Luigi’s Balloons in Super Mario Odyssey Are Actually a Retro Easter Egg

Nintendo included a throwback to one of its older consoles in the Luigi’s Balloon World update for Super Mario Odyssey that not everyone might’ve noticed right away.

The free update brings players more of exactly what the name suggests: Luigi and tons of balloons. But the way that Luigi’s personal balloons were organized wasn’t an accident and was actually a throwback to the Super Nintendo’s button layout.

As the owner of the tweet above discovered, Luigi’s balloons are actually laid out to match the order that the four multi-colored buttons are on the Super Nintendo. With the control turned vertically, the balloons match up perfectly with Luigi’s green-capped head rounding out the Easter egg as the “Y” button.

But for those players in North America, the reference might’ve been even harder to notice given the different controller layout that players were used to seeing. Instead of the green, yellow, red, and blue buttons, the alternate version of the console had various shades of purple. Thankfully, there’s another character in Super Mario Odyssey who can help bring the Easter egg to all players given his fondness of the color purple.

All these balloons and references came from the free update from Nintendo that included new outfits, filters, and different game modes to keep players busy so long as they’ve beaten the main story.

“After downloading the update and beating the main story, Luigi will now show up in different kingdoms to give Mario a new challenge,” the announcement from Nintendo read. “To start Balloon World (Internet access required)*, seek out the green-clad bro and have a nice chat with him. There are two modes in Balloon World: ‘Hide It’ mode lets you hide a balloon somewhere in that kingdom, while ‘Find It’ mode challenges you to find balloons hidden by other players from around the world. If you get good at hiding and finding balloons, you’ll also move up the online rankings!”

Luigi’s Balloon World is now live in Super Mario Odyssey.