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Because The Legend of Zelda series and the Super Mario series were both created by Shigeru Miyamoto, elements from both series have often been referenced by the other.
In the late 1980s, after the release of the first Legend of Zelda game, Mario and Link were often seen together on various pieces of merchandise. This extended to the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, where The Legend of Zelda cartoon appeared in place of the Super Mario Bros. animated segments in the episodes that aired on Fridays.
The NES version of Tetris was the first game to feature characters from both series onscreen together; in that game, if the player completes Level 9 Stage 5 in the Type B mode, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Link all appear (along with Samus Aran and Pit) on the ending screen. The two franchises would eventually cross over again, along with several other Nintendo franchises, in the Super Smash Bros. series. Link also appeared as a downloadable guest character in Mario Kart 8.
Mario references in The Legend of Zelda[]
- In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, pictures of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Bowser appear in Hyrule Castle. However, there is no way to enter the castle to get a closer look.
- The Deku Scrubs and Octorocks somewhat resemble Snifits.
- The enemy in the series, the Deku Baba, closely resembles a Piranha Plant.
- Talon and Ingo resemble Mario and Luigi, respectively. They also wear bracelets that have a picture of Bowser on them.
- In Link's Awakening, a letter comes with a photograph of Peach, labeled "Christine".
- Also in Link's Awakening, Yoshi makes a cameo as a doll in one of the mini-games.
- Wart makes a cameo in Link's Awakening. For 300 rupees he will sing, and teach you the Frog's Song, used to liven the dead.
- A secret area in Link's Awakening features piranha plants and Goombas.
- Fyer in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has an image of a Bullet Bill on his right sleeve.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, a mask of Mario can be seen in the Happy Mask Salesman's collection.
- In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, a portrait of Mario can be found in one of the houses.
- A Chain Chomp can be seen in Link's Awakening, but used as a pet rather than an enemy.
- A Thwomp appears in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
- Bob-ombs appear in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
- Bipin's clothing in Oracle of ages/seasons closely resembles Luigi.
Zelda references in Super Mario[]
- In Super Mario Bros. 3, the Warp Whistle is the same design as the one in Zelda and will perform the same tune that it does in Zelda.
- In Super Mario RPG, Link makes a cameo in the Rose Town inn. Walking up to him and pressing A will make the sound usually associated with a puzzle being solved (such as a door being opened).
- Deku Scrubs appear in a level of Super Mario Galaxy.
- In Super Mario Galaxy, the Rocto enemy type is directly derivative of Octoroks from The Legend of Zelda.
- A giant blue rupee appears in Super Mario Galaxy that provides 40 star bits in the Rolling Gizmo Galaxy
- In Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode "Stars in Their Eyes", the Quarks manage to defeat King Koopa by playing the Legend of Zelda theme.
- Tippi from Super Paper Mario can be considered an equivalent of Navi.
- In Super Paper Mario, Mimi requests that you pay her Rubees for her broken vase. Many misread this as Rupees .
- In Mario Golf, the scoreboard will feature the names of various Nintendo characters, including many from The Legend of Zelda. The names include Darunia, Deku Scrub, Goron Kid, Impa, Link, Malon, Navi, Saria, Sheik, Talon, and Zelda.
- Link and the Triforce were originally going to appear in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
- The first sentence that Fracktail says in Super Paper Mario is "I Am Error", a popular thought to be mistranslation in Zelda II.
- In Super Mario 3D Land, there is a stage that has a dungeon full of Spinies, viewed entirely from an overhead perspective as a homage to The Legend Of Zelda.
- In Super Mario 3D World, Bowser captures the Sprixie Princess by trapping her in a bottle, the same way Link catches fairies.