Mario facts from the SMB1 manual:
1. Bowser is a sorcerer king and the Koopa are a tribe "famous for their black magic".
2. The princess has been kidnapped because she's the only one who can undo Bowser's magic.
3. Goombas are Mushroom people who have betrayed the Mushroom Kingdom. Why they look nothing like the other mushroom people is a mystery.
4. "Spiny" is not the race of the things Lakitu throws from his cloud. Spiny is the name of his pet. He's throwing his pets eggs.
5. Podoboos, the fireballs that leap out of lava pits, are given a personality in the manual and seemingly referred to as people.
6. Bowser's magic turned the mushroom people into bricks (except for a bunch he kidnapped whole, and also Princess Toadstool for some reason). The bricks you constantly break during the game are not those people, however. The only ones that are people are the ones that reward you with coins and powerups for freeing them.
7. The manual constantly refers to you or other things dying. Common nomenclature from players these days, but pretty morbid for a Nintendo manual. There's no mistake, though, this is war and Mario is killing turtles and might die in the process.
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