Who Put the “P” in the P-Wing?

It’s one of Super Mario Bros. 3’s most valuable items for people who are bad at video games.

It’s the P-Wing. And it’s hiding a connection to the Mario series lore that’s not obvious in the western localization. This is weird because Super Mario Bros. 3 seems to be largely about bringing that lore to the forefront, commenting on it, and asking the player, “Hey, can you appreciate this lore we’re throwing at you?”

Regardless of which version of Super Mario Bros. 2 you got in your part of the world, Super Mario Bros. 3 showcased Nintendo’s desire to get past the previous game and instead return to the original, to grow and evolve the elements that made it great. It’s not just a harder version of the original Super Mario Bros., like the Japanese sequel was, and it’s not something that ditches those play mechanics for something altogether different, like the western sequel did. It’s something that loves that first game, to the point that it’s already showing reverence for it and treating the stuff introduced in that game like it’s important. It’s playing with its own canon, basically.