Mario's Ability To Dash Across Small Gaps Was Originally A Bug

Published Aug 4, 2026, 8:23 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Mario’s 2D games have naturally evolved over the course of 40 years, but there are some things the Nintendo mascot has always been able to do. He has always been able to jump, eat mushrooms to get bigger, and consume flowers to give him fire power. However, there’s one core mechanic that has been there since the very beginning that began life as a bug. Mario Was Never Supposed To Be Able To Dash Over Small Gaps Nintendo That mechanic is Mario’s ability to dash over small gaps. From Super Mario Bros. to Super Mario Bros. Wonder and every 2D game in between, if you hold the B button while Mario moves, he dashes. Dash over a gap that’s only one block wide, and the plumber doesn’t fall, sort of like he’s running so fast that for a brief moment, he can defy gravity. It’s a novel idea, except technically, it wasn’t an idea at all. In an interview with Casa Brutus spotlighted by Nintendo Everything, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto revealed the ability for Mario to dash over narrow gaps without falling was a bug that the studio decided to leave in the final game during the development of Super Mario Bros. via: businessinsider.com “Truth be told, that was actually a bug caused by flawed collision detection with the ground,” Miyamoto confessed. “When the programmer noticed it, he said, ‘Huh? He didn’t fall!’ and tried to fix it. But I said, ‘No, no. It’s fun if he can dash across. Let’s leave it as is. Miyamoto also revealed that a bug during development that would cause coins to float in mid-air gave the team the idea for hidden blocks, and the reason World 2-3 in the original game takes place across higher platforms is so that Cheep Cheeps could leap up from below to attack Mario. No One Could Have Made Mario Alone Nintendo Most importantly of all, Miyamoto notes that there was no way he, nor anyone, could have come up with all these concepts alone. The Nintendo veteran credits a younger developer with coming up with the concept of Cheep Cheeps, meaning the long-time Mario critter might have never existed without them. Mario’s ability to dash across gaps might have also been wiped from existence before it ever saw the light of day had it not been for Miyamoto suggesting the bug be left in. They might seem like relatively small parts of the wider Mario landscape, especially now, 40 years later, with the series one of the biggest on the planet, not just in gaming alone but across all of entertainment. However, if it wasn’t for those seemingly small decisions during Super Mario Bros. development, there’s no way of knowing whether Mario would have become the dominant force that it is today. Systems Released November 17, 1985 ESRB E For Everyone Developer(s) Nintendo R&D4 Publisher(s) Nintendo Franchise Super Mario