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Super Mario 64 iceberg

From Icebergs

The Super Mario 64 iceberg is a widely circulated iceberg chart (and later a cluster of YouTube explainers) about the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Super Mario 64. Surface tiers typically list mainstream facts and popular glitches; lower tiers collect obscure debugging trivia, community myths, rumoured unused content, and joke entries.

Why it mattered[edit]

The chart supplies a game-themed example of the iceberg explainer pattern. Its subject is a particular game and the community lore around it, rather than a general catalogue of mysteries. The archived narrated example discussed below makes that connection concrete without establishing claims about first authorship or mass viewership.

Contents and reliability[edit]

Like other fan charts, entries vary from well-documented technical facts (collision quirks, mirror room behaviour, known glitches) to speculation and memes. Encyclopedic mentions should attribute specific claims to patch notes, datamines, or reputable game historians rather than to chart placement alone.

An archived narrated example[edit]

Know Your Meme preserves an entry titled “The Super Mario 64 Iceberg: explained”, with an archive creation date of 28 August 2020 and a credit to Mish Koz via YouTube. The visible description lists an introduction, “Tip of the Iceberg”, “Below the surface” and a bottom section. It is a concrete example of presenting the chart's depth as a sequence for narration.[1]

The archive's creation date should not be confused with a separately verified original upload date. Nor does this record, by itself, establish who first drew a Mario 64 iceberg, which video was first, or the size of its audience. It documents an example without settling those broader origin claims.

Different kinds of entries[edit]

The broader iceberg format orders material by perceived familiarity, often mixing factual references with jokes and obscure community lore.[2] In a game-themed chart, the label can consequently refer to several different things: a behaviour a player can reproduce, a name used by fans, an interpretation of game imagery, or an invented story.

Those categories require different evidence. Reproducing an effect in the game supports a claim about that effect; it does not establish a story about the developers' intentions. A community name can be documented as a name without treating its literal meaning as true. Likewise, evidence that a joke circulated is not evidence that its premise occurred. The chart's descending layout does not remove these distinctions.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Know Your Meme, “The Super Mario 64 Iceberg: explained”, archive entry created 28 August 2020.
  2. ↑ Know Your Meme, “Iceberg Charts”.

Further reading[edit]

Charts on r/IcebergCharts[edit]

r/IcebergCharts has hosted many versions of the Super Mario 64 iceberg, along with spin-offs on Super Mario 64 DS, the A Button Challenge, beta builds, music and the "every copy is personalized" theory. The 28 charts below were collected on 29 October 2026 and are ordered by upvotes. Entries on these charts reflect each author's choices and are not verified fact.

More versions:

Related charts[edit]

Charts on other subjects that were posted with reference to the Super Mario 64 iceberg:

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