Nintendo has always been cautious about its character imagery — but who knew they’d go this far, even for a scene players can’t even see? Researchers digging into NES Remix recently uncovered a long-buried hidden asset: Nintendo created a special fallback image specifically to replace the heart that would appear between Mario and Luigi. The discovery has players laughing: “What exactly was Nintendo afraid of?”
A Heart Becomes ‘GOOD JOB!’ — Players Never See It
According to findings from Supper Mario Broth and researcher DavidPCM, in the Donkey Kong remix level of NES Remix, players control Luigi rescuing Mario instead of the original Mario rescuing Pauline.
In the original Donkey Kong, a pink heart appears to symbolize affection after successfully rescuing Pauline. But Nintendo went and made a “GOOD JOB!” image specifically to replace that heart, just in case someone triggered this hidden ending through a bug or other means — preventing any heart from floating between Mario and Luigi.
You Can’t Even Trigger It Normally — But Nintendo Prepared Anyway
Here’s the kicker: this scene is completely impossible to trigger through normal gameplay. Since NES Remix’s remix levels don’t reach Donkey Kong’s final 100m stage, players could never see the heart appear in the first place. Yet Nintendo still preemptively created the replacement asset, just in case someone exploited a bug or modified the game to see it. There’s no official explanation for this design choice, but researchers believe it was likely just the dev team’s “better safe than sorry” safety measure. Players have since joked: “Nintendo’s survival instinct is real — they fixed a bug that doesn’t even exist.”