Twitter Fan Artist Shocked To Discover Their Art Is In The Files Of 'Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope'

Nintendo is notorious for its general antagonism towards fans creating things with its IPs, but a curious case has been recently discovered in which it appears Nintendo might've looked to fan art for inspiration on the 2022 video game Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

This morning, the Twitter account @MarioBlothBlog, perhaps better known as Supper Mario Broth, dedicated to posting extremely niche Nintendo trivia, revealed that an edited piece of Nintendo fan art by @franmm127 was in the unused files for the Nintendo/Ubisoft Mario + Rabbids title. The piece shows Rosalina holding a guitar.

@franmm127's piece was originally posted in 2018 and was based on an unused piece of Super Mario Odyssey concept art that featured Rosalina playing a guitar. The artwork features Rosalina about to play "Wonderwall."

Evidently, @franmm127 was unaware Nintendo had apparently nicked the piece in some way because they quote-tweeted Supper Mario Broth with "HUH?"

While a surreal moment for @franmm127, commenters have been hashing out if the artist is technically entitled to some compensation because even though their art wasn't used, it still appears in the files of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

It's unclear what, if anything, @franmm127 can do knowing their art was shipped with Mario + Rabbids, even if it wasn't used in the game in any capacity. At the very least, they can technically say they are an artist for Nintendo, which will definitely look great on a resumé.