what to create, or given ideas/source materials of some sort).

I think the stairs/background drawing is for stairs going down (shadows), but "they" need him going up for the scene so Mario is drawn to be going up.
TLDR: Reused a going down stairs background for a new going up scene.

Though the perspective says otherwise, the lighting says 'up'.